Last year animal rights activists joined protests in Seattle against the World Trade Organization for allegedly not doing more to protect endangered species. Ironically, the European Union is trying to use the WTO mechanism to effectively force its regulations of animal agriculture on the United States and other WTO members.
European agriculture is already relatively non-competitive, requiring massive state subsidies in many parts of the region to be profitable. In an attempt to make its agricultural products more competitive, European nations recently proposed that animal welfare issues be added to the WTO framework.
The European Union has introduced proposed regulations that would determine the minimum space for battery hens as well as for animals being transported. The EU further argues that such regulations puts their farmers at a competitive disadvantage compared to farmers in countries that don’t have such regulations.
Rather than dispense with expensive regulations that raise the cost of European-produced food, however, the EU proposes that European farmers be compensated for the additional costs that the regulations impose (in essence the EU is suggesting that it be rewarded for imposing economically inefficient regulations on its citizens). This is directly contrary to the basic framework of the WTO which calls for an end to government subsidies of agriculture.
In addition, the EU wants the WTO to look at labelling food based on animal welfare issues. The labels apparently would inform consumers that the food was produced in countries that don’t have strong animal welfare laws.
It would be the height of irony if a free trade pact which animal rights activists almost universally opposed ended up being a protectionist tool for the activists pet views on animal agriculture.