Animal instincts dominate India’s FTA talks with UK, EU

 Trade negotiators may now be the new champions for animal rights. For the first time, India is set to accept accountability for the welfare of its animals — be it cows, buffaloes, sheep or poultry, reared for commercial purposes, in the new free trade agreements (FTAs) proposed with partners such as the UK and the EU.

“In the on-going FTA  negotiations with the UK, there is a section on animal welfare and sustainable food production where, for the first time, India is to discuss measures on the welfare of animals such as standards for slaughter, transport and egg production,” a person tracking the development told BusinessLine.

India would like best-effort provisions, in which the two sides collaborate to maintain high levels of animal welfare protection, but no commitments would be mandated, according to the source.

Farm product concessions

However, some animal protection organisations in the UK, such as the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), are lobbying hard for inclusion of conditionalities to improve animal welfare measures  for grant of FTA concessions in farm products such as poultry and eggs to India.

“India’s animal welfare standards are lower in many areas. These include SPS standards, slaughter, transport, leather exports and egg production. India has an aggressive export trade in leather and egg products and is competitive in this sector due to lower production costs,” the RSPCA stated in a submission to the House of Lords International Agreements Committee on the UK-India FTA earlier this year.

It added that lowering tariffs without conditions will increase imports of dried egg products, putting the UK’s egg sector at risk, as well as the country’s leather industry.

Indian traders unfazed

While the concept on introducing animal welfare measures in FTAs was unheard of till date, Indian exporters maintain that they have nothing to worry about on this account. 

“We do not export much of meat to the UK and the EU, but we do export poultry and leather. We have the best ante- and post-mortem certification processes in place. However, we need to be sure about what exactly the West have in mind,” a Delhi-based meat exporter said.

The UK has already inserted a chapter on animal welfare in its FTA with Australia where the two agreed to exchange information, expertise and experiences in areas of mutual interest, to improve understanding of each other’s approaches and regulatory systems and improving animal welfare standards.

“The Commerce & Industry Ministry is right now trying to get a deeper understanding on what all could be expected in the area of animal welfare in the FTA. It plans to  hold discussions soon with the Animal Welfare Board of India,” the official said.

India and the UK hope to wrap up the FTA negotiation by the year-end, so discussions need to be expedited. Both countries hope that the FTA will help them double bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2030. Animal welfare is also likely to feature in the India-EU FTA negotiations which is to kick-off later this month.

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