API’s Submission on New Zealand-India Trade Negotiations: Call to Address More Potential Cruel Imports

On March 17, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay announced the launch of comprehensive trade negotiations between New Zealand and India.

As part of a public consultation, Animal Policy International submitted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, raising concerns about the potential increase in lower-welfare animal products entering the New Zealand market, and providing solutions to address this issue.

India, the world's third-largest egg producer, still permits farming practices that New Zealand has banned on animal welfare grounds, such as battery cages for hens. Over 90% of eggs produced in India come from battery caged systems.

India is the 2nd largest producer of fish in the world with about 68 percent of India's fish coming from the aquaculture sector. The regulations in India do not include any specific requirements for the welfare of farmed aquatic animals. New Zealand has a Code of Welfare (Commercial Slaughter) 2018 that concerns aquatic animals at the time of slaughter. 

Without proper safeguards, a trade agreement with India could further expand the market for products from farming systems illegal in New Zealand. This effectively undermines public’s expectations and puts Kiwi farmers under pressure, creating an uneven playing field that privileges overseas producers over domestic farmers, and incentivising production shifting overseas, effectively outsourcing cruelty. To address this concern, Animal Policy International highlighted four key recommendations in our submission.

Core Recommendation (1): introduce legislation requiring animal product imports to meet New Zealand animal welfare standards

To address the broader issue of lower welfare imports, Animal Policy recommends introducing legislation that would require all animal product imports to meet New Zealand animal welfare standards. This is compliant with WTO rules and can be done by amending the Animal Products Act and creating an enabling power for introducing regulations that would apply animal welfare standards to products sold in New Zealand.

There is a significant precedent from overseas. Several measures make market access for certain foreign products conditional on meeting domestic animal welfare requirements. These include for example:

• California’s ban on the sale of foie gras if it is produced by force feeding geese or ducks

• California’s Proposition 12 (as well as similar laws in other states) pairing a local ban on the production of eggs obtained from hens kept in battery cages with a sales ban applicable to imported products

• EU Cosmetics Regulation banning marketing of cosmetics containing ingredients tested on animals

Furthermore, the EU recently announced that it will ensure that future legislative proposals on animal welfare apply the same standards to all products marketed in the EU, including imported products.

While legislative action is required to address cruel imports entering New Zealand, provisions in a trade deal can limit the impact coming from this bilateral trade relationship. 

Breeder hens in an overcrowded battery cage in India

Recommendation 2: conditional liberalisation based on animal welfare standards in New Zealand-India trade agreement

Animal Policy International recommends following the examples of EU-Mercosur and EU-New Zealand trade deals on conditional liberalisation. 

In 2019, the EU set a precedent with an animal welfare-based condition in a trade agreement. In the EU-Mercosur trade deal, the EU conditioned the import of tariff-free shell eggs to respect animal welfare standards equivalent to the EU’s laying hens directive. In the 2023 EU-New Zealand trade deal, EUs beef import quota from New Zealand was fully reserved for grass-fed animals. This means that meat derived from commercial feedlots is not benefitting from preferential access to the EU market.

The New Zealand-India trade agreement should:

• Include conditional liberalisation mechanisms providing trade preferences only for products that respect animal welfare standards equivalent to those implemented in the importing country. It should particularly address the use of battery cages in egg production and slaughter standards of farmed aquatic animals.

• Include a recognition by the partners that each should be entitled, in the future, to add conditions to access to their own market that demand that animal welfare standards are equivalent to those applied within their territory. This would consolidate the parties right to regulate in favour of higher animal welfare standards, which would also apply to imported products, by reducing the fear of seeing the new rules challenged at the WTO;

• Ensure that only a minimal volume of animal products is granted preferential access to New Zealand.

Recommendation 3: include an Animal Welfare chapter

The agreement should put emphasis on both parties' commitments to animal welfare by including provisions in a standalone chapter on animal welfare. The chapter should comprehensively cover all issues related to farmed animal welfare and trade. In particular, it should include:

• a commitment by both parties not to weaken or reduce their animal welfare standards in order to gain a trade or competitive advantage;

• acknowledgement of animal sentience, reflecting shared values rooted in compassion and ethical responsibility toward animals, building on existing legal principles in both countries, encouraging alignment of animal welfare standards, supporting ethical trade, and creating a platform for cooperation in science and policy;

• a comprehensive cooperation mechanism on animal welfare. This could take the shape of a standalone political dialogue, or of a dialogue under the future FTA. In that context, the parties could also explore knowledge exchange and capacity building programmes to improve animal welfare practices and aim at upward regulatory alignment.

Recommendation 4: include Trade and Sustainable Development chapter

The future New Zealand-India Free Trade Agreement should include a comprehensive and enforceable Trade and Sustainable Development chapter that contains detailed language on:

• the link between animal welfare and sustainable development; sustainable agriculture, and sustainable food systems, underlying how improved animal welfare can contribute to fight global crises such as climate change, biodiversity loss and antimicrobial resistance;

• the importance of ensuring fish welfare to make aquaculture and fisheries sustainable;

• enforcement, providing access to the dispute settlement mechanism for external stakeholders, creating clear roadmaps, identifying priority issues and monitoring them, and including last-resort sanctions.

As trade negotiations with India proceed, it is crucial to address the issue of cruel imports in the trade deal and implement a comprehensive legislation requiring all imported animal products to meet domestic animal welfare standards. 

Read the full Animal Policy International’s submission here.

Sign the petition to Stop Cruel Imports here.