World Livestock Export Standards A comparison of development processes, systems and outcomes achieved

Summary

Livestock exporting industries around the world are under pressure to demonstrate that they have developed and applied systems for delivering acceptable animal welfare outcomes. To this end, a country wanting to demonstrate its capacity to achieve acceptable outcomes might point to the existence and relative merits of its supporting standards. But there are many countries participating in livestock trading with differing levels of economic development, reliance upon regulatory systems and attitudes regarding animal welfare. Moreover, environmental circumstances vary throughout the world and therefore uniform standards are not always necessary to bring about uniform outcomes. Ultimately, the livestock export standards applying within a particular country will reflect the animal welfare expectations of the constituency. Because these expectations vary between countries, the specificity and rigor of inter-country standards also vary.

This study compared the specificity and rigor of the livestock export standards applying in individual countries that participate significantly in the trade. The livestock export standards applying in Australia are used as a benchmark for contrasting the standards applying in all other countries. This is done in the first instance to highlight the relative status of the Australian standards and to identify scope for making improvements. However, the wealth of detail revealed by the benchmarking could serve as a platform for other countries to develop and improve their own standards.