Petition To Apply Equal Animal Welfare Standards To Imported Pork Is Rejected By Government
Not necessarily the governments fault, but they could do something about it if they wanted...
A petition presented to Parliament calling for imported pork to be required to meet the same welfare standards as locally produced meat has been rejected by the government.1
In May last year, NZ Pork policy adviser Frances Clement presented a petition to the Primary Production Committee asking for the same rules to be applied to all pork.
The petition failed this week when the committee said New Zealand could not impose welfare standards on other countries because it would breach trade agreements.
Opinion
We can’t blame the government for being in a legal bind that prevents them from making the choice they did. The alternative would be to create a trade war that would be very damaging to people’s lives.
But that doesn’t necessarily prevent them from making legislation in their own country. They could mandate that pork sold in NZ that is from a country that has lower animal welfare standards than NZ shall have this written on the packaging.