Animal welfare policy operates at multiple scales from farm to global. Understanding international frameworks reveals opportunities for systemic improvement.
International animal welfare policy is hampered by the tension between national sovereignty and global responsibility. Animals traded across borders face welfare risks in transit and may be produced in countries with far lower welfare standards than the importing country. The use of trade policy to drive welfare improvements - insisting on equivalent welfare standards for imported agricultural products - is a powerful mechanism that the EU has begun to apply. Strengthening international welfare frameworks through WOAH, encouraging bilateral welfare conditions in trade deals, and supporting developing countries to build welfare legislation and enforcement capacity are the highest-leverage international policy interventions.