Poultry welfare standards vary enormously between countries. Comparing international approaches reveals the welfare gap between best practice and common practice globally.
The global poultry welfare landscape is characterized by large disparities between jurisdictions and significant import of lower-welfare products into countries with higher welfare standards. The EU's battery cage ban represented a major welfare improvement for European hens but has driven some production to lower-welfare systems elsewhere. Trade agreements that do not require welfare equivalence can undermine domestic welfare standards. International welfare improvement requires both domestic regulation and trade policy tools that create incentives for exporting countries to raise standards.