Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to ensure that high animal welfare standards are incorporated into international trade agreements; and how her Department plans to measure such standards.

The European Commission are responsible for negotiating international trade agreements on behalf of the European Union. However, the UK actively supported the inclusion of commitments on animal welfare in the agreement with Canada (CETA). We are also pressing strongly for the same in the EU/US Free Trade Agreement; and will be making the case in other agreements under negotiation, including those with Japan and Vietnam.

We will also work with the Commission and other trading partners, to incorporate EU animal welfare standards into the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) international trade framework.