Is it time to have the long and boring discussion about the difference between standards and processes & production methods?

Trade policy tends to focus on outcomes (standards). So for imported food to be sold on the UK market it needs to be made to UK [or sometimes equivalent] standards.

Trade policy doesn't tend to deal with how (processes & production) the food is made e.g. how cows were treated.

But this is changing somewhat. The EU-Mercosur trade deal opens a tariff-rate quota exclusively for shell eggs birthed (?) from chickens subject to animal welfare conditions equivalent to the EU's.

And ah yes, don't forget these guys. https://twitter.com/FerdiDeVille/status/1314533091327782912?s=20

In EU's WTO dispute with a number of countries over whether its restrictions on import of clubbed seals are WTO compliant there was some discussion re: whether the EU Seal Regime prescribes 'related processes or production methods´ for seal products, but it didn't get anywhere

(Ban was upheld (on basis EU made some tweaks) because deemed necessary to defend public morals)

Anyway, I digress, in UK context big discussion now seems to be over whether it is right to ask producers exporting to UK to both comply with UK food standards (a given) AND process and production methods (more controversial).

For producers in some countries these conditions wouldn't necessarily be a problem due to them being able to demonstrate equivalent methods quite easily (e.g. New Zealand), but for others it could be (e.g. US, developing countries).

There's also issues around benchmarking - ie who's approach is better and why?

It all gets tricky quickly.

Anyhow, if not a ban on certain process and production methods - are there other approaches that could works?

@DGWilkinson makes some suggestions here, including labelling and conditional tariff preferences (similar to the Mercosur eggs): https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/defending-british-farming-standards-trade-derrick-wilkinson/

Regardless, while these questions of fairness vis-a-vis production environment are not readily dealt with via existing trade rules - the desire to create a level playing field bubbling up everywhere (see also: US and EU) and is here to stay.

(There are *so* many typos in this rambly thread, and for that I can only apologise.)