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By APD writer Aditya Nugraha
**BRUSSELS, Oct. 2 (APD) - **The European Union (EU) prepared trade agreements that features requirement on hen welfare for egg imports into countries in the bloc.
The trade agreement that offers elimination of tariff over the requirement would be the first time for EU.
The conditional trade agreement with such a requirement would be applied on egg imported from Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay
Eggs imported from those South American countries will only be duty-free if the hens are kept in line with EU standards under the provisional terms of the new EU-Mercosur trade agreement.
Such a move was hailed by Campaigning organization Eurogroup for Animals, saying that it is “an important turning point in EU trade policy”. The organization expected similar requirement be extended
“It is the first time animal welfare standards have been incorporated into tariffs in an EU trade agreement, and something that we have been advocating for 15 years,” the organization spokesperson said.
The conditional egg imports with hen welfare came out in meeting of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development at the European Parliament last Wednesday.
Farmers across the EU were no longer allowed to keep hens in barren battery cages since 2012. Such a situation may extremely restrict hen movement. The cages were now often replaced with more spacious versions and a large proportion that make EU’s 500 million hens caged in more spacious rooms.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
