Research
We produce evidence-based research on trade law, supply chains, and the policy frameworks governing how animal products move across borders. Our work includes legal analysis, supply chain analyses, retaliation risk assessments, and economic modelling of import policy.
Policy and Advocacy
Our policy advice is grounded in trade law governing import rules, including under GATT Article XX and developments in equivalence regimes. Working across different regions, we bring precedents and policy learnings from one jurisdiction into another.
Cross-Sector Partnerships
We coordinate across farmers, industry organisations, welfare groups, trade lawyers, industry, and parliamentarians to build cross-sector support for welfare-based import standards.
Who we work with
Policymakers and civil servants
Higher animal welfare standards are becoming more commonplace in domestic legislation, but trade policy has not kept pace, undermining the policy intent of legislation passed at home. Designing policy that brings imports into line with domestic standards - and that holds up under WTO scrutiny - requires specialist legal and economic analysis.
We can provide:
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Comparative analysis of welfare standards in major exporter jurisdictions
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Legal analysis on the compatibility of welfare-based import standards with WTO rules and free trade agreement obligations
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Policy frameworks drawing on the public morals exception under GATT Article XX and precedents in equivalence regimes
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Briefings for parliamentarians, ministries, and trade officials
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Polling on public and producer attitudes
Our work has been cited by parliamentarians, government departments, and select committees internationally. Our team and advisors include animal welfare experts, international trade lawyers and former trade negotiators.
Featured: Applying UK Animal Welfare Standards to Imports - A legal opinion on the compatibility of welfare-based import standards with WTO rules and the UK's free trade agreement obligations.
Farmers and agricultural industry
Farmers meeting higher welfare standards face direct competition from imports produced to weaker ones. This is a fairness and competitiveness question as much as a welfare one. Without aligned import standards, domestic producers are effectively penalised for meeting their own country's rules and the gains intended by welfare reform are undermined.
We can provide:
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Trade analysis on import volumes, source countries, and welfare standards in exporter jurisdictions
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Economic research on the competitive impact of lower-welfare imports and the potential gains from import standards
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Polling on farmer and public attitudes
Advocacy alongside farming organisations - we work with farming associations and producer groups to make the level-playing-field case to the government.
Featured: Vision Into Action: Applying Animal Welfare Standards in Import Policy - our analysis of how New Zealand welfare standards can be applied to imports under WTO rules, with economic modelling estimating NZ$17.2–29 million in annual growth for the domestic pork sector.
Welfare organisations
Some animal welfare organisations have spent years working on domestic regulatory commitments such as improved on-farm standards. Where those commitments don't extend to imports, the welfare gains can be undermined.
We can provide:
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Specialist trade-policy expertise on import standards
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Legal analysis that strengthens consultation responses, parliamentary briefings, and submissions
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Convening across stakeholder groups that welfare organisations don't typically reach: farming organisations, industry bodies, trade lawyers
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Comparative work globally - helping welfare orgs in one region learn from policy moments in another
Featured: Closing the Welfare Gap - our regional analysis of UK animal welfare standards vs. imports.
