International Trade Law and emerging trade-related issues: The case of Animal Welfare Concerns

Resumen

This article aims to address the main concerns on the plausibility (legality and legitimacy) for WTO Member States when adopting trade related measures (mandatory ecolabeling schemes). Such measures are intended to enhance or to provide animal welfare regulations in the course of trade, especially in the context of the WTO covered agreements, like in the case of GATT, the agreement on Sanitary and Phyto-sanitary measures and the agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade. This article is also intended to identify the main forces and challenges beyond market driven initiatives related to labeling animal welfare standards, considering the fact that this bundle of concerns are mostly based on ethologic and veterinary criteria, and also taking into account that they are subject to ethical based analysis, specially dependent on socio economical structures and cultural values that play a decisive role when deciding if animal welfare (or even compassion to certain animals) has a room in domestic policy and then in trade politics.