Delicate balancing act
Barry O'Neil.
Balancing international trade and biosecurity interests can be a delicate business when it comes to animal health risks, according to Assistant Director General Biosecurity New Zealand, Barry O’Neil.
Sharing his perspective as President of the OIE (World Organisation for Animal Health) with attendees at the Biosecurity Summit in November, Dr O’Neil said trade fundamentally depends on trust between importer and exporter, and the acceptance of official assurances about the safety of traded goods.
Standards set by the OIE for trade in animals and animal products are available for use by the 167 member countries as a basis for their own standards. However, for whatever reasons, many countries try to set differing standards, resulting in significant disruption and often confusion when goods are being traded.
A requirement for an OIE member country is to report outbreaks of specific animal diseases in a timely manner, but unfortunately this does not always happen. There have been cases where countries have failed to report outbreaks of foot and mouth disease and highly pathogenic avian influenza. Fear of losing access to markets can be the motivation for failing to disclose outbreaks like these, but not reporting can cause risks to others and a loss in confidence and trust in the exporting country.
On the other side of the coin, some countries have been guilty of over-reacting to reports of animal disease outbreaks by their trading partners.
"In one case a country had its exports of beefsteak tomatoes refused as a result of a BSE outbreak, and in another case poultry imports were refused because the exporting country had a foot and mouth disease outbreak," said Dr O’Neil.
There are other challenges in addition to failures to disclose and over-zealous reactions, Dr O’Neil said.
"Not all product and disease combinations are covered by OIE standards, along with some countries preferring to set their own acceptable levels of protection rather than using the available OIE standards. In addition, not all countries recognise the existence of zones of different animal health status within one country’s borders, and this can restrict trade unnecessarily."
He is unfazed by these challenges, however, and says the trade impacts of large animal disease outbreaks are just too large to ignore. Priorities for OIE members included:
- development of transparent disease surveillance programmes that allowed for rapid identification and international notifications
- acceptance that 'the more you look, the more you will find'
- participation and ‘buy-in’ to OIE standard setting.
New Zealand is already showing leadership within the OIE forum, Dr O’Neil said. In addition to his position as President, New Zealanders are also key members of other OIE committees including Animal Welfare and Animal Production/Food Safety.
"OIE standards can help achieve a balance of risk between imports and exports. Animal health technical differences play a big part in international trade issues, accounting for 40 percent of trade concerns raised in the WTO since 1995, and the OIE is a good forum for resolving these issues at a technical, rather than at a political level."
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Page last updated: 30 April 2008