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Livestock Trade

The South-North trade increase of agricultural products, as well as between developing countries, is increasingly accepted as an important factor in the poverty alleviation strategies. However, if developing countries are to participate in formal trade of livestock products, it is essential for them to make a concerted effort to be able to comply with the basic elements of the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPM) and of Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) from the World Trade Organization (WTO). Effective prevention and progressive control of animal transboundary diseases is a must in the livestock production systems.

This means that developing countries require also a greater and sustainable support in their efforts to integrate themselves in the framework of the animal health and food safety standards, since progress in these aspects will have a beneficial impact, not only in the capacity to participate in foreign trade, but also in trade at local level and in the integration to markets of poorer communities.

The representatives of member countries, seeking to harmonize the information and the negotiating capacity, requested FAO to continue training agricultural trade negotiators in the context of the WTO and in all regional, subregional and bilateral agreements.

In this section you will find basic concepts of the globalization and trade process and references to the principles of the SPM Agreement, as well as documents and links to livestock trade.

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