29/11/2019
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that EU laws prevent the ban the shipment of live animals. He is right in so much as EU single market rules stipulate that no member state can ban live animal exports. However, the EU does impose animal welfare requirements for their export.
The Conservative Party manifesto says that the UK will be able to ban live shipments of animals after Brexit, but it does not make a pledge to actually do so.
EU rules on the single market, which guarantee free movement of goods, mean that member states cannot ban live animal exports. This was tested in the High Court in 2014, after the deaths of 40 sheep being transported through Ramsgate. Thanet District Council
issued a temporary ban on live animal exports, but this was challenged in court and ruled unlawful, because it "breached a fundamental element of the rules governing free trade in the EU".
The EU requires that those exporting live animals ensure adequate space for them, and provide food, water and rest. These rules are supposed be followed while the animals are transported between the member states, as well as beyond EU borders. EU laws state it is an offence to transport any animal in a way likely to cause injury or undue suffering.
Whilst transporters of live animals have been found breaking the rules, this is not irrefutably the fault of the EU, and being members of the EU does not increase the risk to animals transported from the UK.
Johnson's suggestion that Brexit would bring an end to the live export of animals is as false as the rest of the anti-EU nonsense spouted by him and his party. As an example, if the UK were to ban live exports elsewhere, but still allow them to continue between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, it would contravene the WTO rules prohibiting members from treating countries differently on trade in the same product.
The movement of animal is a key issue for Northern, as livestock are regularly moved across the border with the Republic in both directions. Approximately 5,000 lambs are exported to the Republic every week, whilst about 1,000 cattle and 10,000 pigs cross in the other direction. Furthermore, calves being sent from Northern Ireland to France are transported through ports in the Republic.
So, Brexit really isn't the magical method to stop the shipment of live animals from one EU country to another.
In reality, this is just another attempt to misinform the electorate and convince them that voting Tory isn't the end f the world.
Are we really that gullible?
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