The SAFE Act of 2025 would amend the Animal Health Protection Act to give U.S. policy makers a stronger, pre-emptive role in protecting agricultural exports during animal disease outbreaks. Specifically, it authorizes federal agencies to negotiate in advance with foreign governments on how disease outbreaks could be managed across borders without unnecessarily interrupting exports of livestock and animal products. The negotiated tools include regionalization, zoning, and compartmentalization—concepts that allow portions of a country or supply chain to be considered separate from others for trade purposes. The negotiations should consider the latest global research and are designed to work alongside existing trade negotiations, not replace them. In short, the bill aims to reduce the export disruption caused by animal disease outbreaks by enabling proactive international agreements on how regions with different disease statuses can still trade, while preserving the broader authority of the U.S. Trade Representative in trade deals.
Key Points
- 1The bill creates an express authority to engage in pre-arranged, international agreements with key export markets on regionalization, zoning, compartmentalization, and similar approaches to disease outbreaks.
- 2The negotiations would be carried out by a group of federal officials: the APHIS Administrator (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service), the Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, and the FSIS Administrator, in consultation with the United States Trade Representative.
- 3The focus is on countries that buy U.S. livestock or animal products, to help maintain or restore exports during disease outbreaks.
- 4The negotiations should take into account accepted global research advances related to animal health and trade.
- 5The bill clarifies that these provisions do not limit the USTR’s broader ability to negotiate trade agreements, nor do they require that other trade deals include language about reducing outbreak impacts.