HR3038-119

What This Bill Does

The SAFE Act of 2025 amends the Animal Health Protection Act so USDA can prepare export-market agreements before major animal disease outbreaks disrupt trade. The Secretary of Agriculture, acting through APHIS, the Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, and FSIS, and consulting with the United States Trade Representative, may negotiate in advance with governments that buy U.S. livestock animals or animal products. The negotiations can cover regionalization, zoning, compartmentalization, and other outbreak-management agreements for known animal disease threats of trade significance. The bill says those negotiations should take accepted global research advances into account. It also preserves USTR authority over trade agreements and does not require USTR to condition other trade agreements on animal disease export language.

Who Benefits and How

Livestock farmers benefit because advance regionalization or zoning agreements can keep unaffected regions selling during an outbreak. Meat manufacturers benefit if importing countries recognize compartmentalization rather than shutting down all U.S. product. Poultry manufacturers benefit from the same export-continuity protection for animal products. APHIS administrators benefit from clearer statutory authority to negotiate animal disease export protocols before emergencies. FSIS export staff benefit because food safety export officials can be part of advance market-access planning. Foreign buyers of U.S. animal products benefit from clearer outbreak-response terms based on accepted research.

Who Bears the Burden and How

USDA trade staff must coordinate APHIS, FSIS, trade officials, and USTR consultation before and during negotiations. USTR retains trade-agreement authority but must be consulted on advance disease-outbreak export arrangements. Importing-country governments must negotiate disease-risk terms before outbreaks if they want predictable U.S. market access. Livestock export managers still face foreign market closures if agreements are not reached or disease controls are not accepted.

Key Provisions

• Amends the Animal Health Protection Act to authorize advance animal disease export negotiations.
• Allows regionalization, zoning, compartmentalization, and similar agreements with key export markets.
• Requires negotiations to account for accepted global research advances where practicable.
• Preserves USTR authority and avoids conditioning unrelated trade agreements on the animal disease provisions.