Abstract
Market prices fail to properly account for the risk of zoonotic diseases associated with animal agriculture and cross-border trade in domesticated and wild animal products, the magnitude of which is demonstrated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Corrective measures are required to internalize the cost of pandemics. Communicable disease prevention and mitigation is a global public good and contributions to its production should be made at the international level. To compel states to pay for costs resulting from domestic consumption patterns that are externalized to other countries, this paper proposes a global contribution regime based on state consumption of animal products. We lay out the technical aspects of a cost-internalizing tax that could accomplish this goal and demonstrate its feasibility in light of existing trade law constraints. The paper concludes that the proposed cost-internalizing tax would be an appropriate method to deter pandemic risk-inducing activities and fund zoonotic disease outbreak prevention and pandemic response.
Highlights
Market prices fail to properly account for the high risk of zoonotic diseases that are associated with animal agriculture and cross-border trade in domesticated and wild animal products
A March 2020 analysis by the UN Committee on Trade and Development projected that the economic loss following the current pandemic crisis would reach up to three trillion dollars [2]; a June 2020 report by the International Monetary Fund estimates that COVID-19 will result in 40 million deaths and reduce global economic output by USD 12.5 trillion by the end of 2021 [3]
We propose a global contribution regime to fund pandemic surveillance and response, pursuant to which the contributions owed by each state would be determined by their proportionate consumption of animal agriculture and wild animal products relative to the world as a whole
Summary
Market prices fail to properly account for the high risk of zoonotic diseases that are associated with animal agriculture and cross-border trade in domesticated and wild animal products. The first section demonstrates the need for pandemic prevention measures, introduces the role of taxation in achieving this goal, and establishes the normative basis for implementation at a global scale Following this background, the second section presents a fiscal design to raise revenues in support of zoonotic disease outbreak prevention and mitigation, built on the principle of cost-internalization of pandemic risk. The paper concludes that a global cost-internalizing tax mechanism would be an appropriate and feasible method to address the cost of pandemic disease outbreak prevention, and reduce their prevalence It is beyond the scope of this paper to provide a specific timeline to implementation of the proposed taxation measure, or to analyze the appetite for such a reform by national actors. We propose that the introduction of a meat and wild animal tax policy to provide for a fair and effective global pandemic response system is both necessary and feasible
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