Health infrastructure evaluations of trading partners for equivalence: Why they are important and current hurdles for One Health collaboration.

The history of trade has numerous examples of movement of diseases and pests. Nations institute barriers to protect human, animal, and plant populations from incursions; sometimes successfully, sometimes not. The World Trade Organization and international standard-setting bodies (ISSB) are multilateral organizations that promote equitable treatment and safe trade. Equivalence of outcome is a concept that crosses animal, human, and environmental health standards. Loosely defined, it is taken to mean achieving a similar reduction in risk by different methods. Countries conduct assessments known as health infrastructure evaluations (HIE) to allow safe trade in commodities of food, plant, and animal origin. This review analyzes the use of HIE for trade purposes, with an added focus on their One Health context. The goal is to identify areas of HIE in which a One Health approach could assist in achieving the goal of "treating like partners alike," thereby fostering transparent decision-making in trade negotiations, a key obligation under World Trade Organization rules.