Canada launches trade dispute with EU over seals

Canada has started a trade dispute with the EU on Wednesday over a Dutch and Belgium ban on seal products, saying that it is against the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO). http://euobserver.com/9/24853
Belgium introduced a ban on seal products earlier this year and the Netherlands followed in July. The Dutch and Belgian bans exempt products from seals, hunted in the traditional way by Inuit.

Bloomberg, spokesman for Canada's minister of international trade Francois Jubinville, said that these bans have no scientific fact. ''We don't believe there is any basis from the point of view of science or conservation to justify banning imports of seal products,'' he said, adding that Canada exports 12.7 million euro worth of seal products to the EU every year.

The trade dispute might be intended to pre-empt a possible EU-wide ban because Brussels has already commissioned two studies investigating the trade following a call for a ban on seal products by the EP last year. Sealing is important to many remote coastal communities in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nunavur and Quebec, where other economic opportunities are limited. The EU is Canada's second largest market for seal prodcuts.http://www.embassymag.ca/html/index.php?display=story&full_path=/2007/august/1/sealban/

Brussels is ''naturally disappointed by this move,'' said the department of EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson in a statement. It also added that the EU would defend its member states before the WTO and in the meantime continuing to study whether an EU-wideban on seal products is justified.

Antonie (euobserver,BBC)