The European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly in favor of a ban on the trade in seal products. The final vote was 550 votes in favor of the ban with 49 against.
The European Union (EU) assembly endorsed a bill calling seal hunting inhumane, on Tuesday May 5th, 2009. The next step is the backing of the various EU governments, but this is considered a formality as the Council and Commission have already agreed to the text. The regulation is expected to go into effect in 2010.
The elimination of seal products on the EU market will close a primary market for Canada's commercial seal hunt, explained the Humane Society International/Canada. The EU has been a market for the Canadian sealing industry, accounting for about one-third of reported sealskin exports. Globally, the EU accounts for one quarter of the world trade in seal products.
Canada's East Coast seal hunt is the largest of its kind in the world, killing an average of 300,000 harp seals annually, reported the Associated Press.
“The European Union has made history by ending its trade in seal products,” said Rebecca Aldworth, director of Humane Society International/Canada in a press statement. “This ban spells the beginning of the end of Canada’s globally condemned seal slaughter.”
In recent years, eleven countries have banned their trade in seal products or announced their intentions to do so. They join the United States, which prohibited seal product trade in 1972.
The Canadian government is already making threatening noises to challenge the legislated ban with the World Trade Organization.
“If the EU imposes a trade ban on seal products it must contain an exemption for any country, like Canada, that has strict guidelines in place for humane and sustainable sealing practices," said the Minister of International Trade, Stockwell Day, in a statement. "If there is no such acceptable exemption, Canada will challenge the ban at the World Trade Organization (WTO).”
Ministers of Fisheries and Ocean Gail Shea and Trade Minister Day, announced that, “…the Government of Canada will continue to aggressively counter the misinformation campaign being waged by professional anti-seal hunt lobby groups in order to ensure that the decision of the Council would be based on accurate information”.
Humane Society International: http://www.hsus.org/
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