Nailing the Canadian Seal Hunt Coffin Shut

[flvegan]

(had I a blog, that would be my title)

BRUSSELS, April 24 (Reuters) - European ambassadors approved a European Union plan to ban imports of furs and other products from culled seals on Friday, moving the 27-nation bloc one step closer to a trade clash with Norway and Canada.
Both seal-hunting nations have warned the EU in recent weeks that they could challenge the EU ban at the World Trade Organisation, the global trade watchdog, if it takes shape as currently foreseen.

"Nothing should now stand in the way of this ban being adopted," said an official from the EU's Czech presidency, which brokered a deal this week that will exclude hunts by Inuits.

"It needs to go before the European Parliament in May, but that should be a formality because parliament negotiators have already agreed to it informally," the official added.

Canada, Greenland and Namibia account for around 60 percent of the 900,000 seals hunted each year. The rest are killed in Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Britain and the United States.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere wrote to EU trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton this month arguing that the ban broke the principle of free trade and set a dangerous precedent on the harvesting of renewable resources.
An official said the Commission believed the plan was "legally sound".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8472334

But wait...there's more. *giggles*

From The Canadian Press today:

LUXEMBOURG — The European Union endorsed plans Monday to open negotiations with Canada on a new free-trade pact.

The negotiations, which could last two years, are to be officially launched at an EU-Canada leaders summit May 6, in Prague.

The expected launch of negotiations will also come a day after the European Parliament is expected to pass a resolution calling for a limited ban on seal products from Canada, to protest the annual seal hunt off Canada's Atlantic coast, which EU legislators find cruel and inhumane.

Traditional Inuit hunts in Canada's Arctic would be exempt.

Canadian officials said such a move could damage ties and has threatened to take the EU to the World Trade Organization claiming such a ban would be illegal under world trade rules.

The EU is Canada's second largest trading partner after the United States, while Canada is only the EU's 11 most important trading partner.



So it appears that the Canadian government, smelling defeat, made a deal. Like any criminal looking to save his/her hide, they made a deal to not fight the pending ban. Sounds like this may (and hopefully will be) a wrap.

You read it here first.

[LeftyMom]

1. You do need a blog. Everybody else in the lounge has one to promote.

But you can't make it be about tree hugging lesbians, your disturbed coworker, or the wit and wisdom of your cat. Those ideas are taken.

[Muttocracy]

2. It mentions some being killed in the U.S.

Is that in northern Alaska?

[flvegan]

3. Indiginous people are allowed to hunt seals, yes.

Otherwise, commercial seal hunting is banned in all parts of the United States.

[LeftyMom]

4. Whales, too.

It's an indian sovereignty thing. The feds really can't control a lot of wildlife conservation laws on tribal lands, plus in some cases the right to take species that are now protected might be protected in old treaties. Seems kinda screwy that those are the only treaties the feds seem to go out of their way to honor, but hey, what's a few endangered animals more or less? :eyes: