Canada to challenge WTO ruling on EU seal ban

The Canadian government announced here Monday that it will appeal a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling that found trade restrictions resulting from a European Union 2010 ban on imported seal products justified for "public moral concerns" over the animal slaughter."Canada remains steadfast in its position that the seal harvest is a humane, sustainable and well-regulated activity," said a statement issued by Foreign Affairs and Development Canada on behalf of International Trade Minister Ed Fast, Fisheries and Oceans Minister Gail Shea and Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq, who is also Canada's Minister for the intergovernmental Arctic Council."Our government will continue to defend the seal hunt, an important source of food and income for coastal and Inuit communities," she said.The WTO acknowledged the ban's exceptions for seal products resulting from aboriginal hunts are "not equally available to all Inuit or indigenous communities."Terry Audla,kitchen gadgets president of the national organization Inuit Tapirit Kanatami, called the Inuit exemption "an empty box" and said the ban opposes the principles of fair trade."It is truly inexplicable that the WTO did not dismiss outright the EU's Orwellian 'moral grounds' justification of this outrageous trade impediment,Microcirculation analyzer" he said in a news release.

Sheryl Fink, director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare's Canada seals campaign welcomed the WTO ruling as recognizing that animal welfare "can be legitimately protected through measures such as trade bans."Humane Society International/Canada (HSI/Canada) estimates that more than two million seals have been killed since 2002 alone, making Canada's commercial sea slaughter the largest involving marine mammals on earth.However, with the United States and Russia,Banner Pen along with the 28 member states of the EU, among the countries that have instituted a trade ban, "virtually no one in the world wants to buy seal products," said HSI/Canada executive director Rebecca Aldworth in a statement.According to Fisheries and Oceans Canada, which manages the seal harvest, Canada exported over 70 million U.S. dollars' worth of seal products to more than 35 countries between 2005 and 2011 when China began importing Canadian seal meat and oil.Last year, the 2012 Canadian commercial seal hunt netted about 69,000 harp seals - the most popular species - far fewer than the federal quota of 400,000.Canada and Norway, which also challenged the EU seal products ban, have 60 days to appeal the WTO decision.