The Wall Street Journal reports today that, “This week marks the beginning of a European Union ban on the trade of all seal products, except for those hunted by traditional methods.”
In May 2009, the European Parliament voted 550-49 to ban the import of seal products. That ban comes into effect tomorrow. So this may be an opportune time to ask – to what degree will the European Union’s ban on importing seal products play into the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement talks?
In February 2009, Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams said that the federal government would be abandoning his province if Prime Minister Harper did not demand that the EU drop the ban. Williams also said, “At this point, we are not willing to sign on to support the negotiation of a new and comprehensive economic agreement with the European Union.” (The provincial government’s media release on this can be read at http://www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2009/exec/0220n07.htm.)
Harper replied that he would defend the sealing industry, but that he would not allow the ban to “contaminate” a potential CETA deal.
Both then-trade minister Stockwell Day and fisheries minister Gail Shea said they would challenge the EU seal ban at the World Trade Organization. They argue that the seal hunt meets internationally accepted humanitarian, scientific and environmental standards. They want the WTO to rule that the ban is an illegal trade barrier.
And while products from the traditional Inuit seal hunt from Canada and Greenland are exempted from the EU ban, members of Nunavut’s legislature passed a motion in March to ban the sale of liquor from EU countries in Nunavut as a symbolic and retaliatory gesture. Nunavut premier Eva Aariak has said that her government has been advised that the liquor ban would violate the World Trade Organization’s general agreement on tariffs and trade, as well as breach an agreement between Canada and the European Economic Community on the sale of alcoholic beverages.
The European Union (and specifically the European Parliament which voted so decisively in favour of the ban on seal products) may also be considering – while negotiating the inclusion of a binding Chapter 11-like investor-state dispute settlement mechanism in a Canada-European Union CETA – if its ban on importing seal products could be additionally challenged directly by a corporation with a stake in the seal products industry simply because the ban affects their profits.
We’ll continue to monitor this issue.
