Europe strengthens ban on seal products after WTO challenge
Europe strengthens ban on seal products after WTO challenge
MEPs vote to firm up EU embargo on seal products, after partially successful challenges by Canada and Norway at the World Trade Organisation
Arthur
Tuesday 8 September 2015 11.24 EDT
MEPs voted to tighten a ban on seal products on Tuesday, in a move that campaigners say will protect millions of seals from commercial slaughter. The vote in Strasbourg brings an existing EU embargo into line with World Trade Organisation rules.
Two seal-culling nations, Canada and Norway, last year won their first victory at the WTO, when it ruled that two EU exemptions to the ban for indigenous communities violated its rules. These loopholes have now been closed.
“Europe’s citizens have made it quite clear that we don’t want to buy fur and other products from hideously cruel seal slaughters, and we hope that now Canada and Norway will finally accept the will of consumers, and stop these repeated failed challenges,” said Joanna Swabe, the European director of the Humane Society International.
Since 2002, more than 2 million seals have been killed in Canada, the site of one of the largest slaughters of marine mammals on earth.
More:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/sep/08/europe-strengthens-ban-on-seal-products-after-wto-challenge