Word: bans
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...ban has left Canada seething at what it sees as sanctimonious grandstanding. At Wednesday's summit, Canadian Trade Minister Stockwell Day said the decision "was based on people's feelings rather than hard facts," noting that Canada went to great lengths to ensure a humane, well-regulated and sustainable cull, and that it no longer allows the clubbing of baby seals while they still have their white coats. (See pictures of Canada...
...Although the leaders spoke at the summit about how their pact would boost annual commerce between Canada and the E.U. by around $27 billion, they were also contemplating that the seal ban could lead to a major trade tiff. Canada has already promised to challenge the ban at the World Trade Organization - and stands a good chance of overturning it, since WTO rules only allow prohibitions based on health and safety...
...imports around $5 million of Canada's seal skins each year. But Canada says the impact of the impending ban is already being felt. Top seal pelts now fetch $14, a steep drop from the $105 they pulled in three years ago. And the Canadian hunt has killed less than 60,000 seals out of its 330,000 quota for 2009, down from over 220,000 last year...
...Many of the 6,000 fishermen in Newfoundland and Labrador are indigenous Inuit people, who hunt seals to supplement their incomes and say the ban threatens their livelihood. Before the vote, an Inuit delegation from Canada's northern Nunavut territory appealed to MEPs to reconsider the ban. The MEPs did amend the ban to exempt seal products coming from traditional Inuit hunts. But Inuit leaders warned it would still kill their market. "This exemption is nothing but a ruse," Nunavut Environment Minister Daniel Shewchuck said in a statement. "With an outright ban on commercial trade, the price of skins will...
...Inuit may feel most aggrieved by another aspect of the ban: It will remain legal for Europe's fishermen to cull seals for fish stock management. (And they can continue to sell the resulting seal products within the E.U.). Adult seals get through huge amounts of fish on a daily basis, and buried within the Parliament ban is a recognition that seals often have to be hunted to ensure the sustainability of fisheries in some areas. Indeed, the population of seals on Canada's east coast is now 6 million, three times what it was in the 1970s, making them...