Brussels, 26/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 25 April 2013, the European Union General Court upheld the EU ban on the trade in seal products in Europe to the dismay of seal hunters in Canada, Greenland and Norway (case T-526/10).
The EU General Court rejected an appeal lodged by the main Inuit organisation of Canada, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), which wanted annulment of application of the EU seal ban regulation, arguing that the principal objective of the basic regulation is the protection of animal welfare and that such an objective does not fall within the exclusive competence of the EU.
In its ruling, the General Court says that the EU regulation banning the sale of seal products in the EU has a correct legal basis and that the EU legislator ensured that the economic and social interests of Inuit communities carrying out seal-hunting to make a basic living were not damaged. To this end, the regulation includes an exemption to the ban for products made from seals trapped by Inuit and other indigenous groups for the purpose of subsistence.
Canada reacted immediately, slamming the embargo as a political decision not based on any scientific data and issuing a press release saying that the ban is incompatible with the EU's obligations vis-à-vis the World Trade Organisation and Canada would continue to defend Canadian seal-hunting interests globally.
Since 2010, the EU has banned the sale of seal products apart from those sold for non-profit-making purposes and arising from traditional seal-hunting by Inuits. The EU says the hunting methods are cruel, particularly the use of hakapiks, a kind of spiked clubs, on the seals before they are hacked apart. Critics say that many seals are chopped up while still conscious.
Canada and Norway kill tens of thousands of seals every year and say this is not done in a cruel manner. Hostile to EU animal welfare rules, they appealed against the regulation at the WTO in 2009 before the ban came into force. The group of experts that will be deciding on the dispute between Canada and Norway and the EU started organising hearings in February 2013.
Canadian seal-hunters plan to kill 100,000 seals this year, up 40% on 2012. Canadian Fisheries Ministry figures say that the quota of 400,000 seals to be killed this year (and last) compares with a total Greenland seal population of 9 million in the North-West Atlantic. (LC/transl.fl)