Brussels, 10/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - On 29 January, following on from appeals from Canada and Norway, the EU appealed against the WTO's verdict regarding the European embargo on seal products.
The WTO settlement body - set up at the request of Canada and Norway to rule on their complaint against the ban on importing and trading in seal products in the EU (DS 400 and DS 401) - ruled on 25 November that this embargo contravenes fair trade, but that it could be justified due to public ethical concerns about animal welfare. The settlement body nevertheless concluded that the exemption for seal hunting practised by indigenous communities was designed and applied in a discriminatory way as the Canadian Inuits benefitted from it de facto. The EU's appeal aims to improve the parts of the report that the European Commission believes to be unsatisfactory - particularly the parts regarding the exemption for hunting practised by indigenous communities.
The EU's ban, adopted in 2010, is grounded on the inhumane and cruel nature of seal slaughter. The text challenged by Ottawa and Oslo is Regulation 1007/2009/EC, which since August 2010 has laid down a total ban on importing and trading in seal products - with the single exemption of trading goods from traditional hunting practised by indigenous communities for subsistence purposes. (EH/transl.fl)