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Beijing, May 6 (Xinhua) According to the "Central News Agency" report, the European Parliament recently passed a ban on the import of seal products, and the Canadian government threatened to protest to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The ban on the import of seal products passed by the European Parliament means that Canada’s annual hunting of seals will be forced to stop. Canada kills the most seals in the world.
The European Parliament believes that hunting seals for commercial interests is extremely inhuman. The ban will include all products made of seals, including seal skin, meat and seal oil. Seal skin can be used to make fur coats, and seal oil is the main raw material of Omega 3 tablets.
The ban passed by the European Parliament still allows Inuit in Canada, Greenlanders in Denmark and other ethnic groups to carry out traditional hunting of seals, but prohibits European countries from trading large quantities of seal products with these areas.
The ban of the European Parliament also allows non-commercial hunting to control the number of seals. However, the seal products produced by this kind of behavior are still prohibited from being imported into Europe.
The European Parliament’s ban on the import of seal products is the most harmful to Canada, so Canada’s response is also the most intense.
Canada’s Minister of International Trade, Stockwell Day, issued a statement pointing out that Canada’s hunting of seals is extremely humane and takes into account the sustainable existence of seals. In his statement, he said that if the EU does not exempt Canadian seal products, Canada will protest to the World Trade Organization.
He pointed out that the EU ban will deal a fatal blow to remote communities in Canada that depend on hunting seals for their livelihood. He said that 25% to 35% of the annual income of these communities comes from commodities made after hunting seals.
Canada is the country that hunts the most seals in the world, and the eastern coastal province hunts an average of 300,000 seals every year. In 2006, the export amount of Canadian seal products to the European Union was as high as 55 million Canadian dollars.
Editor: Tang Liang