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rfmcdonaldI was right when I predicted a firestorm over the European Union's seal ban.
Good.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper flew into a fight over the seal hunt Tuesday night, landing in Prague to launch free-trade negotiations with European leaders just as Canadian lawyers geared up for a legal challenge against an EU seal ban.
The European Parliament voted 550 to 49 for a trade ban on seal products only hours before Mr. Harper's Airbus touched down in Prague, sparking calls for tit-for-tat trade retaliation from angry sealers on Canada's East Coast.
In Prague, Trade Minister Stockwell Day said the ban and the “exciting” prospect of a free-trade deal with the EU are “separate tracks” – but Newfoundland's government seethed that Mr. Harper will be abandoning the province if he does not demand the EU drop the ban before a pact is struck.
“Obviously the seal hunt and perhaps us as Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are not important,” said Fisheries Minister Tom Hedderson. “We joined this country in '49 and we became full Canadians. And we expect our Prime Minister to stand up for us.”
The ban must still be approved by the EU Council, comprised of ministers from the 27 member countries. But Tuesday's vote provided a clear signal that the ban is all but certain to go ahead, despite Canadian arguments that the seals are killed in a humane way. Mr. Day said that if the EU Council does approve the ban, Canada will launch a World Trade Organization challenge “within minutes.”
[. . .]
Trade lawyer Simon Potter, of McCarthy Tétrault, said the EU will have a hard time invoking the animal-protection or ethics clauses in existing trade rules, because the seal hunt doesn't harm its livestock or wildlife, and the EU has its own hunting and animal slaughters.
But that would likely take two or three years.
“By that time, the seal industry will be gone,” said Frank Pinhorn, managing director of the Canadian Sealers Association.
Good.
