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Marketing of Seal Products Canada vs. EU Case - DS400

Marketing of Seal Products Canada vs. EU Case - DS400. Brad Gessell, Brian Cook, Dan Allen, Josh McDonald, Justin Anderson, Sean Sullivan. What is the problem?. European Union has banned seal products EU claims inhumane harvest Sealing is well managed and humane

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Marketing of Seal Products Canada vs. EU Case - DS400

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  1. Marketing of Seal ProductsCanada vs. EUCase - DS400 Brad Gessell, Brian Cook, Dan Allen, Josh McDonald, Justin Anderson, Sean Sullivan

  2. What is the problem? • European Union has banned seal products • EU claims inhumane harvest • Sealing is well managed and humane • The seal industry is sustainable • Premature ban hurts Canada’s industry • EU ban violates WTO regulations

  3. Presentation Overview History and facts Realities behind EU arguments EU practices Impact on Canadian culture and industries WTO violations Summary and solutions

  4. ECONOMIC HISTORY Canada has a population of 6.9 million harp seals 2010 TAC (total allowable catch) is 330,000 seals 5,000-6,000 individuals derive income from sealing Sealers state their income from sealing can represent 25-35 percent of their total annual income In 2006, the seal harvest generated $33 million (Statistics gathered from the DFO)

  5. Canadian Trade Minister “We’re moving ahead with an appeal. We’ll go to the WTO because it’s clear in WTO regulations that if one country wants to ban the products of another, it has to have clear scientific, medically acceptable reasons for doing so, and this EU ban is not based on hard science.” Stockwell Day

  6. Arguments of the EU The EU contests that the seal hunt is an “inherently inhumane and barbaric” practice The hunts are hurting and diminishing seal populations Contingencies within the ban will allow culling and maintaining seal populations to reasonable numbers Europeans simply refuse to purchase seal products

  7. The Reality Seal hunt inhumane? • EU ban is based primarily on cruelty to animals, and their arguments are based largely on emotion, speculation, and bias rather than scientific evidence • Techniques which Canada closely regulates and uses are no less inhumane than most common slaughter house methods • Electricity, percussion, asphyxiation, shooting, and severing blood vessels to cause hemorrhaging • If seal hunting is inhumane then so is fishing and slaughtering cows, pigs, chickens, and sheep

  8. The Reality Hunts devastating seal populations? Population isthe largest it has ever been in Canada Current seal population estimated at 6.9 million, a population that has tripled in size since the 1970’s after government regulation took effect Seal hunt is closely monitored by government, and the practice is an economically sustainable activity

  9. The Reality Contingencies within ban allow for culling of herds but for non-commercial reasons? Overpopulation stresses seal herds which will still need to be culled. Creates a burden on Canadian government and taxpayers Seals will still be culled and hunted but can’t be sold commercially within the EU which leads to a waste of resources, as products that can’t be sold will simply be burned or left to rot Growing seal populations negatively impact fish populations through consumption and the spread of “cod worm”

  10. The Reality Europeans don’t want seal products? Supply and demand should dictate the seal trade. Before the ban, one-third of the world’s trade in seal products passed through EU countries The loss of trade will cost both countries The seal ban is nothing more than selective discrimination seeded by biased media and activist groups

  11. Discrimination “Sentient beings that can experience pain, distress [and] fear.”

  12. STEAK AND SAUSAGE Why is it okay to kill cute cows & harmless pigs? Because they taste so good!

  13. Inuit hunters hurt by EU ban “A lot of sealers are losing their livelihoods, it's taken a lot away from me,” said Inuit sealer Roger Flowers. Flowers invited those who think the seal hunt is cruel to join him in a hunt, “If they wanted to know more, some of them should come up and go seal hunting with me.They'd really see what's going on.”

  14. Challenging Tradition “. . .we must contend with animal rights extremists who fundamentally do not respect our way of life, and who use disinformation to further their cause at our expense.” -AqqalukLynge, President of the Inuit Circumpolar Council

  15. Inuit leaders take stand against EU "Inuit have been hunting seals and sustaining themselves for food, clothing, and trade for many generations. No objective and fair minded person can conclude that seals are under genuine conservation threat or that Inuit hunting activities are less humane than those practiced by hunting communities all over the world, including hunters in Europe. It is bitterly ironic that the EU, which seems entirely at home with promoting massive levels of agri-business and the raising and slaughtering of animals in highly industrialized conditions, seeks to preach some kind of selective elevated morality to Inuit. At best this is cultural bias, although it could be described in even harsher terms.It should also be more than a little disturbing to all the citizens of the EU that, despite advance warning by their own lawyers, its EU lawmakers registered no inhibitions about adopting laws that are legally defective.” -Mary Simon, National Inuit Leader Mary Simon

  16. Article 2.1 of TBT Agreement “Members shall ensure that in respect of technical regulations, products imported from the territory of any Member shall be accorded treatment no less favorablethan that accorded to like products of national origin and to like products originating in any other country.”

  17. Article XI:1 of the GATT “No prohibitions or restrictionsother than duties, taxes, or other charges, whether made effective through quotas, import or export licenses or other measures, shall be instituted or maintained by any contracting party on the importation of any product of the territory of any other contracting partyor on the exportation or sale for export of any product destined for the territory of any other contracting party.”

  18. Summary and Solutions • EU has no basis for seal product ban • Greater efforts for compromise should have been taken before imposing ban • Canada has complied with past requests through the Marine Mammal Regulations • EU should negotiate humane sealing regulations • Lift ban once Canada complies with EU seal harvest regulations

  19. References • http://www.itk.ca/media-centre/media-releases/inuit-sue-european-union-eu-overturn-seal-product-import-ban-defending-i • http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2009/06/22/inuit-seal-labrador-622.html • http://www.fisherycrisis.com/seals/sealsncod.htm • http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23577468/ • http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/seal-phoque/myth-eng.htm • http://euobserver.com/9/29803 • http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/05/eu-bans-seal-imports-take_n_196637.html • http://www.cbc.ca/money/moneytalks/2009/05/michael-hlinka-eu-ban-on-seal-products-outrageous.html • REGULATION (EC) No 1007/2009 of the European Parliament • http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/index-eng.htm • http://ictsd.org/i/news/biores/46659/ • http://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/17-tbt_e.htm • http://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/gatt47_01_e.htm

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