Canada squeals to the WTO over EU’s seal ban

Canada has made a formal request for World Trade Organization (WTO) to review the European Union’s ban on importation of seal products, Ottawa’s Trade Minister Stockwell Day said, beginning the process of resolution of a trade dispute that has bitterly split both sides. The EU has enacted a ban on seal products that takes effect in August 2010. The Canadian government requested WTO Organization consultations. “The EU has adopted a regulation that bans the sale of Canadian seal products. We believe that this is a violation of the EU’s trade obligations,” Day said in a statement issued jointly with Fisheries and Oceans Minister Gail Shea and Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl. Day said the seal hunt is a “legitimate economic pursuit” and the ban is “based neither on science nor on facts.”