U.S. to oppose Japan on lifting whale-trade bans

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http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20021004a6.htm

 

U.S. to oppose Japan on lifting whale-trade bans

 

WASHINGTON (Kyodo) The United States will oppose

Japan's call for lifting bans on the international

trade of minke and Bryde's whales at a global wildlife

conservation meeting in November in Chile, a U.S.

official said Wednesday.

 

The U.S. will support Mexico's position that the bans

should not be lifted before the International Whaling

Commission establishes a new system to assess whale

stocks, the official said.

 

The U.S. government is concerned that lifting the bans

may allow poachers to sell whale meat on the market,

the official said.

 

The Fisheries Agency announced in June that Japan will

call for lifting international bans on commercial

trading in minke whales caught in the Northern

Hemisphere and Bryde's whales caught in the North

Pacific at the November meeting of the signatory

countries to the Washington Treaty.

 

The agency said it does not consider minke and Bryde's

whales to be endangered species and they therefore

should be allowed to be commercially traded under

certain conditions.

 

The Washington Treaty, formally known as the

Convention on International Trade in Endangered

Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, is intended to ensure

that international trade in wild animals and plants

does not threaten their survival.

 

The Japan Times: Oct. 4, 2002

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