Fantastic news!!--EU NATIONS AGREE TO BAN SEAL PRODUCTS!!!

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* EU nations agree ban on seal products

* Ban would lead to trade clash with Norway and Canada

* Final approvals seen as a formality

 

By Pete Harrison

BRUSSELS, April 24 (Reuters) - European ambassadors approved

a European Union plan to ban imports of furs and other products

from culled seals on Friday, moving the 27-nation bloc one step

closer to a trade clash with Norway and Canada.

Both seal-hunting nations have warned the EU in recent weeks

that they could challenge the EU ban at the World Trade

Organisation, the global trade watchdog, if it takes shape as

currently foreseen.

"Nothing should now stand in the way of this ban being

adopted," said an official from the EU's Czech presidency, which

brokered a deal this week that will exclude hunts by Inuits.

"It needs to go before the European Parliament in May, but

that should be a formality because parliament negotiators have

already agreed to it informally," the official added.

Canada, Greenland and Namibia account for around 60 percent

of the 900,000 seals hunted each year. The rest are killed in

Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Britain and the United States.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere wrote to EU

trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton this month arguing that the

ban broke the principle of free trade and set a dangerous

precedent on the harvesting of renewable resources.

An official said the Commission believed the plan was

"legally sound".

The 15 seal species now hunted are not endangered but

European politicians demanded action after finding what they

said was evidence that many are skinned while still conscious.

The animals are usually first shot or bludgeoned over the

head with a spiked club known as a hakapik.

Russia banned the hunting of baby harp seals last month, and

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called it a "bloody industry".

A European Food Safety Authority report last year

highlighted various causes of unnecessary suffering, such as

trapping seals underwater where they drown.

It recommended that seals first be shot or clubbed and then

monitored to check they are dead before being bled and skinned,

to ensure they never regain consciousness during the process.

(Editing by Louise Ireland)