Canada contests EU seal ban at WTO

Canada is taking its seal-products dispute with the European Union to the World Trade Organization.

Trade Minister Stockwell Day says Ottawa has formally requested WTO consultations into Europe's ban on Canadian seal products, the first stage of the world body's dispute-settlement process.

Day says the regulation, adopted by 27 European countries earlier this year, is a violation of the EU's trade obligations.

Canada is arguing thatthe seal hunt is "a legitimate economic pursuit" and the EU ban is based "neither on science nor on facts."

The ban, published as a regulation in the Official Journal of the European Union, is to come into force next August.

Fisheries Minister Gail Shea says Canada has made a case at all levels of the EU that the seal hunt is sustainable, humane and closely monitored, and it will continue to counter what she calls a "misinformation campaign" by lobbyists.

The EU regulation includes limited exemptions for products from Inuit hunts, culls conducted solely to manage marine resources, and for travellers' personal imports.

Canada's latest request for consultations is linked to unresolved consultationswith the WTO over seal-product bans in Belgium and the Netherlands.