GENEVA - Canada has brought a complaint to the World Trade Organization over Belgian and Dutch rules prohibiting the sale of seal products, trade officials said Wednesday.
Canada's annual seal hunt has long been condemned by animal rights activists as cruel, and it is facing a number of possible bans on seal products in several European countries.
No immediate comment was available from Canadian officials. However, the European Union is "naturally disappointed by this move," the office of EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said in a statement.
The statement said the EU would defend its member states before the WTO, while continuing to study whether a EU-wide ban on seal products is justified.
Belgium adopted its national ban in March, but left an exception for seals harvested in the traditional manner by Inuit hunters. The Netherlands has a proposal before its parliament which will likely be adopted soon.
Austria, Britain, France and Germany are all considering laws or would support European-wide legislation.
International Trade Minister David Emerson and three other senior Canadian officials announced two months ago that Ottawa would seek formal consultations over Belgium's ban on importing and marketing seal products, which Emerson called a "violation of Belgium's international trade obligations under the WTO."
Then-foreign affairs minister Peter MacKay, who now has the defence portfolio, said in July that it was regrettable that Canada needed to bring its complaint to the global commerce body.
"But Canada's government will fight bans of this kind on all fronts - people's livelihoods are at stake," he said.
The Executive Commission of the 27-country European Union rejected appeals earlier this year for an EU-wide ban on the import of seal fur products aimed at forcing the closure of Canada's annual hunt.
The EU head office said a 1983 EU law which imposes limited bans on the import of fur taken from seal pups "provides adequate response" to concerns presented by the European Parliament.
The European Commission said the population of seals in Canada's Arctic and Atlantic regions "has grown significantly" in the last three decades from just under two million to around six million harp seals alone, and that seals are not listed as an endangered species.
EU rules impose a ban on seal products derived from newborn harp seals less than 12 days old and on hooded seals less than one year old. But environmental and animal rights groups complain the rules allow hunters to go after the pups once they reach an age just over the ban limit.
Canada says the biggest market for its seal products is Norway, which is not a member of the EU.
However, moves by several European countries to introduce national bans caused widespread anger among industry and trade officials in Canada.
Canada defends the hunt as vital to the survival of people in a region desperate for jobs and growth.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare, which has been active in pushing for an EU-wide ban, criticized Ottawa's move to go before the WTO.
"We are surprised that the Canadian government has filed a trade complaint against two EU members which have no significant trade in these products with Canada," the group said
"These bans reflect the opinion of a large majority of the citizens not only in the two countries which adopted this legislation, but in the whole EU."
