European Parliament urges Canada to end seal-ban fight

[Praxius]

European Parliament urges Canada to end seal-ban fight - CTV News

OTTAWA — The Canadian government will not withdraw a challenge at the World Trade Organization despite a call from the European Union to abandon the fight over a ban on seal products, an official said Wednesday.

A spokesman for Trade Minister Ed Fast said Canada will pursue its bid to overturn a European Union ban on the importation of seal products.

Adam Taylor made the comments after the European Parliament issued a resolution Wednesday suggesting the challenge be abandoned before the parliament votes on ratifying a trade agreement with Canada.

"These are completely separate issues and we're moving ahead with our WTO challange," he said.

"The trade negotiation with the EU is one issue and our settlement process at the WTO with respect to seal products is a completely separate issue."

A statement on the European Parliament's website said that while members praised progress in the talks, they raised concerns about seal products, the Alberta tar sands and intellectual property rights.

It suggested that talks could stall or be derailed if the issues can't be resolved.

"(Members) voiced their strong hope that Canada would withdraw its WTO challenge before the European Parliament has to vote on ratifying the (trade agreement)," the release stated.

The Humane Society International, which has long opposed Canada's annual seal hunt, praised the move. In a release, it said the European Parliament could reject the free trade deal and jeopardize up to $12 billion in GDP gains by 2014 for Canada.

"Not only will the challenge cost 20 times the landed value of the seal hunt this year, but it is clearly threatening ratification of a trade deal reportedly worth $12 billion annually to our economy," Rebecca Aldworth said in the release.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in the throne speech Friday that he hoped to complete free trade negotiations with the European Union by 2012.

Ottawa launched a formal challenge on Europe's ban on Canadian seal products last February, arguing the EU is breaking certain international trade obligations.

The ban was approved by the European Union's 27 member states in 2009 and imposed last year.

So rather then have their decision on the seal ban challenged and actually face facts & laws, thus finally settled (their seal ban decision was based on emotional appeal & pressure by animal rights groups, not facts) ~ They're now pulling for what I would deem as blackmail to try and force Canada to drop their challenge.

Accept the challenge, get it over with... have a final judgement based on facts, come to a final conclusion on the matter & move on....... but instead, the EU wants to have everything their way and act like Canada is such a horrible place due to the seal hunt, the oil sands & pirating..... as if the EU is so benevolent & don't have their own list of problems.

 

[captain morgan]

Accept the challenge, get it over with... have a final judgement based on facts, come to a final conclusion on the matter & move on....... but instead, the EU wants to have everything their way and act like Canada is such a horrible place due to the seal hunt, the oil sands & pirating..... as if the EU is so benevolent & don't have their own list of problems.

This is a complex issue and cannot be dealt with in a cavalier manner in any way shape or form.

What is really needed right now is for the EU and the animal rights lobbies to sit down, relax and get their thoughts together on this... Maybe they could spend an afternoon taking in the bull fights in Spain or a pleasant afternoon of watching a fox having the hounds set upon them.

Once they have this clarity, they can make an informed and intelligent decision.

 

[Praxius]

This is a complex issue and cannot be dealt with in a cavalier manner in any way shape or form.

What is really needed right now is for the EU and the animal rights lobbies to sit down, relax and get their thoughts together on this... Maybe they could spend an afternoon taking in the bull fights in Spain or a pleasant afternoon of watching a fox having the hounds set upon them.

Once they have this clarity, they can make an informed and intelligent decision.

They could also stop and reflect on their actions in the late 80's & the 90's when they sent their fishing vessels into Canadian waters or just outside of them to fish our stocks because they wiped their own out due to poor regulations.

Canada Fires Warning Shots; Seizes Spanish Fishing Boat
Friday, March 10, 1995
Canada Fires Warning Shots; Seizes Spanish Fishing Boat - The Tech

..... Canada, one of the more aggressive nations in asserting its fishing rights, fears turbot will go the way of the cod, a fish that formerly sustained much of Canada's east coast fishing industry but has been all but wiped out by overfishing. The EU's catches of turbot in the Atlantic off Canada have risen more than tenfold in the past 10 years......

The Northern Cod Crisis
The northern cod crisis (BP-313E)

European catches of Canadian-managed northern cod, despite a NAFO moratorium on fishing outside Canada’s 200-mile zone since 1986, have contributed to the problems with the stock. In sum, the EC has argued that, as a sovereign body, it is entitled to fish in international waters in accordance with the Law of the Sea Convention; that a moratorium for northern cod (3L) could not be justified since a fishery on the same stock is being conducted inside the Canadian zone; and that Community vessels have fished in the area for hundreds of years.

And yet, we're the ones who don't know how to manage or protect species, and it's all our fault that our stocks have gone almost extinct.

We're the bad guys..... the EU isn't.

 

[captain morgan]

They could also stop and reflect on their actions in the late 80's & the 90's when they sent their fishing vessels into Canadian waters or just outside of them to fish our stocks because they wiped their own out due to poor regulations.

C'mon Praxius, everyone knows that gvt and lobby groups can't think straight on an empty stomach and as we can surmise, they must be doing a lot of thinking having transformed the Mediterranean and Black Seas into barren wastelands.

 

[YukonJack]

Of course, we know that the European Parliament WILL step up and support the people of Newfoundland, financially and economically.

After all, they did such a fine job doing it in Greece, Portugal and Ireland.

 

[petros]

When these morons ban sythetic fabrics and they are naked and frostbitten, I'll smile n' wave wearing my red fox ushanka ,rabbit fur lined deer leather mitts, leather coat, boots and wool scarf.

 

[Praxius]

When these morons ban sythetic fabrics and they are naked and frostbitten, I'll smile n' wave wearing my red fox ushanka ,rabbit fur lined deer leather mitts, leather coat, boots and wool scarf.

Don't forget your seal skin underwear, you sleeping bag made out of 32 wolves & 48 coyotes' ears, and your tweety bird socks.

OMG!They kill cute tweety birds for socks! THEY'RE BARBARIANS!!!

That's right.... don't turn your back on a Canadian.... they'll make you into a full body PJ with the arse flaps held on by two buttons.

Would you do me, eh?

IT PUTS THE LOTION ON ITS SKIN OR IT GETS CALLED A HOSER AGAIN! :twisted:

 

[petros]

put the seal in the basket!

p.s. my "sleeping bag" is made from a cinnamon bear skin...Itchy but it beats the hell out of anything else. Even tweety bird down.

 

[Praxius]

no! We're not coming out of this oil well with your seal until i fk'n hear from greenpeace and you stop drilling in the arctic with your clubs, you evil ..... uh.... BARBARIANS!!!

*Hiissss*

 

[Colpy]

The European Parliament can kiss my furry arse.

 

[YukonJack]

Don't forget your seal skin underwear, you sleeping bag made out of 32 wolves & 48 coyotes' ears, and your tweety bird socks.

OMG!They kill cute tweety birds for socks! THEY'RE BARBARIANS!!!

That's right.... don't turn your back on a Canadian.... they'll make you into a full body PJ with the arse flaps held on by two buttons.

Would you do me, eh?

IT PUTS THE LOTION ON ITS SKIN OR IT GETS CALLED A HOSER AGAIN! :twisted:

Isn't the Second Commandment of Socialists/Communists/Marxists that it is the survival of the fittest? I realize that in most of their cases, it is the FATTEST, having gotten fat, being free-loaders on taxpayers' money.

 

[taxslave]

And we will end the fight. Just as soon as the ban is lifted. In the meantime don't buy any European cars or wine.

The question remains: Why do the EU feel that a ban is required if they don't want to buy seal skins anyway.

 

[Tonington]

I imagine if it comes down to it, a free trade deal or avoiding an EU ban on seal imports, Ottawa will go with the former. A free trade deal dwarfs the size of the value of our seal product exports, and half of the seal license holders favour a buy-out of the existing licenses from Ottawa anyways.

 

[Sparrow]

Maybe the EU should look in the mirror, they came over here and wiped out the Bison herds. I call it the kettle calling the pot black.

 

[cranky]

someone should cut tne telegraph cable that spans the atlantic. I have about had it with the EU tyrants

 

[earth_as_one]

Canadian Seal Harvest – Myths and Realities
Canadian Seal Harvest – Myths and Realities

 

[Icarus27k]

Wait.

There are seals?

 

[Tonington]

Yes, about 5 million harp seals.

 

[Praxius]

And we will end the fight. Just as soon as the ban is lifted. In the meantime don't buy any European cars or wine.

The question remains: Why do the EU feel that a ban is required if they don't want to buy seal skins anyway.

It's a two-faced payback from our exposure of their doings in the 90's noted above..... two-faced because of the friendly public gestures of opening trade & market between Canada & the EU more, while at the same time trying to pay us back by trying to make something out of nothing in order to make us sound like we're as evil & sadist as anything by killing cute, useless, over-populating animals in order to maintain the same fishing population we used to have before they started wiping it out themselves.

Outside of their waters, thus out of their restrictions on how many they can suck out of our regulated waters.... which they don't have to abide to either because our regulations are not their concern.

Well, until we took a war ship after one of their fishing boats, it wasn't their concern.

Believe it or not... but many nations can get real petty & childish at times.

I imagine if it comes down to it, a free trade deal or avoiding an EU ban on seal imports, Ottawa will go with the former. A free trade deal dwarfs the size of the value of our seal product exports, and half of the seal license holders favour a buy-out of the existing licenses from Ottawa anyways.

If that was actually true in the larger picture, they would have done it by now.

The problem lies in cutting the jobs many people in remote areas of the nation depend on. I know how much a regular commercial fishing license is. They're a pretty penny. But it only goes so far for so long..... they will then be dependent for something else. If the government can't find sustainable jobs for them besides call centres, they're going to be dependent on the government and the tax payers.

How much profit will cover that & for how long?

If their arguments against the seal hunt were logical & factual, I could try and see opening an official debate on the subject & settling the whole thing out in the open to make a solution that is acceptable by all.... not through blackmail & propaganda to avoid the reality.

 

[cranky]

It's a two-faced payback from our exposure of their doings in the 90's noted above..... two-faced because of the friendly public gestures of opening trade & market between Canada & the EU more, while at the same time trying to pay us back by trying to make something out of nothing in order to make us sound like we're as evil & sadist as anything by killing cute, useless, over-populating animals in order to maintain the same fishing population we used to have before they started wiping it out themselves.

Outside of their waters, thus out of their restrictions on how many they can suck out of our regulated waters.... which they don't have to abide to either because our regulations are not their concern.

Well, until we took a war ship after one of their fishing boats, it wasn't their concern.

Believe it or not... but many nations can get real petty & childish at times.



If that was actually true in the larger picture, they would have done it by now.

The problem lies in cutting the jobs many people in remote areas of the nation depend on. I know how much a regular commercial fishing license is. They're a pretty penny. But it only goes so far for so long..... they will then be dependent for something else. If the government can't find sustainable jobs for them besides call centres, they're going to be dependent on the government and the tax payers.

How much profit will cover that & for how long?

If their arguments against the seal hunt were logical & factual, I could try and see opening an official debate on the subject & settling the whole thing out in the open to make a solution that is acceptable by all.... not through blackmail & propaganda to avoid the reality.

I have two problems with that. The government will never be able to find a better job than they can if they performed an independant search. and, aren't they willing to move where the work is? that is what the rest of us do.