Canada and China: Sealing the Deal
WHEN the Canadian government announced a year ago that China had agreed to open its market to Canadian seal products, participants in the beleaguered industry thought it would be their salvation. The United States had long since banned such imports, the European Union did so in 2010 and there were rumours, since confirmed, that Russia would follow suit. As Denis Longuépée of the Magdalen Islands Sealers’ Association put it at the time: “The population is so high in China that if everybody buys some pelt or product from seal, we won’t have to trade anymore with Europe.”
Yet despite Canada’s fanfare in announcing the agreement, as well as some prodding from the country’s fishing minister during a visit to Beijing in November, the deal has yet to come into effect. It is unclear whether protests by animal rights groups in China, which began as soon as the pact was announced in January 2011, persuaded Chinese authorities to delay implementation, or whether they had other reasons for conducting what has been described as a technical review. Regardless, on February 6th Stephen Harper, Canada’s Conservative prime minister, headed to China, where he will try again to get exports started. “Our government will continue to vigorously defend this humane and highly regulated industry and seek new international markets for Canadian seal products, including China,” he said on the eve of his departure.
The sealing industry, a target of animal-welfare groups for decades, is in decline, with 37,000 harp seals killed last year, down from 67,000 the previous year and almost 75,000 in 2009. (A small number of grey and hooded seals are also killed each year.) Although clubbing the white-coated pups of harp seals has been illegal since 1987, the industry has not been able to counter negative publicity from advocacy groups, or persuade foreign governments that they way adult seals are killed is humane or sustainable. Everyone from Brigitte Bardot (when she was in her prime) to Sir Paul McCartney has had a go at the sealers.