Delay sought for leghold trap ban

Date: 16/11/1995

ALL but one of the EU's 15 member states are ready to support a delay in the Union's proposed ban on imports of furs from wild species caught with jaw-type leghold traps.

Only the UK, under considerable pressure from an extremely vocal animal welfare lobby, spoke up in favour of introducing the ban as planned on 1 January 1996 at a meeting of the EU's '113' trade committee last week.

The question is expected to appear on the European Commission's agenda “in the next couple of weeks”, according to a senior official, who suggested the ban might be delayed for a further year to allow progress to be made towards international standards for humane trapping.

“Even the UK would probably favour making the trade ban as flexible as possible. Most member states realise that to go ahead would make us very vulnerable in WTO (World Trade Organisation) terms,” said an official.

EU officials recognise they will almost certainly face a challenge from exporting countries in the WTO if the ban comes in at the start of next year. Exporters claim it is not based on scientific arguments and represents a non-tariff barrier to trade.

Frustrated Canadian officials also claim that the Commission has failed to act on an earlier request from the 113 Committee to delay the ban to give extra time to agree on standards. They argue the EU cannot ban imports of furs caught using leghold traps or “methods not in conformity with international humane trapping standards”, precisely because no such standards have been agreed.

The failure of talks in the International Standards Organisation (ISO) to agree on a common definition of 'humane' has led the EU, Canada, the US and Russia to begin technical discussions on a quadrilateral basis in the hope of by-passing the blockage in the ISO.

Officials stress that work in the group is progressing well, but that further time is needed to agree on common standards. The 1991 regulation was due to come into effect at the beginning of this year, but the deadline was extended for a year in June 1994.

It would ban the use of jaw-type leghold traps in the EU and imports of the pelts of 13 wild species - beaver, otter, coyote, wolf, lynx, bobcat, sable, racoon, muskrat, badger, marten, ermine - trapped in third countries using these or similarly non-humane methods.

Opponents of the ban are aware of the emotional effect which images of animals caught in these traps can have on the public. But they insist they are against cruelty and in favour of proper, internationally-recognised standards for all trapping methods.

“The subtext of a number of non-governmental organisations is that a ban on leghold traps might lead to a ban on the fur trade as a whole,” said an official.

Representatives of Canada's indigenous people in Brussels to lobby against the ban claimed it could force up to 250,000 trappers in the United States and Canada to live off welfare and destroy a traditional way of life.