§ Q65. Dr. Godmanasked the Prime Minister if Her Majesty's Government have had any recent discussions with other countries over implementation of the International Whaling Commission's declarations on commercial whaling.
§ The Prime MinisterAt the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) annual meeting, held in Malmo, Sweden from 9 to 13 June this year, the United Kingdom commissioner participated in discussion of matters associated with the implementation of the IWC's decision, taken in 1982, for a moratorium on commercial whaling with effect from the 1985–86 seasons. Three countries, Japan, Norway and the USSR, currently maintain formal objection to this decision under the terms of the convention which governs the IWC, but each has now indicated that it will move towards a cessation of commercial whaling. Japan has formally notified the IWC that it will conditionally withdraw its objection so that all its commercial whaling will cease by April 1988; Norway has announced its intentions to phase out commercial operations by 1988 and the USSR stated last year that it plans to cease Antarctic whaling in 1987.