§ Mr. MorleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) whether his officials will vote in favour of the implementation of the EC import ban on furs from countries which continue to use the leghold trap or which do not have internationally agreed humane trapping standards from 1 January 1995;
(2) what action his officials are taking to support EC regulation No. 3254 against the Canadian Government's claims that the regulation is illegal under the GATT.
§ Mr. AtkinsThe Government strongly support EC measures to end the use of leghold traps, laid down in regulation (3254/91) adopted by the Council of Ministers on 4 November 1991. The ban on the import of furs from countries which still use leghold traps is due to take effect on 1 January 1995. However, the regulation allows a one-year suspension of the ban for countries which have made sufficient progress towards developing alternative, humane methods of trapping. The United Kingdom supported steps by the European Commission to identify which countries had made such progress through a questionnaire. However, the Commission subsequently proposed to the management committee of officials that a one-year suspension of the ban should be offered to all countries, irrespective of the progress they had made. The United Kingdom abstained on this proposal, with the support of one other country, and made it clear that we believed that a blanket exemption exceeded the power granted to the Commission and the committee of officials by regulation 3254/91. However, the Commission's proposal was adopted by qualified majority. The United Kingdom will continue to support the objectives of the regulation.
At a preliminary GATT hearing earlier this year, the European Commission made clear its view that regulation 3254/91 was required to implement the Community's obligations under the Berne convention on the conservation of European wildlife.