Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 3 • Number 18 • 16th October 2003
US - ICELAND: TRADE SANCTIONS FOR WHALING?
US - ICELAND: TRADE SANCTIONS FOR WHALING?
In order to assess whether to impose trade sanctions against Icelandic fish exports, the US Commerce Department is currently reviewing Iceland’s whaling practices under the Pelly amendment of the US Fishermen’s Protection Act from 1962. The Pelly amendment allows the US to impose sanctions on nations whose action diminish the effectiveness of an international conservation programme. In this case the Commerce Department is considering whether Iceland’s whaling practices diminish the effectiveness of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling under which a moratorium on commercial whaling was endorsed in 1986 that however, allows for whaling for scientific purposes (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 30 June 2003). This year Iceland has hunted 38 minke whales under its scientific research programme. The Icelandic government believes that if the US imposed trade sanctions against Iceland’s fish exports, they would be in violation of WTO trade rules. The US government, if applying trading sanctions, might do so with reference to Article XX of the GATT Agreement, which allows countries to take measures to protect human, animal or plant life or health. Approximately two-thirds of Iceland’s exports are derived from marine resources. The US in 2002 bought nearly 12.7 percent of the total exports. Iceland is therefore worried that potential trade sanctions could hurt both the domestic industry, its economy and could harm the international perception of Iceland. Environmental groups such as Greenpeace International and WWF welcomed the US initiative, hoping that in the future the Pelly amendment would prevent Iceland from using the "opportunity to exploit an unintended loophole" of the IWC Agreement referring to scientific whaling.
Although the US has previously reviewed trade sanctions under the Pelly agreement, the last time trade sanctions were actually imposed on a foreign government was in 1994 when Taiwan was found to hinder the effectiveness of the International Convention on Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES). The Commerce Department is expected to come to a decision within the next two weeks.
"Iceland urges US to halt Wahling Review that could lead to Sanctions," Inside US Trade, 10 October 2003; "Iceland Finishes First Scientific Whaling Season," High North Alliance, 7 October 2003.