EU seal products ban exempts Inuit

The European Parliament resoundingly passed a bill banning the sale of all but Inuit communities’ seal products in a 550-49 vote on May 5.

An earlier draft of the European bill would have allowed exemptions for countries that could certify their hunting methods as humane, but this exemption was struck from the legislation.

Conservative Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said earlier the Canadian government would not discuss the seal-hunting issue at Canada-EU free-trade negotiations in Prague.