OTTAWA - The federal government has launched a formal challenge to Europe's ban on Canadian seal products.
Fisheries Minister Gail Shea says the government has filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization over the ban, approved by the European Union's 27 member states in 2009 and imposed last year.
Ottawa has asked the WTO to establish a dispute settlement panel that would consider whether the ban complies with WTO rules.
Government officials have said it could take more than three years for the WTO to act and the EU to respond, even if Canada succeeds in persuading a panel that the ban breaks the rules.
Canada exported about $5.5 million worth of seal products to the EU in 2006 when the price of pelts peaked at over $100, but the market has been cut by more than half in recent years.
There are about 6,000 licensed seal hunters on the East Coast, but only a few hundred took part in the 2009 hunt.
About 67,000 seals were taken -- most of them harp seals off Newfoundland -- even though the catch limit was about 350,000.
The Newfoundland government says the industry injected about $24 million into the provincial economy in 2008.
The harp seal population has been estimated at 6.9 million -- more than triple what it was in the 1970s.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has denounced the EU ban, calling the legislation a "disgrace" because it is based on "no rational facts."
"This is flagrant discrimination against the Canadian seal industry, against Canadian sealers ... people who are doing animal husbandry, no differently than many other industries," he said last year.
"We strongly object to the decision. We will continue to defend our sealers."
Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, whose cabinet responsibilities include the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon, says an EU exemption for seal products taken by indigenous communities is useless.
"The European Union's exemption for trade in traditional Inuit and aboriginal seal products is not effective, particularly in the face of a larger market collapse," said Aglukkaq. "Our government is taking this case to the World Trade Organization to protect the right of Inuit people to sell products from their traditional, sustainable seal hunt."
Last month, China agreed to import Canadian seal meat and oil in a deal the federal government hopes will create new markets for the embattled industry.
