Proposed Tuna Trade Ban Rejected at Key Int'l Meeting

Doha, March 18 (Jiji Press)--A Monaco-proposed ban on international commercial trade in Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna was rejected Thursday at a key panel meeting of an ongoing conference among signatory nations to a treaty for protecting endangered wildlife.

In the voting at the panel of the conference of the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES),
also known as the Washington Convention, 68 countries opposed the proposed
ban while only 20 nations supported it. Meanwhile 30 countries abstained
from voting.
The number of affirmative votes fell far short of two-thirds of all
votes cast, a threshold for the proposal to be adopted by the panel.
Japan, a major tuna-fishing country, was relieved to see the result
as its diplomatic efforts to avert the tuna trade ban have proved
successful. Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna accounts for about half
of all bluefin tuna the country consumes.
The proposed ban, backed by the United States and the European
Union, has been a focus at the CITES conference that opened in this Qatari
capital Saturday.
Japan is set to continue active campaigning against the proposed
bluefin tuna trade ban toward the conference's two-day plenary meeting from
Thursday, where a final decision is made on the fate of the proposal.