Date: Tue, 19 Dec 1995
U.S. Commerce Chief Targets Japan for Whale Kills

WASHINGTON, Dec 19 (Reuter) - The U.S. Commerce Department has accused Japan of undermining an international whale conservation treaty and one official said on Tuesday this could prompt Washington to impose trade sanctions. Commerce Secretary Ronald Brown, in a letter to President Bill Clinton last week, said Japan was weakening efforts to save whales by killing them for research in a sanctuary in the Antarctic Ocean.
"Japanese nationals are engaged in scientific whaling activities that diminish the effectiveness of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) conservation programme," Brown said in a December 11 letter, required under the Fisherman's Protective Act.

Clinton "is now authorised to impose trade measures on Japan, although he is not obligated to do so," said Scott Smullen, spokesman for the Commerce Department's National Marine Fisheries Service. There is no deadline for the president to decide on trade action, but he has until Feb. 9 to inform Congress of any measures he has taken to respond to the secretary's notice.

This was the second time the United States had targeted Japan for research whaling. Action in 1988 led to a ban on Japanese fishing in U.S. waters. Brown said Japan had increased its catch of minke whales in the North Pacific this year and expanded hunts into the southern ocean whale sanctuary.

In talks with the United States, Japan said it did not intend to increase its minke whale kills in the Antarctic waters over the next seven years. But Brown said he decided to certify Japan as a threat to whale conservation because it had failed to promise to cut back whaling elsewhere or limit its hunt to minke whales.
"(Japan) has made no commitments, however, regarding scientific whaling in the North Pacific or regarding the possibility of lethal research in any location involving another species of whale," his letter said.

The International Whaling Commission last year condemned Japan's whale hunts. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which released Brown's letter, urged Clinton to impose trade sanctions on Japan.
"We certainly are going to push for sanctions on Japanese fisheries products that we import," WWF international policy director Ginette Hemley said. Hemley said the president could choose whatever sanctions he wanted, but they would probably target the Japanese fishing industry if they were imposed.

The wildlife advocacy group said Japan sold whale meat from the hunts to restaurants. The WWF said Japanese vessels set off last month to kill up to 440 minke whales, up more than 100 from last year's hunt.


Japan defends whale hunts under U.S. attack

WASHINGTON, Dec 20 (Reuter) - Japan has not violated an international whale-protection treaty, a Japanese official said on Wednesday, defending the country's whale hunts for research against a protest by the U.S. government.

Research whaling "is perfectly legal under the IWC (International Whaling Commission) convention," said Joji Morishita, first secretary for fisheries at the Japanese embassy. "We already expressed great regret to the U.S. government because both our North Pacific and Antarctic research are appreciated by the scientific committee of the IWC," Morishita told Reuters.
"Legally speaking, the IWC states that each country has a right to issue scientific permits," he said, calling the U.S. view that Japan was weakening whale conservation efforts "a subjective assessment of the situation."

According to Morishita, Japan increased its hunt for minke whales in the Antarctic this year by 100 to around 400 in response to criticism from the IWC's science panel last year that its research programme was inadequate. However, Kevin Chu, foreign affairs officer for the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service, said Japan's justification for stepping up whale hunts was "not correct."

The research that came under criticism involved tracking whale population stocks and would require "a huge sample size" of much more than 400 whales, Chu said.
"The extra 100 whales they're taking in southern ocean is not for the same research purpose," he said.

NMFS officials declined to predict what action the White House might take. No talks have been scheduled between Japanese and American officials since the letter was issued.
"We hope that they will not go one step further and impose sanctions," Morishita said.

Environmental groups have long protested Japan's whaling and say the government is making money selling whale meat to expensive restaurants. Morishita defended the whale meat sales, saying that "we are just following the IWC convention" which requires that byproducts of research not be wasted. The meat sales do not cover the cost of the research, which runs into tens of millions of dollars, he said.



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