NOAA Proposes Tuna-Dolphin Regulations To Comply With WTO Ruling

by Fran Smith on April 10, 2013 · 0 comments

in Environment, International, Legal, Trade

To comply with a World Trade Organization ruling in a tuna-dolphin complaint brought by Mexico, the U.S. proposed new regulations that would tighten the requirements for allowing tuna to be labeled “dolphin safe.”  The proposal was issued for comments by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on April 5. It would revise the Dolphin Protection Consumer Information Act (DPCIA) of 1990, which established a dolphin-safe labeling standard for certain tuna products…… In its proposed rule, NOAA would expand its current requirements  so all tuna products labeled dolphin-safe — not just tuna harvested by large purse seines in the ETP — would be required to have verification statements from captains, and in some cases observers, that “no dolphins were killed or seriously injured” while harvesting the tuna. In addition, there are new storage requirements so tuna caught using gear designated as dolphin-safe has to be stored separately from tuna caught in non-dolphin-safe gear from the time of capture through unloading.

This case is an important one as some countries use non-tariff barriers to protect their domestic industries or to advance environmental goals. (See a 1996 CEI article about the Basel Convention’s impact on international trade.)….To Read More….