Fishing Dispute With Canada Won by U.S.

A joint dispute settlement panel has found that a Canadian rule requiring certain fish to be brought to shore before export to the United States violates the U.S.-Canada free trade pact, U.S. officials said.

Under the Canadian rule, all Pacific salmon and roe herring caught in Canadian waters must be landed in British Columbia before being exported.

The United States charged that this is an effort to protect the Canadian fish-processing industry from U.S. competition.

The panel rejected Canadian arguments that the landing requirement could be justified on conservation grounds and agreed with the United States that it impeded the free flow of unprocessed fish.

The panel was the first mechanism of its type to be set up under the historic trade pact between the two countries that was signed in January.

“We are gratified that the panel has confirmed that Canada’s landing requirement is inconsistent with the FTA (free-trade agreement),” U.S. Trade Representative Carla Anderson Hills said Monday. “We fully expect that Canada will promptly comply with the panel’s ruling.”

Under the free trade pact, the Canada-U.S. Trade Commission has until Nov. 13 to reach a mutually satisfactory solution to the dispute. If no solution is reached by then, the free trade agreement provides that the United States can suspend equivalent benefits to Canada.