Europe Nearer to Dolphin-Safe Tuna : * Environment: The European Parliament seeks to stop Italy’s importation of ‘dirty tuna’ caught by the Mexican fishing fleet.

U.S. environmentalists Friday celebrated approval by the European Parliament of a report recommending a ban on tuna caught in dolphin-endangering ways. The practical effect would be to stop Italy’s importation of what European environmentalists call “dirty tuna,” primarily caught by the Mexican fishing fleet.

The recommendation is part of an international battle between free-trade advocates and environmentalists. In this case, environmentalists want to close Europe--roughly 40% of the world’s market for canned tuna--to fish caught by giant purse-seine nets, which drown thousands of dolphins swimming above tuna in the Pacific Ocean.

“It’s a victory,” said Laura Chapin, spokeswoman for the Humane Society of the United States, especially in light of a recent decision by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the international trade organization, that dealt a setback to the dolphin-saving effort.

But one European commissioner--a member of the next European Community body that must consider the ban--expressed skepticism about it becoming law.

“These measures would be discriminatory and ineffective” because they impose an unfair trade barrier, said Commissioner Jean Dondelinger, maintaining that he spoke for his colleagues. Other EC officials, however, said reports such as the one recommending the ban often reflect a broad political consensus.

Major U.S. tuna packers voluntarily ceased buying dolphin-threatening tuna in 1990, and the United States added a formal ban last February, cutting off 50% of the world canned-tuna market to the Mexican fleet. Many Europeans were angered at a secondary U.S. ban on Mexican tuna canned in France and Italy.

The larger argument pits most countries, including the United States, against international environmentalists over the principle of including environmental standards in international trade agreements.

In August, a GATT committee ruled that the U.S. tuna ban was illegal under GATT rules. GATT’s position is that trade should not be restricted because of the way a product is produced. The GATT debate has stalled, however, since Mexico declined in September to press the issue.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress has shown little interest in changing the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which requires the tuna import ban.

The Bush Administration is of two minds on the matter.

“We argued very vigorously for the ban before the GATT panel this fall,” said Timothy O’Leary, a spokesman for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. “It gets kind of touchy, but a better way to have gone about protecting the dolphin would have been some kind of international convention like the ones to protect the ivory or ozone, rather than one nation taking unilateral action.”

David Phillips, executive director of the Earth Island Institute, one of the most prominent environmental groups calling for an international tuna ban, said his organization’s lobbyist at the European Parliament did not expect a vote on the European Commission report before December. To become law under the European system, the legislation would then have to be approved by the 12-member Council of Ministers.