Under pressure from the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the World Society for the Protection of Animals and the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, French President Jacques Chirac recently asked his environment minister to impose a boycott on seal products from Canada.

These include, inter alia, the principles reflected in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, including the following: protection of human dignity and human life, protection of personal data and privacy, as well as animals and the environment in accordance with Community law and the latest versions of relevant international conventions and codes of conduct, e.g. the Helsinki Declaration, the Convention of the Council of Europ ...[+++]e on Human Rights and Bio-medicine signed in Oviedo on 4 April 1997 and its Additional Protocols, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Universal Declaration on the human genome and human rights adopted by UNESCO, UN Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, and the relevant World Health Organisation (WHO) resolutions.

A lawyer for the World Society for the Protection of Animals, Lesli Bisgould, has been quoted as saying:

These include, inter alia, principles reflected in the Charter of fundamental rights of the European Union, protection of human dignity and human life, protection of personal data and privacy as well as the environment in accordance with Community law and, where relevant, international conventions, such as the Declaration of Helsinki, the Council of Europe Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine signed in Oviedo on 4 April 1997 and the Additional Protocol on the Prohibition of Cloning Human Beings signed in Paris on 12 January 1998, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human R ...[+++]ights adopted by UNESCO, and the relevant World Health Organisation (WHO) resolutions, the Amsterdam Protocol on Animal Protection and Welfare; and current legislation, regulations and ethical guidelines in countries where the research will be carried out.

Whereas the Agreement between the European Community and the Government of Canada on sanitary measures to protect public and animal health in respect of trade in live animals and animal products provides an adequate means for putting into practice the provisions of the World Trade Organisation Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures as regards public and animal health measures;

Whereas the Agreement between the European Community and the United States of America on sanitary measures to protect public and animal health in trade in live animals and animal products provides an adequate means for putting into practice the provisions of the WTO Agreement on the application of sanitary and phytosanitary measures as regards public and animal health measures;