Of course not.
They have this exemption for Inuit seal products. If you're walking down the streets of Berlin or Paris or Amsterdam wearing this, no one's going to know the difference, so this ban is going to severely restrict our first nations people. I would hope that when you argue those points, you mention that this has been a traditional way of life for literally thousands of years.
I suppose that when one door closes, another door opens. If the EU is going to shut its doors to seal products, is the government looking at other markets--China, South America, or anywhere else--to promote and enhance seal products? One of the concerns I have is that the Americans, as you know, put in their own ban through the Marine Mammal Protection Act. We negotiated free trade deals with the United States, but we still have the ban. We're negotiating the EU deal right now, and I don't think we're going to be quite successful. As you said, after the deliberate lies by these groups about the seal products, I don't think we're going to be all that successful in getting this through. I'm hopeful, of course, but if we're not, we'll have to look at other markets.
The Ambassador for Fisheries Conservation said something privately to me about wanting to mention a certain process to the committee. Madam, I was hoping you could comment and then allow the ambassador to clarify something that he wanted to bring to the committee as well regarding the seal harvest.
I thank you very much for coming.