US Dolphin Safe Tuna Label is Unfair to Mexico, WTO rules yet again

Marine mammal advocates accuse trade body of putting business above dolphin protection

Maureen Nandini Mitra

If Mexico and the World Trade Organization have their way, those “dolphin safe” cans of tuna you’ve been buying at the supermarket might actually come stained with dolphin blood.

Last Friday, the global trade body again ruled against the United States in a long-running dispute with Mexico over US “Dolphin Safe” tuna-labeling regulations, saying that the regulations unfairly discriminate against Mexico. The decision by the WTO’s appellate body is the latest development in a trade dispute between the two countries that dates back to the establishment of the Dolphin Safe tuna label in 1990.

Photo by The Hamster Factor/Flickr

“While we are disappointed with the Appellate Body’s findings, this need not be the end of the road for dolphin-safe labeling,” Kitty Block, vice president of Humane Society International said in a statement. Block says animal advocates will urge US trade officials to work with Mexico to figure out a solution that wouldn’t jeopardize dolphins.

The dolphin-safe label has helped save countless dolphins in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean (ETPO) — a large marine region running from Southern California to Peru and extending out into the Pacific Ocean almost to Hawai’i — where schools of tuna tend to swim along with dolphins. Mexico and several other countries allow their tuna industry to deliberately target, chase, and surround the dolphins with nets in order to get to the tuna. More than 7 million dolphins have died after being trapped in nets since this fishing method was introduced in 1957.

In 1990, after years of campaigning by Earth Island Institute’s International Marine Mammal Project, the Dolphin Safe tuna label was established in the US. The label can only be used for tuna that is not caught by chasing and netting dolphins. It also can’t be used if dolphins are killed or seriously injured during a tuna fishing expedition. According to IMMP, since the label was established, dolphin deaths from tuna fishing have declined 98 percent. Currently, only Mexican, Venezuelan, and Colombian tuna vessels are still chasing and netting dolphins.

Mexico has objected to this labeling for years, claiming these restrictions to protect dolphins — which until recently only applied to tuna fishing in the ETPO region — discriminate against the Mexican tuna industry. In 2008 it took its complaint to the WTO. Following years of arguing back and forth, in 2014, the US National Marine Fisheries Service extended the restrictions to tuna fisheries from all parts of the world.

Friday’s ruling is the last the trade body is going to make in this dispute and could lead to Mexico making a claim for retaliation against US exports if it believes the United States has not brought its rules into line with the WTO ruling.

Marine mammal advocates say the ruling shows that the WTO continues to put business above dolphin protection.

“Time and time again the WTO has shown it doesn’t care about wildlife, the environment or truth in labeling,” says David Phillips, director of the Earth Island Institute’s International Marine Mammal Project, which now monitors tuna companies around the world for compliance. Phillips believes that the decision in only going to result in “a lot of arm-waving” and “see we are right” comments from Mexico, but it’s not gong to change anything.

For one, Mexico will now also have to try and establish the value of the tuna trade they are not able to bring into the US because of the labeling restriction. “We say the value is zero because nobody here wants your tuna,” Phillips says. “US canning companies, retailers, and consumers do not want tuna that’s caught harming dolphins.”

For more information on Dolphin Safe tuna: http://www.dolphinsafetuna.com