United Nations says polar bear trading can continue

Author:  Damien M. Schiff

Yesterday, a U.S.-backed proposal to ban the international trade in polar bear parts, under the aegis of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, was defeated.  The principal opponents of the ban were Canada, Norway, and Greenland, who argued that a ban would pose a serious financial injury to those countries' indigenous populations.

(Recall that the U.S. has listed the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.  That listing is currently being challenged in federal district court in D.C.  PLF represents two plaintiffs—the California Cattlemen's Association, and the Congress of Racial Equality—in those consolidated lawsuits).