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 he Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the
nation's largest animal protection organization, announced in
lage November that it has filed a petition asking the Interior
Department to certify that Japan is diminishing the effectiveness
of an international program to protect endangered and threatened
species by trading in whale meat.
 The
HSUS sent a petition to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt last
month urging him to certify Japan under the provisions of the
Pelly Amendment, a law that allows the President to impose trade
sanctions against a country that is diminishing the effectiveness
of an international program to protect endangered and threatened
species.
By law, the
President was required to respond by Monday, November 13, to
an earlier Commerce Department Pelly certification asking him
to pursue sanctions against the Japanese government after its
fleets hunted and killed five endangered sperm whales, 43 Bryde's
whales, and 40 minke whales this year.
"President
Clinton has forced our hand," said HSUS Executive Vice President
Patricia Forkan. "Japan is openly daring the United States
and the international community to stop it. In the short run,
we believe that trade sanctions by the United States may be the
only way of stopping Japan from killing these three whale species.
In the long run, sanctions may be the only way of stopping Japan
and its allies from reopening the world's oceans to full-scale
commercial whaling."
Although there
has been a moratorium on commercial whaling in effect since 1986,
Japan has continued to whale by exploiting an unintended loophole
in International Whaling Commission (IWCF) regulations that allows
nations to self-issue special permits to kill select whale species
for "scientific purposes." As part of its "scientific"
whaling program, Japan has killed up to 540 minke whales annually.
Japan has
sought to overturn the international moratorium since its inception.
In recent years, it has admitted to checkbook diplomacy, using
its economic clout to buy the votes of smaller, poorer nations
in an attempt to overturn the IWC whaling ban.
Unlike the
Commerce certification, which focused on violations of the IWC,
the HSUS petition centers on Japanese actions as they affect
the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of
Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the international agreement that
governs trade in endangered species. The petition asks the Secretary
of the Interior to certify that Japan is engaging in trade "diminishing
the effectiveness" of CITES.
"We are
gravely concerned by President Clinton's lack of response,"
Forkan said. "The world faces a critical juncture at this
moment, one that may decide the fate, the very survival, of the
world's whale populations. If the United States backs down now,
commercial whaling may again become widespread and the threat
of extinction becomes very real." 
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