Dolphin-safe, takings, prairie dog verdicts
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2000:
Thelton E. Henderson, chief judge of the Federal District Court in San Francisco, on April 11 ruled that Commerce Secretary William Daley “acted contrary to the law and abused his discretion when he triggered a change in the ‘dolphin safe’ label standard.” Daley, despite the verdict, on April 12 lifted the U.S. ban on tuna imports from Mexico which had stood since 1991, imposed because Mexican fishing methods were not “dolphin safe.” New York-based U.S. Court of International Trade judge Judith Barzilay on April 14 refused to reimpose the ban. “We could start exporting like crazy now, but nobody is going to buy tuna that doesn’t have the ‘dolphin safe’ label,” said Mexican fisheries secretariat spokesperson Dalia de la Pena Wing. Since 1990, “dolphin safe” labels have designated tuna caught by means not killing any dolphins. In 1995 a General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs panel held that the U.S. law which began “dolphin safe” labeling unduly inhibited trade by excluding imports of non-“dolphin safe” tuna. The GATT decree led to extensive revision of the 1990 law, via the 1997 International Dolphin Conservation Program Act. Daley then tried to administratively extend eligibility to use “dolphin safe” labeling to all legally imported tuna, but Henderson held that Daley had not documented any need to do so. Henderson in May 1990 banned imports of yellowfin tuna from Mexico, Venezuela, and V a n u a t u, under the 1988 amendments to the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act, and in January 1992 invoked the same law to ban $266 million worth of tuna imports from 30 nations. Appeals of the 1992 verdict led to the 1995 GATT ruling.