International trade in whale products 

• Limited international trade in whale products was resumed in July 2002, with export from Norway to Iceland, and extended in March 2003 with export to the Faroe Islands (Denmark).
   
• Japan last imported whale meat from Norway in 1988 and from Iceland in 1990.
   
• The trade is controlled through an unprecedented DNA fingerprint scheme. DNA profiles from each hunted minke whale are collected and entered into a database. Any Norwegian whale product in the market can be DNA tested, and its origin traced in the database. This ensures that the products in the marketplace are caught and traded legally. Compared to any other trade in wildlife, this is by far the world’s strictest trade control scheme ever.
   
• The trade is fully legal and in accordance with relevant international law established under the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
   
• CITES has placed several whale species, including the minke whale, on Appendix I, reserved for species “threatened with extinction” and for which there should be no ordinary international trade in its products. But Iceland, Japan and Norway hold reservations to most of these whale listings, and are thus exempted from the general trade ban. (Also the Faroe Islands are exempted.) The option to lodge a reservation is an integral part of the CITES Convention, and common in most international law. Countries without a reservation can only conduct international trade under certain conditions.

• There is general consensus that the super abundant minke whale does not meet the biological criteria for being listed on CITES Appendix I as threatened with extinction. Norway’s proposals to CITES in 1997 and 2000 to downlist (i.e. to transfer from Appendix I to Appendix II) two North-Atlantic minke whale stocks were supported by a simple majority, but they were not carried as a two-thirds majority is required.
   
• The main argument against the CITES downlisting is that the IWC has not yet finished the Revised Management Scheme (RMS) for managing whaling. Since 1994, the IWC has reported to CITES that the RMS is near completion. More and more people understand that the IWC does not have the intention to complete the RMS, which is reflected by the delaying tactics used by the staunch anti-whaling countries.
   
• The Arctic and sub-Arctic regions are very rich in marine resources, but poor in other resources such as grain. Therefore, trade in goods, including whale products, has taken place for centuries. This continues today with the majority of seafood caught being exported.
   
• A condition for an economic activity to take place is access to markets. It is therefore no surprise that the fight over trade constitutes one of the most important confrontations in the whaling conflict.
   
• Barriers to international trade in whale products are also barriers to the sustainable development of fishing and whaling communities.