The European Union’s scientific arm announced on Tuesday, 6 September that Sweden has presented enough evidence showing North American lobster presents a threat as an invasive species.
The decision, made by scientific exports on the E.U.’s Scientific Forum on Invasive Alien Species, moves the review process forward and increases the likelihood the E.U. will enact a ban on imports of live North American lobster.
“This does not prejudge in any way the decision on whether the commission will propose the lobster for listing,” European Union spokeswoman Iris Petsa told the Portland (Maine) Press Herald. “This is a preliminary opinion on a purely scientific risk assessment and not a decision as to whether to ban the species.”
Sweden’s request to declare the American lobster an invasive species will now be reviewed and possibly considered for a vote by the E.U.’s Alien Species Committee. If the committee approved the request, the motion then would proceed to the full European Union Commission for a final vote. That will not happen until spring at the earliest, Petsa told the Press Herald.
American and Canadian fisheries officials and industry representatives vociferously opposed Sweden’s claims, arguing the evidence is thin. Sweden’s report is based on its discovery of 32 American lobsters in the country's waters and its argument, via a few examples of cross-breeding, that they pose a threat to native crustaceans.
The scientific experts did not consider the economic impact of a possible ban in reviewing Sweden’s 85-page report, but if the decision came before the full commission, it would be a consideration in deliberations, Petsa said.
However, both the E.U. and North American officials appear to be steering the debate toward possible mediation by the World Trade Organization, which enforces international rules of trade. The E.U. will notify the WTO of its preliminary actions on the North American lobster, while some U.S. officials said the WTO should take on a role in arbitrating the E.U.’s actions regarding a North American lobster ban.
In a joint statement, Maine’s congressional delegation, composed of U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King and U.S. Representatives Chellie Pingree and Bruce Poliquin, hinted an appeal to the WTO would be a potential course if the E.U. did not reverse course.
“We find this decision deeply disappointing, particularly because – as North American scientists have thoroughly demonstrated – there is no strong scientific evidence to justify a ban on the import of live lobsters into the entire 28-country European Union, as Sweden wrongly proposes,” the statement said. “We continue to believe that pursuing such a prohibition is not only unsupported by science and inconsistent with the rules of the World Trade Organization, but is also an unnecessary overreaction that would have devastating economic effects on the American lobster industry that supports so many Mainers and their families. The E.U.’s Scientific Forum on Invasive Alien Species did not consider economic factors when conducting the review to this point, but moving forward the E.U. will and we will continue to support Maine’s lobster industry by seeing that the science and economic impacts are made clear.”
Lobstermen in the U.S. and Canada together export USD 200 million (EUR 178 million) worth of lobster to the E.U. each year.
