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US's dolphin-safe tuna labels banned by court calling them 'unfair' to Mexico

Trade court gives US 18 months to do away with labels, saying they give 'less favourable treatment' to Mexican products

The international trade court has effectively outlawed the sale of dolphin-friendly canned tuna in American supermarkets, ruling such labels were unfair to Mexican fishermen.

The ruling, delivered on Wednesday, was the third from the World Trade Organisation against the use of a voluntary system of labels for dolphin protection and was immediately denounced by conservation groups.

"It's an absurd decision," said Mark Palmer, a marine mammal expert at the Earth Island Institute which devised the voluntary standard for canned tuna.

The label system was introduced 20 years ago to protect dolphins in the eastern tropical Pacific, the source for almost all of America's tuna.

Campaigners say the labels have been successful in reducing the number of dolphins killed by tuna fishing fleets, and the system has strong support from the Obama administration and from congress.

But the WTO said in its ruling that the labels were not "even-handed" when it came to Mexican fishermen.

"We find that the US 'dolphin-safe' labelling provisions provide 'less favourable treatment' to Mexican tuna products than that accorded to tuna products of the United States and tuna products originating in other countries," it said.

A spokesman for the US trade representative, said the government stood by the labelling system. "The US remains committed to ensuring that consumers receive accurate information concerning whether the tuna in a product labelled 'dolphin safe' was caught in a manner that caused harm to dolphins," said Nkenge Harmon.

Under WTO regulations, the Obama administration has about 18 months to do away with the dolphin-safe label entirely, or make an exception for Mexican fishermen.

It could also decide to help train Mexican fishermen in techniques that do not involve chasing and encircling dolphins – the practice the label is intended to end.

"I suspect the issue is going to boil down to whether we allow Mexico to kill dolphins and then say their tuna is dolphin safe," Palmer said.

Dolphin and tuna tend to congregate near each other in the Pacific. Until then fishing vessels, occasionally with air support, would chase and encircle dolphins to try to get to the tuna swimming beneath the water.

Fish sold under that label must be caught without chasing dolphin, and without the use of drift nets. Vessels operating in the eastern Pacific must have observers on board to ensure they follow the code.

Campaigners say virtually all of the tuna sold in the US meets that standard, and that major supermarkets will not stock cans of tuna that don't carry the dolphin-safe label.

However, Mexican fishermen continue to fish using those methods, and the government challenged the label as an unfair trade practice. Venezuelan and Colombian fishermen use the same methods, but those countries were not part of the suit.

Public Citizen, which also campaigned against the WTO intervention on canned tuna, said the ruling was an intrusion on US consumer choices. "If Mexican fleets choose to use dolphin-safe tuna-fishing methods, they can use the label just like US, Ecuadorean and other nations' fleets," the group said in a statement. "But Mexico, which challenged the US rule, wanted access to the label without meeting the standards."

Mexico's ambassador to the WTO welcomed the ruling, saying he hoped it would help open up the billion-dollar tuna market to his country's fishing fleets.