JAPANESE TIED AID AND WHALING

Early day motion 181, tabled 18 July 2001 by Lord Stratford (Labour). Signed by 36 members.

That this House condemns without reservation the admission by the head of Japan's Fisheries Agency, Mr Maseyuku Komatsu, that Japan has been providing overseas aid in exchange for votes on the International Whaling Commission in order to secure a return to commercial whaling; believes that such practices are a corruption of process and should disqualify any countries in receipt of such tied aid from voting in the IWC; calls upon Her Majesty's Government to cease any aid provided to Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia and the Grenadines all of whom have sold their votes to the Japanese; draws attention to the statement made by Mr Komatsu in Australia that 'the minke whale is a cockroach in the ocean'; and believes such comments reveal the venal, arrogant and ethnocentric attitude of the Japanese towards both world opinion and the exploitation of animal resources.

Signatures by party: Labour 27, Liberal Democrat 8, Labour/Co-operative 1.