July 27 (Bloomberg) -- The European Union agreed today to ban the trading of all seal products within the 27-nation region, effective the summer of 2010.

The ban given final approval in Brussels is a “significant victory” for anti-seal hunt campaigners and cuts back on the supplies of fur pelts from harvesting seals, the International Fund for Animal Welfare said in an e-mailed statement.

The Canadian government has signaled it will challenge the import ban through the World Trade Organization, the IFAW said in the statement. Namibia on July 6 said it plans to kill 91,000 seals this year despite a EU ban, saying the seals deplete its waters of valuable fish such as hake, an important export.

Namibia, together with Canada and Greenland, supplies most the world’s seal-fur harvest, an industry it defends as also necessary to preserve fisheries. Canada’s Inuit and other native populations in regions such as Greenland also stage seal hunts.

“We expect the seal hunt to continue its inevitable decline over the coming years until it is wiped out once and for all,” Lesley O’Donnell, director of IFAW Europe, said, pledging to closely monitor the ban until it is fully implemented.

To contact the reporter on this story: Colm Heatley in Belfast at cheatley@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 27, 2009 09:22 EDT