The substantial gain for Britain in the deal is that we made a start on reform in each of the commodity regimes, in spite of the fact that the majority of our partners had reservations about going in that direction. We are going in the right direction. What discussions he has had with EU partners on the control of whaling. Column 419 issues at the centre of their policy objectives and the work of the Department. Will my hon.
Friend raises a good point.
The IWC was set up to exploit whales commercially. The Government have made it clear that we reject the idea of a return to commercial whaling, and we want the IWC to concentrate more on global threats to whales, such as environmental threats, global warming and pollution, and to extend its competence to small cetaceans, many of which are under threat internationally. In the IWC discussions that I attended to underline the importance that the Government attach to the issue, we received significant support from other EU states and other countries, without which we could not have made the advances that we have achieved internationally. We accept the case for indigenous aboriginal whaling in certain parts of the world. That is regulated by the IWC and a quota is set.