U.S. Commerce Secretary Norman Mineta will soon decide whether to ask President Bill Clinton to launch trade sanctions against Japan over its expanded whaling program, according to the Washington Post's Sunday edition.
"Shortly, I will have to decide whether to ask the president to consider imposing trade measures against Japan," because Japan has ignored international pleas not to include larger whales in its hunting, Mineta said in writing to the daily.
U.S. law empowers the commerce secretary to recommend punitive measures, including an import curb, against a country that has threatened to endanger fishery resources.
Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other leaders have urged Japan to rescind its decision to include two new species -- sperm whales and Bryde's whales -- in this year's whale hunts. Japan claims it conducts whaling for research purposes.