China seeks to reassure UN on tiger trade

THE HAGUE, June 13 (Reuters) China told a UN wildlife conference today it had no plan to seek international trade in tigers and would allow domestic sales of farmed big cats only if it aided battered world stocks.

Tigers are prized for their fur and their body parts are used in traditional Chinese medicines as cures for everything from colds to rheumatism. China has about 5,000 tigers in farms and only about 30 in the wild.

''There is no proposal to reopen trade in tigers,'' Wang Weishing of China's wildlife and forestry conservation administration told the meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

CITES banned international trade in tigers in 1975.

Wang said environmental groups were trying to discredit Beijing and had given a misleading impression of its plans.

Beijing told CITES last week it would allow trade in parts from captive-bred tigers if a scientific review proved it would reduce poaching and help tigers worldwide. China outlawed domestic sales of tiger parts in 1993.

''The current policy will not be changed unless it can be demonstrated that it will benefit tigers internationally,'' Wang said, adding the scientific evaluation would be ''transparent and open.'' Neighbouring nations including India fear domestic sales in China could stoke poaching in the region by opening up a lucrative market. Indian tigers could then be smuggled to China and sold.

Conservationists say tiger farmers are breeding thousands of animals in the hope of resuming trade.

Reuters SM GC1755