Brussels, 11/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - A team of Chilean negotiators will soon go to Brussels to envisage a friendly settlement of the dispute with the Union over the restrictions to port access that Santiago is imposing on Community fishing ships. In a letter that reached Brussels just after the new year's celebrations, the Chilean authorities have in fact accepted to continue their talks on the basis of a compromise proposed by Commissioners Lamy and Fischler last November, it was indicated this Thursday in Brussels, from a source close to the dossier, while raising "the positive content of the answer from Santiago".
It is around next 22 January that the negotiators will be received by the Deputy Director General for Trade at the European Commission, Roderick Abbot. The meeting should unfold around the draft compromise raised by the European heads during the opening of the dispute settlement procedure in Geneva and presented two weeks later as the final Community attempt to avoid a binding settlement by the WTO. This package mainly foresees the strengthening of bilateral technical and scientific cooperation in terms of the conservation of fish stocks, the creation of a "truly" multilateral organisation to ensure the management of swordfish stocks in the Pacific and, by then, the granting of a limited access to Chilean ports for the Community fleet (see EUROPE of 15 November, p.10). The case is presently the object of two international procedures, one started by the Union within the World Trade Organisation and the other, by Chile, before the International Maritime Tribunal.