Brussels, 29/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - The tone of the debate in the Euro-Korean dispute over shipbuilding has gone up a pitch, after the failure of talks held in Brussels early this week (EUROPE of 28 June, p.10). Seoul casts blame on the Union. The European industry is sticking firmly to the deadlines and awaits the decision to file a complaint with the WTO, on 2 July. The Union is reproached for making "unreasonable demands" to settle the dispute in an amicable manner, says a press release from the South Korean Minister for the Economy, diffused on Thursday. The association of Korean shipbuilders complains saying the European negotiators did not make a "serious effort" to find common ground. The KSA fears that the Commission's "unfounded and contradictory demands could make an agreement impossible".
"It is high time to find some kind of solution", replied the spokesman for the European industry, on Friday, who said that he awaited a Commission decision, perhaps on Tuesday next, to take the matter before the WTO. "Any further delay would be unacceptable", insisted the Committee of EU Shipbuilders Associations (CESA), which notes that the bilateral arrangement of June 2000 "did not have an impact on the market". CESA specifies that the Commission is seeking to gain Seoul's assurance that the Korean shipyards do not offer prices below costs. It proposes, to guarantee this, that a mechanism be adopted based on a "cost model" for calculating the normal prices, a mechanism that would be applied to all projects. Seoul rejected this proposal and suggested instead a "simple price increase by 5% which was to be applied only to ship types of marginal interest to Korean yards". During the talks, continued CESA, "South Korea refused to include other ship types of interest for EU yards, particularly large container ships, LNGs and LPGs, which European yards can build very competitively under equal terms". It would seem, therefore, that "unless the Republic of Korea reconsiders its position during the next few days", that it would be "unavoidable to take the case to the WTO".