Brussels, 28/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - French cereal farmers have accused the European Commission of preparing the ground for a cut in cereal prices by considering the abolition of import duties that protect the Community market. This challenge by the wheat grower's group (AGPB), maize growers' group (AGPM) and FNSEA, comes after a source close to the relevant management committee said last week that the European executive was looking at a series of measures to cut domestic prices for cereals due to the risk of inflation feared following the attacks committed on American soil. Among these, are said to be scrapping the 10 euro import duty per tonne applied to the import of cereals from the Mediterranean, Black Sea and Baltic countries. The French associations warn against an additional decrease in prices in the EU which, they recall, have already fallen by 35% over the past three years. Europe has reason to believe that the management committee will continue to refuse to provide its clearance for the granting of export refunds of the free market for wheat, barley or oats, as long as domestic prices remained unreasonably high.
Poor harvest have "overheated domestic prices", says Commission
The Commission hopes that the abolition of the special entry duty of 10 euro/tonne will allow for an increase in availability, notably of wheat, from Eastern countries and Ukraine, which would lead to a fall in domestic EU prices, a spokesman explained. He added that poor harvests this year in many Member States had led to a reduction in supply in the EU and "overheating of domestic prices". The surtax was introduced to place import prices of imports from far away places, for which the cost of transports higher, at the same level as those coming from ports close to the EU. Today, they are said to hamper imports from countries that are soon to join the European single market, official stress. The Management Committee will decide on this measure next Thursday.