Brussels, 15/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - As we mentioned, on the occasion of their meetings last Thursday and Friday, the Presidia of Copa and Cogeca called on the European Commission to implement the special safeguard clause provided by Article 5 of the GATT agreement, "as soon as possible" to slow down the "massive" imports into the EU of cereals from Central and Eastern European countries, especially Ukrainian. These agricultural organisations denounce the Commission's "very short-term management" (especially the abolition of the 10 euro/tonne in calculating import duties on cereals from the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and the Baltic: see, notably EUROPE of 13 October, page 12) which "has largely contributed to perturbing the market in the middle of the marketing year".
Considering that the conditions for triggering the special safeguard clause have been met, Copa and Cogeca call for additional duties to be calculated and applied on imports of cereals so as to respect the entry prices set in the GATT agreements (156 euro per tonne). They also call on the Commission to consider the possibility of taking other measures of this type in the framework of the partnership and co-operation agreement between the EU and Ukraine, dating back to February 1998. Given the current situation in the cereals sector, the Presidia and Copa and Cogeca also stressed that they could not agree to: - any new lowering of the intervention price for cereals (paid by the EU), nor monthly increases, "as that would amount to further lowering the Community preference"; - any additional lowering of incomes for cereal producers.
Copa and Cogeca recall that prices "have not stopped falling", notably due to the import of common wheat into the EU which, early April, exceeded 6.5 million tonnes, "which represents an increase of 260%, compared to the average between 1998 and 2000 (2.5 million tonnes). At the last Agriculture Council (see Europe of 20 March, p.7), the French Agriculture Minister, Francois Patriat, drew attention to the "very worrying" situation of the Community cereals market. Commissioner Franz Fischler had said that they would have to draw the necessary lessons at the mid-term review of the Cap, and had explained that the reasons for these difficulties "are many" (and not necessarily linked to the abolition of the additional 10 euro tax): very high prices in the autumn in areas of shortage, record harvest in Ukraine which exported "to anyone", "low supply" and even "speculation" on the domestic market.