Brussels, 01/07/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Friday the European Commission refuted US allegations of the EU attempting to renegotiate a new Community grain import system with the WTO that could lead to a limit of US exports to the EU (see EUROPE 24/25 June p 11). Commissioner Franz Fischler explained that the "Commission has no intention to restrict the access of cereals and rice to the EU market". The Commissioner added that, " Our objective in these negotiations, therefore, is to improve the system to more accurately fulfil our WTO obligations and protect our rights. The present EU regime for importing rice and cereals to the EU does not work. Representative prices used for calculating import duties no longer adequately represent world market prices".
In a joint declaration, the US representative for trade, Robert Zoellick, and the US Secretary for Agriculture, Ann Veneman stated, "We are strongly opposed to the Commission proposal, which we see as being potentially detrimental to US trade interests and trade liberalisation in agriculture". They also asserted that the Commission, while claming to want a "more linear" system, was really looking for a way of reducing US grain imports to EU countries. The Commission has asked the Council to allow it to negotiate within the WTO for the substitution of its current system with tariffs on quotas and fixed duties and thus counter the high influx of low-priced fodder wheat from Black Sea countries, mainly from the Ukraine and Russia.
Three export countries are also very concerned as WTO members by the proposal: the USA and Canada because of wheat, Argentina -corn and the USA and India for rice. For wheat exports the Commission could possibly propose an open quota to all countries based on different amounts and in a way that would guarantee a certain amount to North Sea countries (an excise duty or EUR 95 would apply to each ton exceeding these quotas). Quotas would be calculated on average imports over the last three years. It is therefore in the EU's interest to conclude negotiations by next December so that 2002 does not become a representative year, given the large amounts of wheat imported from the Ukraine and Russia since the beginning of the year.