Brussels, 18/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - Commission Pascal Lamy indicated on Wednesday to the press, that on the issue of trade and development (pages 9 and 10), the European Commission had proposed an update and a "less complicated" reshaping of the common system on cereal imports, which would not affect US cargoes to the single market at all. The plan unveiled via "leaks" in Paris and very recently welcomed in both East and West of the Union, will, according to some estimates, establish a new trade quota of 2.3 million tons for hard and soft wheat. This will be the same for "high" customs duties, in the hope of putting a stop to the spread of low price deliveries, especially those sent by countries bordering the Black Sea and the same as falling pressures on European prices. Consultations are taking place with main EU trading partners, including Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington.
Mr Lamy explained that their commitment to the WTO was based on complicated formulas, notably on the "protein content" and "Chicago market criteria" which was no longer relevant. Mr Lamy explained to a journalist that this explained why Franz Fischler and Mr Lamy had asked the Council for a negotiation mandate in such a way that market access for the countries that appeared to be under consideration would not be reduced by this new formula. "Whatever the revision we carry out, access to the market will not be reduced (the WTO) and will not be reduced", he declared. The alternative to consultations by the European Commission could have unilaterally modified the system (present in Union tariff arrangements at the end of the Uruguay Cycle) but "they considered that (the consultations) were still the best way to proceed", explained one diplomatic source. Many voices were raised in Geneva to protest against this, describing the reference period that is not really recent, as irrealistic and which has served as a way of calculating quotas (average imports and customs duties in the 1998-2000 campaigns).