Responding to allegations that the EU intended to restrict EU imports of cereals and rice made by US Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, EU Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler declared the following:
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“I am deeply troubled by this misunderstanding. In a news release from 28 June 2002, Secretary Veneman and Ambassador Zoellick claim that the European Commission would have publicly stated that it “would seek to restrict access by the United States and other nations to European markets for grain and rice”.
“The opposite is true. We have no intention to restrict access of cereals and rice to the EU market. GATT provisions fully provide for the maintenance of the rights of our WTO partners. 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. This is why we need to modify the system, in full compliance with the WTO procedures and Article XXVIII GATT. This means that we will negotiate with those WTO trading partners, which are key exporters to the EU.
“This is exactly the line the Commission has taken in its press release on June 24, 2002 (IP/02/913) upon the adoption of its proposal to the EU Council of Ministers to open negotiations with its WTO partners to modify the EU system of duties charged by the EU for rice and cereals imports.”
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