A TOP EC official said today that he is “sick and tired” of the long running row caused by Norwegian salmon exports and their effect on EU producers.

Willem de Munck, deputy head of unit at the trade defence instruments department of the European Commission’s trade directorate, said at the Aquaculture Today 2005 conference in Edinburgh that the European

Commission has a “cast iron” case against Norway.

But he agreed the EC could be facing a potential hiatus in any restrictions against Norway and other non EU states, due to the collapse of safeguard measures and the time needed to introduce anti dumping legislation.

However the Commission was working night and day to ensure there was continuity of measures aimed at curbing the effect of Norwegian output particularly on Scottish and Irish producers.

Mr de Munck agreed the situation was a “running sore.”

“We are fed up with this and losses of the community salmon industry are substantial and companies are going bust.

“ We have to do something and we have to do it quickly.

“ We are absolutely positive we have a cast iron case and we are not afraid to defend it in front of the World Trade Organisation in Geneva.”

He accepted that at present no decision had been taken on anything.

“Yes, there is a potential hiatus but this is unlikely to happen. We are not daft and we know we have to ensure there is continuation of measures.

“For the moment, we are working day and night on an anti-dumping case and if it is clear that anti-dumping will go ahead, it is likely we will finish safeguard measures early. We do not want to have two measures running alongside each other.”

The current position was that the existing safeguard measures would falls if there was no qualified majority in the EU Council in favour of them, The time limit for a decision was May 24 and provisional measures had already lapsed.

“Now it is very likely that safeguard measures will fall,” he said.

The anti-dumping measures are in theory easier to implement because the Council can take definitive measures by simple majority, whereas with the safeguard measures the council by a qualified majority takes the decision. Mr de Munck said he sees two possible solutions for the future: one where the fight for safeguard measures continues or, as he prefers, Norway agrees to sit round a table and discuss the issue pending a solution which is acceptable for all parties involved.

Mr de Munck said that any solution should provide the salmon industry with proper income, living and employment. “It should be a balanced solution that satisfies everyone in the long term. Hopefully that is possible.

“I think the safeguards could have provided a framework under which they could have provided a solution but this has failed. There is stll the possibility of finding a solution within the framework of the safeguards case even if they fail and it is still possible to find a solution under the framework of anti-dumping measures.

“All is not lost but we are clearly now going on a track which is different from a couple of months ago. We are clearly going on a track of anti dumping duty.”

Phil Gilmour of the Scottish Executive aquaculture unit repeated his earlier sentiments expressed at the conference that the solution was short to medium term minimum import prices based on average cost of production. Medium to long term, there should be international co-operation with the industry to have market surveillance and potentially to adopt production discipline.

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*The conference was organised by Fish Farmer magazine

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