Belgian Agriculture Minister Paul de Keersmaeker said he would review EC Commission proposals for a tax on imported and EC produced vegetable oils and fats in the light of objections made by certain EC member states. De Keersmaeker current chairman of the EC farm ministers council was speaking after a three-day meeting of ministers at which the tax proposal was one of the key themes. He said he would review the position as part of plans to present compromise proposals for the 1987/88 farm price package to the next meeting starting in Brussels on May 18. De Keersmaeker who said there was a great deal of resistance in many delegations to the tax declined to say what aspects of the proposals he would review. However EC Commission sources said they are expected to include the question of whether it should apply to marine oils. They said Denmark and Portugal might agree to the tax to be set initially at 330 Ecus a tonne if these oils of which they are major producers were excluded. The sources said however that Britain the Netherlands and West Germany continue to have strong objections to the tax partly because of fears that its impact on U.S. Soybean exports could provoke transatlantic trade friction. They said that if these three countries held firm to this position they would be able to block the proposal under the ECs majority voting mechanism.
BELGIAN MINISTER TO REVIEW EC OILS/FATS TAX PLAN