WRITTEN QUESTION E-1086/00

by Carmen Fraga Estévez (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(7 April 2000)

Subject: Study of needs as regards supplies of tuna loins Commission objectives

The Commission has released the study requested by the Council to establish needs as regards supplies of tuna loins to the Community market. The request for a study came in response to the Commission proposal to include a tariff suspension for that product for an indefinite period in the new regulation on the common organisation of the markets in fishery and aquaculture products. Confirming previous assertions by Parliament and several Member States, the study found that real needs as regards supplies of tuna loins did not exceed a figure ranging from 1 000 to 2 000 tonnes per annum; that a tariff suspension would benefit a section of the Italian canning industry alone; that, in any event, the benefit would be merely temporary, as the undertakings in question would need to undergo thorough restructuring to enhance their cost structures; that, moreover, an indefinite suspension would result in losses for the other parties involved (Spanish industry, the ACP countries and Latin American countries in trading partnerships with the EU);

and that the exporter country, Thailand, which had the most to gain from building up its canned tuna market, would lose out as well. In the light of these findings, and bearing in mind the aforementioned long-standing criticism by producer Member States and Parliament of the said tariff suspension arrangements as unnecessary, and of their application as highly damaging,

Can the Commission answer the following:

- what was the real aim underlying the Commission's eagerness to introduce the tariff suspension?

- what was the Commission's assessment of its damaging impact, in the light of the criticism thereof made by the sector, Parliament and producer Member States?

- is the Commission aware that it could be accused of unlawfully colluding with a given undertaking to help the latter, to the detriment of the remainder of Community industry, the ACP countries and those states included in the GSP?

- how can citizens trust the Commission when decisions are taken in an irresponsible fashion?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(5 June 2000)

The Commission regrets the inaccuracies contained in the Honourable Member's written question and must stress that it did not make public the study to which the Honourable Member refers. The Commission sent the study only to the Council and to Parliament's fisheries committee. The document indeed includes numerous data on private companies in Spain, France and Italy (e.g. market share, turnover and shareholding), the publication of which could be detrimental to the firms' competitiveness (see the Council and the Commission's joint code of conduct on public access to documents, implemented by Commission Decision 94/90/ECSC, EC, Euratom of 8 February 1994(1), as amended by Decision 96/567/EC, ECSC, Euratom(2)).

It is also incorrect to say that the study was requested in response to the Commission proposal to include, in the new Regulation on the common organisation of the markets in fishery and aquaculture products, a tariff suspension for tuna loins. The study in fact stems from an undertaking which the Commission gave at the Council's request when it adopted Council Regulation (EC) No 745/1999 of 30 March 1999 opening and providing for the administration of autonomous Community tariff quotas for certain fishery products(3) for 1999, which set for the third year running a tariff quota for tuna loins.

The Commission would point out that, with its agreement, the Council did not opt for a tariff suspension when adopting the new common organisation of the markets in fishery and aquaculture products. Instead a compromise solution (a multi-annual tariff quota of 4 000 tonnes) supported by all the tuna-producing Member States was found, which protects the interests of all the parties involved.

(1) OJ L 46, 18.2.1994.

(2) OJ L 247, 28.9.1996.

(3) OJ L 96, 10.4.1999.