WRITTEN QUESTION E-3607/01

by Samuli Pohjamo (ELDR) and Mikko Pesälä (ELDR) to the Commission

(8 January 2002)

Subject: Dumping of Norwegian salmon and rainbow trout on the EU market

This year, the price of salmonoids on the world market has fallen below production costs. The reason is that farming of salmon and rainbow trout has increased too rapidly and in too uncontrolled a fashion in Norway and Chile while at the same time demand has declined because of the reduction in tourism. Finnish fish-farmers face an intolerable situation because of cheap imports of Norwegian salmon and rainbow trout.

The EU has imposed a minimum price of 3,25 per kg for imports of Norwegian salmon. However, recent import statistics show the price to have fallen below this level throughout the EU, at least in September and October, when salmon was imported into the EU at prices of 3,15 per kg (September 2001) and 3,11 per kg (October 2001). Throughout the year, salmon has been imported into Finland for less than the EU's minimum price. By October, for example, the import price had already fallen to 3,02 per kg.

Another serious problem which has arisen this year is that rainbow trout has been imported in conjunction with rainbow trout, making it possible to subsidise the price of salmon with the aid of cheap rainbow trout, which is not subject to EU price limits. In the autumn, the import price of Norwegian rainbow trout was less than its production costs. Rainbow trout has been imported into Finland for as little as 8 marks per kg. It is strongly suspected in the industry that the Norwegians are selling the fish in combination, although it has not been possible to obtain clear evidence of this.

The dumping of Norwegian fish has compelled Finnish fish-farmers to cut their prices too. The producer price has already fallen significantly below production costs, to around 10 marks per kg, and there is no prospect of any improvement. The situation constitutes a serious threat to the survival of fish-farmers in our country. The economics of fish-farming do not permit sales below production costs, as the industry has not yet recovered from the impact of the last episode of dumping by Norway, in the late 1990s.

What has the Commission done, or will it do, to hold Norway to account for violating import agreements and to enable fish-farming to survive within the Union?

Joint answerto Written Questions E-3607/01 and P-0105/02given by Mr Lamy on behalf of the Commission

(14 March 2002)

The Commission is aware that there are indications of downward price pressure in the Community market for Atlantic salmon. This pressure has occurred despite the existence of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures on imports of Norwegian Atlantic salmon. These measures currently take the form of price undertakings for the vast majority of the Norwegian exports, the remaining Norwegian exports being subject to duties. The companies from whom price undertakings have been accepted are obliged to submit to the Commission regular quarterly reports of all their sales transactions to the Community. These reports are then carefully verified by the Commission and the companies are also subjected to routine on spot investigations.

The Commission has received a variety of data indicating that there are significant disturbances on the market, apparently resulting from different causes. Amongst this data is information provided by the Danish authorities indicating possible fraud giving rise to violations of the undertakings.

Consequently, the Commission has recently taken a number of initiatives regarding imports of farmed Atlantic salmon originating in Norway:

(i) stepping up the monitoring of the existing undertakings with a view to identifying possible violations in relation with the recent events in the market. To this end several verification missions are taking place in Norway from December 2001 to February 2002; should violations of undertakings be found for individual companies, their undertakings may be withdrawn and be replaced by duties. The Commission is also in close contact with the Danish customs authorities in the context of monitoring the undertakings;

(ii) taking steps for opening an interim review of the existing anti-dumping and countervailing measures on imports of farmed atlantic salmon originating in Norway. This review will examine both the level of protection and the form of the measures, including undertakings. Member States have already been consulted on this initiative, which was preceded by a number of consultations with the Norwegian authorities in the framework of the Salmon Agreement signed in 1997 between the Commission and the Norwegian Government.

As regards the market for rainbow trout, the Commission has not, as yet, received any evidence concerning the compensation described in the question. No complaint from Community producers of rainbow trout has been received so far concerning low priced, possibly dumped, imports of rainbow trout of Norwegian origin. However, the Commission will seek to establish whether export prices are affected by compensatory agreements both in monitoring whether price undertakings have been respected and in reviewing the level of dumping in the context of the proposed interim review.