EEA talks unlikely to make progress on salmon tariffs

Date: 06/06/1996

By Thomas Klau

THE continuing dispute between the Union, Norway and Iceland over salmon imports will be high on the agenda at a meeting of ministers from the EU and its partners in the European Economic Area next week.

But officials say there is little hope of a breakthrough in the long-running battle over the Union's decision to impose a minimum tariff aimed at blocking a flood of cheap imported salmon despite Norwegian protests.

They say no significant advance is likely on this, or on another issue which has soured relations between Norway and the EU: the lack of an agreement on trade in processed agricultural exports which Oslo maintains hampers its exporters.

Diplomats say that the agenda of the fifth half-yearly EEA meeting, which will follow a meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers on Monday (10 June), will be largely devoted to “technical routine issues” which dominate relations between the 18 countries in the

EEA, which binds Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein to the Union's internal market.

The meeting will also provide an opportunity for EEA ministers to be briefed by their Union counterparts on the latest developments in the Intergovernmental Conference negotiations.

Switzerland, which rejected EEA membership in a 1992 referendum because of fears that it might turn out to be a stop-over on its way into the Union, but which is a member of the European Free Trade Association, has been invited to attend this briefing session.

Participants will also consider a progress report assessing the overall functioning of the two-year EEA agreement.

Despite misgivings about the EEA's two-pillar structure - setting the powerful EU against Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein - the report concludes that the agreement has so far functioned without major problems, although Norway has expressed concern that the officials who attend such routine meetings are “not as senior as we would wish”.

However, Oslo, in particular, takes great delight in its EEA membership. “It is the only organisation in which we are a superpower,” said one official wryly.