Farmers bid to dump duty on fertiliser

Date: 14/09/00

By Peter Chapman

BRITISH farmers are calling on EU member states to overturn the dumping duties they hold responsible for a huge increase in the price of a key raw material.

They claim the European Commission ignored their interests when it imposed provisional anti-dumping duties on ammonium nitrate fertiliser from Poland and the Ukraine in late July, following complaints from Union-based suppliers such as Germany's BASF and France's Grand Paroisse.

Marcus Themans, chairman of the technical services committee of the UK's National Farmers' Union (NFU), said British farmers imported 80% of their ammonium nitrate from these countries and there was "absolute fury" over the issue.

The NFU claims the complainants "overcooked" their submissions to the Commission and argues that the institution's probe into the fertiliser sector last year ignored factors which led to an influx of ammonium nitrate into the EU market. These included the general over- capacity in the market and the collapse of the Russian currency.

Themans said the duties were responsible for a crippling price rise of €30 a ton for the fertiliser, adding that many horticultural products which rely on the substance were not subsidised by the Union."This puts us €30 a ton at a disadvantage to our competitors versus other markets across the world," he said, adding that farmers in mainland Europe had yet to voice concerns over the price rise because they do not buy fertiliser on the forward market in the same way as their UK counterparts. However, he predicted they would start to complain early next year when price rises filtered through.

Trade diplomats said they would examine the farmers' claims and might decide to resist calls for the provisional duties, which last six months, to be made permanent later this year.