Madrid holds EU-Canada deal to ransom

Date: 20/06/1996

By Elizabeth Wise

WITH a signing ceremony already on the calendar, the

EU-Canada action plan is under fire as Madrid seizes the chance to avenge Spanish fishermen who dodged Canadian bullets off the coast of Newfoundland last year.

There is now a real risk that the accord, which Ottawa hoped would get a green light from EU foreign ministers last week, will not be approved in time for a scheduled summit of Italian and Canadian Premiers Romano Prodi and Jean Chrétien and Commission President Jacques Santer next Wednesday (26 June) in Rome.

The failure to get agreement at the foreign ministers' meeting was largely due to Spanish objections, with Madrid arguing loudly for more concessions to its fishermen.

Spain, still smarting over last year's confrontation over catches of Greenland halibut, or turbot, in the waters off Newfoundland, has brought a host of grudges to the EU-Canada table. However, other EU members who have fears of their own about the proposed action plan are hiding behind the Spanish.

France, for example, fears that the draft agreement's clause on a “transatlantic market-place” would mean opening EU agricultural markets to a flood of Canadian grain and oilseeds. To French eyes, Canada's huge export potential is menacing enough without opening trade routes.

For its part, Germany wants a guarantee that European contracting firms will have access to public procurement projects throughout Canada.

But Canada's federal government, which will sign the pact with the EU, can only hand out federal-level contracts, while provincial governments - or even cities - award contracts at more local levels. This means Ottawa would have to negotiate with local officials to ensure that foreign firms could compete in the provinces. However, Canadian officials say the bulk of public contracts are at the federal level anyway.

All EU governments want more assurances that if food trade increases, hygiene will not be put at risk.

They want Ottawa to apply GATT phytosanitary rules. Canadian officials say they have been negotiating veterinary and other phytosanitary agreements with Union officials, and those talks are continuing.

But Canadian diplomats insist that in all three areas, EU member states have nothing to fear. They point out that the action plan is not legally binding on either side, stressing it simply “sets out what we are going to try to achieve” and insisting the issues raised by member states should be resolvable as they are “not contentious questions at all”.

Even if Canada can satisfy those demands, however, it still has a long way to go to meet Spanish concerns.

One of Madrid's demands concerns a court case which Spain has brought against Canada at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Madrid claims Canadian authorities broke international law when they pursued Spanish boats into waters outside Canada's 200-mile limit and fired warning shots at fishermen.

It fears that because there is no mention of the case in the transatlantic declaration intended to accompany the action plan, the court will believe either that the issue has been resolved or that it is not important. The Spanish therefore want a reminder of the incident to be included in that declaration.

But EU officials say that other member states are reluctant to include a bilateral problem in their common declaration, so Madrid is unlikely to get its way.

Spain is also concerned that the Canadian law which Ottawa cited as justification for its officials crossing their national boundary - the Coastal Fisheries Protection Act - is still in place.

While Ottawa repealed a regulation that made Spanish and Portuguese boats official targets of that law, Spanish officials say that as long as the law is on the statute books, nothing prevents Canada's parliament from introducing another similar regulation.

Either Ottawa gives up its right to apply laws beyond its own borders or Spain will veto the transatlantic agreement, they warn.

Ottawa, however, insists it has no plans to alter the legislation and diplomats say that if Spain wants another of its demands met - the right to increase its catch limit if fish stocks are found to be increasing - it is not in Madrid's interest to have the protection act repealed.

Spain is also still angry with Canada for not ratifying a 1992 agreement on fish conservation, parts of which Ottawa says are now obsolete. “Canada has the record for signing but not ratifying fishing agreements,” claimed a Spanish diplomat.

Canadian officials say they are discussing how to handle the parts of the four-year-old text which are still valid, and are negotiating with the EU.

Both the Union and Canada are members of the North Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (NAFO), which sets conservation measures and catch limits for the traditionally rich waters off Canada's east coast.

Those world-famous fishing stocks have dwindled to near extinction, and Canadians often blame Spaniards for their depletion. Since 1988, Canadian ports have been closed to all EU boats - a move originally designed to punish British and German boats which once plied the waters, but one which now applies only to the Spanish and Portuguese.

Complying with Spanish demands, Ottawa has announced the opening of its ports, a process officials say will take effect in the coming weeks. Madrid nevertheless wants open ports in the EU-Canada action plan, a demand which has upset the Canadians.

“The Spanish don't seem to believe us when we say we have opened our ports,” said one frustrated trade official.

While Spanish diplomats continue their loud rumblings, Canadian officials remain optimistic, and have told Chrétien not to cancel his flight.

“We still think it can be worked out between now and the end of June,” said one, but he conceded: “As the days go by, that gets more and more difficult.”