Norway accused of discriminatory policies

Date: 11/01/1996

By Michael Mann

NORWAY'S relations with the European Union are being soured by continuing disputes over fisheries and agricultural trade, more than a year after its decision not to become the Union's 16th member state.

The temporary respite won by the agreement over shared fish stocks just before Christmas has been followed swiftly by accusations from Danish and British fishermen that new laws coming out of Oslo are discriminatory, and that Norway is actually being rewarded for its No vote in the November 1994 referendum.

Problems are being exacerbated by accusations first raised by Swedish Agriculture Minister Margareta Winberg that Norway has unjustifiably raised import duties on a number of EU-processed food products.

According to Nils Wichmann, leader of Denmark's fisheries union, the new Norwegian fishing regulations are completely contrary to the European Economic Area agreement (EEA).

Wichmann insists that unless Oslo can be persuaded to make its rules more flexible, the Commission must retaliate by imposing equally difficult conditions on Norwegian fishermen operating in EU waters.

“EU fisheries associations have the impression that the Commission is going out of its way to remain friendly with the Norwegians, even though they voted No to membership. Already, too much was given away in the TAC negotiations during December,” he claims.

Even so, the EU and Norway are still a long way from a long-term agreement on the level of catch reductions necessary to ensure the maintenance of sustainable stock levels.

The heart of the problem lies in what Norwegian officials claim is their attempt to prevent the over-fishing of Atlantic-Scando herring, which last year left Norway's territorial waters for the first time since 1958, after stocks had finally recovered to sufficiently healthy levels.

Norwegian officials insist they should receive around 70&percent; of a Total Allowable Catch which should be set at around a million tonnes. But so far, negotiations with the EU, Russia, Iceland and the Faroe Islands have made little progress.

Denmark and Scotland claim new laws preventing catches from being landed at Norwegian ports amount to an attempt by Oslo to impose its national rules outside its own territory, in a similar scenario to the EU's dispute with Canada last spring.

Similarly, Wichmann insists that the recently-imposed requirement for EU vessels to announce their intended arrival in Norwegian waters at least 24 hours in advance is totally contrary to the spirit of the EEA accord. Norway puts this down to military considerations in the new post-Cold War situation.

Union leaders in northern Jutland have begun threatening a blockade against Norwegian vessels, frustrated by an alleged lack of consultation with EU fishermen by policy-makers, in contrast to the close involvement of their counterparts in Norway.

Insult has been added to injury by tariff concessions on processed fish products awarded to Oslo under the GATT agreement as compensation for tariff increases when Sweden, Finland and Austria joined the Union.

“To us, this seems like a reward for Norway for not having joined the EU. It's tantamount to exporting jobs to Norway,” Wichmann complains.

In a reflection of the situation in the run-up to the referendum on EU membership - when the fisheries and farming lobbies were the most vocal opponents of membership - controversy also surrounds agricultural trade between Norway and the Union.

At December's EU farm ministers meeting, Sweden complained that Norwegian import duty arrangements introduced last October were threatening exports of processed products, such as chocolate, worth some 175 million ecu every year.

Oslo claims that the EU has raised duties against some of its products in retaliation for the new system, which calculates duties on the basis of the milk fat, milk protein, starch and flour content of each product. Officials also maintain the Union is exaggerating the effect the changes have actually had.

Hopes remain that talks between officials on 17 January will help resolve the dispute and allow a mutual cut in duty rates. The issue is also likely to be on the agenda when Norwegian farm minister Gunhild Øyangen meets Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler on 25 January.