Scotland urges EU to keep salmon trade protection

Scottish authorities appealed to the European Commission on Wednesday not to axe anti-dumping measures that protect its salmon farmers from fierce Norwegian competition.

The European Union imposed minimum import prices on farmed salmon from Norway in 2006, saying it was being sold at unfairly low prices and hurting fish farms in Scotland and Ireland.

European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson must decide soon whether the measures should be continued.

"The Scottish government believes the minimum import price has worked and that there is a strong case for its retention," Michael Russell, environment minister for Scotland's regional government, told Reuters during a visit to Brussels.

The 27-nation EU is Norway's biggest export market for seafood, the country's third-biggest export earner.

The case is a sensitive one for Brussels because Irish fish farmers have said they will try to mobilise voters along the country's western coast to vote against the EU's new Lisbon Treaty in a referendum next month, if the measures are repealed.

Russell said if Brussels dropped the measures, it had to ensure they could be re-imposed quickly if needed and that there would be "a level playing field" for Scottish salmon farmers.

BANK LOANS

Scottish and Irish fish farmers say they are worried after their bigger Norwegian rivals recently took out bank loans by using their aquaculture licences as collateral, possibly signalling an expansion of output and a fall in prices.

"I want to make sure resources are equally available to Scottish companies and I am looking at the way in which we can do that, in terms of Scottish regulations and other measures like that," Russell said.

He also said he was reviewing the way natural spaces were being used for fish farming in Scotland, where the biggest companies are often Norwegian-owned.

"We want to make sure nobody is sitting on sites and not allowing those sites to be put into use," he said, stressing there was no intention to take licences away from companies.

Norway strongly denies its salmon producers broke any trade rules with their exports to the EU and it challenged the 2006 minimum import prices at the World Trade Organisation.

The WTO found last year that the EU was at fault on several points in its handling of the salmon dumping case, although Brussels as well as Oslo claimed victory from the ruling.

Separately in 2007, the European Commission launched an internal review of whether to keep the minimum import prices and Mandelson is due to make his decision based on that review.

As well as the pressure from the Irish fish farmers, Mandelson has also been criticised by the country's beef and dairy farmers for making too many agriculture concessions in global trade talks. They are threatening to urge voters to reject the Lisbon Treaty unless he changes his plans.

Ireland is the only EU country due to hold a referendum on the new treaty - hammered out in 2007 after years of wrangling - and a 'no' vote could trigger a political crisis.