DUTCH GRAIN LEVY TEST CASE TO START IN APRIL

  A large Dutch animal feed compounder
  will begin formal legal proceedings early next month as a test
  case on the way the EC grain co-responsibility levy is applied,
  a spokesman for Dutch grain and feed trade association, Het
  Comite, told Reuters.
      Het Comite has been co-ordinating national actions against
  alleged distortions caused by currency factors in the levy and,
  since December, has lodged more than 80 individual cases with
  the Business Appeal Court in The Hague.
      The basic complaint is that the levy does not take account
  of currency cross-rates of exchange and therefore compounders
  in countries with strong currencies may have to pay more in
  their own currency than is paid to them by producers in another
  country.
      Het Comite has obtained a temporary agreement that
  companies can pay the amount they receive toward the levy
  rather than paying a full guilder amount to the Dutch grain
  commodity board.
      The spokesman said Het Comite will provide financial and
  legal backing to the test case in the Business Administration
  Court in the Hague. Oral proceedings are to begin on April 10.
      The spokesman said Het Comite finally selected the company
  for the test case from among the 80 lodged "because the bill
  (the firm) received from the commodity board for payment of the
  levy contained significant currency distortions and involved
  grain from a wide variety of origins." The name of the company
  is not being made public.
      The Administration Court is not expected to make a final
  ruling on the case in the near future. The Het Comite spokesman
  said it was very likely it would refer questions to the Appeal
  Court in Luxembourg, and "as a result it could easily be another
  nine to 12 months before the matter is finally resolved."
      Meanwhile, the actions by Dutch animal feed compounders are
  putting pressure on the commodity board to urge the Dutch
  government to follow through on earlier statements and seek a
  complete review in Brussels of the way in which the levy is
  collected, the spokesman said.
      Het Comite, as a member of FEFAC, the association of
  European animal feed manufacturers, is also a party to actions
  protesting the whole levy in the Luxembourg appeal court.
  

