EC TO ABOLISH TAX ON SPANISH MAIZE EXPORTS

  The European Community Commission has
  decided to abolish a special tax of eight Ecus per tonne
  imposed on exports of Spanish maize, Commission sources said.
      They said the tax, which applies to Spanish sales to EC and
  non-EC countries alike, would no longer be required on exports
  from Spanish ports south of Valencia.
      The decision was taken at a meeting of the authority's
  cereals management committee today.
      The tax had been introduced last September at the same time
  as a subsidy of eight Ecus per tonne was brought in for exports
  of maize to Spain from other EC member countries.
      The aim of the tax was to prevent the maize imported into
  Spain from the other EC states with the help of subsidies from
  being reexported back to them.
      The sources added that Spain had received no answer from
  the committee to its request that tenders be opened for the
  sale to third countries of 450,000 tonnes of maize.
      The request will be considered at the committee's next
  meeting, the commission sources said.
      Madrid estimates that it needs to import 1.7 mln tonnes of
  maize this year, while an EC-U.S. accord guarantees non-EC
  producer sales to Spain of two mln tonnes of maize and 300,000
  tonnes of sorghum annually for the next four years.
  

