EC FARM LOBBIES BACK OILS AND FATS "TAX" PLAN

  The European Community (EC) farmers'
  and farm cooperatives lobbies, Copa and Cogeca, have backed the
  EC Commission plan for an oils and fats price stabilisation
  mechanism, claiming it would not harm consumers.
      In a letter to Belgian Foreign Minister Leo Tindemans,
  current president of the EC Council of Ministers, they said the
  mechanism, often referred to as a tax, would in fact subsidise
  oils and fats prices in the EC under some circumstances.
      This would have been the case in May 1984, when soya oil
  prices cif Rotterdam stood at 914 dlrs a tonne, they noted.
      If such price stabilisation is not implemented, EC farmers
  should not be the ones to suffer through their prices and
  incomes from the financial consequences, the letter, made
  available to journalists, said.
      Under the Commission proposal the mechanism would initially
  result in a tax of 330 Ecus a tonne on both imported and EC
  produced oils and marine fats.
      The mechanism would provide for this tax to be reduced, and
  possibly to become a subsidy, as world soya oil prices rose
  from present levels.
  

