The Council of Ministers of the European Economic Community voted today to allow the recent decision of the EEC Commission providing for minimum reference prices on citrus fruit imported into Common Market countries, to go into effect tomorrow. At the same time, the Council decided to leave the door open for reconsideration of the entire issue which threatens Israel’s orange exports to these countries because of compensatory taxes aimed at raising prices to a level higher than Italian oranges.
While permitting the Commission’s ruling to take effect tomorrow, the Council’s decision today authorized the Commission and the Special Committee for Agriculture to present before January 31, proposals for an alternate solution to the problem of citrus imports into the Common Market countries which would give due consideration to the effect of the system on trade with countries outside the EEC.
Today’s decision, while implementing the ruling providing for unpredictable compensatory taxes on imported citrus, opens the way to some new approach to the protection of Italian orange producers which would not affect the traditional trade channels of non-member countries. Israeli orange producers must now await the first test cases of the price differential and the attitude of EEC officials on the enforcement of the compensatory taxes, before the precise effect of the system on Israeli trade is known.
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