BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

15/06/2007

EU: No Trade Preferences for Belarus

By AOIFE WHITE

The European Union said Friday it would withdraw trade preferences from Belarus for the country's failure to reform labor rights, a move that will increase the cost of some Belarus goods to lucrative European markets.

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said Belarus was clearly flouting International Labor Organization standards that insist all workers should be able to join trade unions and make collective wage deals with employers.

Scrapping the EU trade breaks will mean higher tariffs for the 12 percent of Belarus exports to the EU that currently have preferential rates.

The EU has largely cut contacts with the government of Belarus, imposing financial sanctions and a travel ban on President Alexander Lukashenko and other leaders it accuses of rigging elections and cracking down on opponents.

"Europe attaches great importance to work and labor conditions and increasingly to environmental safeguards also," Mandelson said. "I have always made it clear that I want to maximize developing country access to Europe's market place. But equally this access has to be based on fair and decent rules."

The Geneva-based ILO released a statement earlier Friday that said Belarus had not made progress on giving workers the right to join unions.

It called on the government to act without delay to make sure all workers' and employers' organizations could operate freely and discuss with unions changes to a draft trade union law to make sure it complies with international commitments.

The EU's executive first suggested withdrawing trade preferences in 2003 when it found that the former Soviet republic was denying workers their right to join unions and to make collective deals with employers.

In 2004, an investigation by the International Labor Organization found that Belarus was not obeying ILO agreements it had signed.

Last year, the EU said it would broadcast a message to the people of Belarus holding out the prospect of increased trade, job opportunities, easier travel to the West, and EU aid to hospitals, schools, energy networks and the environment.

To gain the benefits of closer contact with the EU, Belarus would have to allow free elections and meet standards of free speech, human rights, independent media and judiciary, the EU said.

Trade between Belarus and the EU stands at only about 0.1 percent of total EU trade flows. But some 4.99 billion euros ($6 billion) of Belarus' total external trade of 13.85 billion euros ($16.7 billion) in 2004 was with the European Union, according to EU figures.

Top exports to the EU included mineral oils, lubricants and related materials, while top EU exports to Belarus were machinery and automotive products.

Belarus, however, is the main land transit route from EU countries to Moscow. Russian oil and gas pipelines to western Europe pass through the country, including part of the world's longest oil pipeline, which transports oil from central Russia to Germany.

Source:

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/06/15/ap3826183.html

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