BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

21/12/2006

EU moves to extend sanctions on Belarus

BRUSSELS: The European Union will extend sanctions against Belarus by removing trade privileges unless Minsk addresses concerns over labour rights within six months, an EU official said yesterday.

Ambassadors of the 25 EU states meeting in Brussels agreed to remove the former Soviet republic's access to generalised tariff preferences offered to developing states in six months' time unless progress was made, the official said.

The move follows complaints by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) about restrictions on trade union rights in Belarus, which is already subject to EU sanctions for its curbs on democracy.

The decision will affect the proportion of Belarussian imports that come into the EU at preferential rates. These accounted for around 12.5% of Belarus's exports to the EU, worth a total of 3.3bn euros ($4.32bn) in 2005.

"The GSP preferential access regime provides a discount on full tariff rates. What we have threatened to do is to remove that in six months time if Belarus doesn't improve its performance," an EU official said.

EU states Latvia, Lithuania and Poland bordering Belarus had opposed introduction of EU trade sanctions but EU foreign ministers reached political agreement on the issue this month.

The ambassadors' decision will be formally endorsed by EU ministers on Wednesday.

An EU official said the EU would review the labour rights situation in Belarus after an ILO report due in March.

Belarus, a country of 10mn people, is accused by the West of crushing human rights, silencing the media and routinely rigging elections.

The EU has already slapped visa bans on 35 top Belarussian officials and frozen their assets over President Alexander Lukashenko's re-election in March polls. - Reuters

Source:

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=123645&version=1&template_id=39&parent_id=21