A long-running row within the European Union over how to cut import tariffs on unwrought aluminium appeared resolved on Tuesday when experts from member states agreed on a compromise, an EU diplomat said. "We have agreed to reduce the duties," the diplomat said.
The group agreed to halve the duty to 3 percent and then review it after three years based on market conditions, the diplomat said. A spokesman for the current EU president, Germany, was unable to confirm the agreement, saying talks were continuing.
The cut would take effect once published in the EU's Official Journal as it was decided that backdating the reduction would be too complicated for smaller firms, the diplomat said. EU member state ambassadors would need to sign the deal before formal adoption by ministers. The EU's executive Commission previously proposed that the halving of the duties be made retroactive to January 1, 2007 before their elimination from 2009.
But that ran into opposition from several countries. Lower tariffs have been sought by new EU members such as Poland and the Czech Republic, where firms have had to pay more for raw material from countries such as Russia and Ukraine than before they joined the bloc. But several older EU members, including Germany, have been worried about the effect of cutting the import duties on their own smelting companies.
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