RESOLUTION OF THE EUROPEAN COAL AND STEEL COMMUNITY CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE on the current negotiations with a view to the creation of a European economic area (adopted unanimously at the 292nd Session held on 7 June 1991) (91/C 197/02)

THE ECSC CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE,

Having heard the reports of its Subcommittees for General Objectives and Markets and Prices,

Having taken note of the declarations made by the representative of the Commission,

1. SUPPORTS the Commission's policy approach of widening and deepening cooperation between the EFTA countries and the Community in the steel sector, thus going beyond the scope of the free trade agreement currently in force;

2.CONSIDERS that the observance of identical rules by all steel industry undertakings is indispensable in order to ensure conditions of fair competition on the Community steel market, where EFTA countries already occupy a very important position since their deliveries represent 40 % of all Community imports;

3.CONSIDERS, nevertheless, that closer cooperation between EFTA and the ECSC must be achieved on the basis of complete reciprocity. Any unilateral concession by the Commission would be unjustified and prejudicial. The performance of EFTA undertakings is, from the technological, economic and organizational point of view, comparable to that of Community undertakings;

4.REQUESTS:

- that undertakings in EFTA countries be subject to the same rules and controls concerning subsidies and competition as those with which Community undertakings must comply,

-that these undertakings supply information identical to that which their counterparts in the ECSC countries are obliged to provide concerning statistics, investments and market trends;

5.INSISTS as regards the EFTA countries, on the necessity of maintaining the following for as long as their steel undertakings are not subject to the same rules and controls as their Community counterparts:

-current provisions on rules of origin, in order to avoid any circumventing of the regulations on monitoring trade and on competition,

-the possibility, under Article VI of the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (GATT), of taking anti-dumping and countervailing actions;

6.HOPES that the Commission will inform the Committee in good time of developments in the current negotiations with the EFTA countries.