The advantages of partnership with EU for consumers

It is very important for consumers to be informed about the concrete advantages of partnership with the European Union. It is equally important that they are told of the disadvantages of full membership.

Let us take the case of beef as an example. The European Union imposes a levy (the GATT licence) of 3 per kilo on all frozen or processed beef in excess of 300 grams in weight and originating from countries outside the European Union.

This levy is in addition to a tax of 12.8 per cent on the monetary value of the price of imported beef and, also, in addition to other taxes such as VAT.

These indirect taxes on frozen or processed beef are a huge burden on consumers in EU member countries.

When one considers 300 grams of frozen or processed beef for each person in Malta and the fact that Malta imports an average of 6,000 tons of frozen beef annually to meet the demands of local consumers and tourists, one quickly understands the great disadvantage that full membership of the European Union will bring about for every Maltese family.

The Labour Party's policy of partnership with the European Union will ensure that consumers and tourists will be spared this extra expense.

It is also worth noting that other forms of levies such as the integrated tariffs of the European Communities (TARIC), special safeguard provisions and tariff quotas are applied by the European Union on a wide range of food products consumed by the Maltese people.

This is one of the reasons why the MLP's policy of partnership with the EU guarantees a liberalisation of trade for Malta which is even greater than that which we will have if Malta were to become a member of the European Union.

Furthermore, partnership with the EU is a guarantee that we will have less direct and indirect taxes on food.

The local food and beverage industries will also be hard hit by Malta's membership of the European Union.

One of the arguments being brought forward in favour of membership is the fact that Maltese products will have a market of 380 million consumers and of 500 million consumers after enlargement.

This argument overlooks the fact that Malta's food and beverage industries will lose the advantages they enjoy at present while Malta is still not a full member of the European Union.

For example, today, our food and beverage industries buy their raw materials on the advantageous international market and/or the EU external market.

They import any quantity of raw materials they want to, whenever they want to, and at favourable prices.

In this manner, their products retain their competitive edge. With European Union membership, this important advantage would disappear and such importation of raw materials would become subject to EU controls.

This would entail higher costs of production which would lead to higher prices for Maltese consumers and the loss of competitiveness for Malta's food and beverage industries.

Proof of all this is the fact that the Maltese government is requesting the European Union to exempt Malta from such controls on importation.

The government is requesting that Malta be allowed, upon becoming a member of the EU, to import an amount of its raw materials for its food and beverage industries under the conditions pertaining at present when Malta is still not a member of the EU.

One has to keep in mind that whether or not Malta becomes a member of the European Union, it will never be able to produce such products or qualify for EU subsidies on them.

With partnership, Malta will benefit from 90 per cent of EU subsidies on agriculture instead of not qualifying for them as will be the case with membership. With partnership, Malta will save millions of liri annually on the importation of food products as well as food items used as raw materials and originating from EU member countries.

Not being members of the European Union means that we are already saving more than e50 million annually on the importation of 10 products alone, given the internal and external prices of the EU for this source of food products in EU member countries.

These are only some of the huge advantages that Malta will enjoy if it follows the MLP policy of partnership with the European Union.