EVENTS in Brussels seem to be moving in favour of the Scottish salmon-farming industry which is involved in a desperate struggle with its overbearing Norwegian rival. Norway already produces more than half of the world's farmed Atlantic salmon and has shown recently that it possesses more than enough capacity to wreck the European price structure to the detriment of the industry in Scotland and Ireland where thousands of jobs are imperilled.
Obvious lessons will be drawn from this long-running trade dispute. Norway is paying the price for twice rejecting membership of the European Union. This gives the lie to the Eurosceptic claim that Britain could trade freely with the EU without being a member. The salmon dispute proves there is a political advantage to being in a club which has become more than just a businessman's plaything. Were it not so, Norway would not now be in panic at the thought of being cut off from a lucrative market on its own doorstep. The second lesson is that the Scottish fish farming industry is learning the hard way how to fight its corner. Throughout its long battle against Norway's now proven record of secret subsidising and dumping of stocks, the Scottish industry has received less than wholehearted support from the Scottish Office. True, the Government asked - belatedly - for a minimum import price to
help producers but, unusually, failed to get it out of Brussels. Now that an election is looming and various Tory marginals are being defended by Cabinet Ministers in Scotland, there is a new sense of urgency. Good luck to the Scottish producers. They have learned how to twist Ministerial arms. If the Scottish fish farmers win this one - and it seems they will, at least in the short term - the Government can take little credit.
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