Threat to roads after French ports blockade

PARIS -- Farmers and taxi drivers are copying the militant example set by fishermen by mounting a series of new blockades which threatened to seriously disrupt France's transport system.

The fishermen's three-day blockade of ports in protest against high fuel prices only ended on Thursday after the government was forced to offer concessions.

But as maritime traffic began to return to normal at Mediterranean and Channel ports, up to 100 farmers used their tractors to block the road into an oil refinery at Reichstett, near the eastern town of Strasbourg.

They demanded to meet Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, who was due to visit the city on Friday, in order to voice their grievances.

Meanwhile, taxi drivers planned go-slow demonstrations across the country to push similar demands.

The first protests halted traffic on the A15 motorway northwest of Paris, in Metz in the east, Vannes in the west and Foix in the southwest.

Luc Guyau, head of the FNSEA farmers union, said a 30 percent tax cut on tractor fuel announced on Thursday as part of Finance Minister Laurent Fabius's tax reform was insufficient.

He said: "This is only just about the rise in fuel prices over the past two weeks. We must keep up the pressure."

Farmers said the tax cut on tractor fuel represented a rebate of about 20 centimes on a 3.20 French franc ($0.43) litre of fuel. Fuel for fishing boats, unlike tractor fuel, is untaxed.

Agriculture Minister Jean Glavany agreed on Thursday to come up with a compensation package that fishermen said would ensure that they paid no more then 1.30 French francs ($0.17) per litre of fuel.

The move ended national blockades at ports, including Boulogne, Dunkirk, St Malo, and Cherbourg, where thousands of travellers were prevented from leaving or entering France by sea.

"We won. All French port blockades will be lifted," a union leader told a cheering crowd of fishermen at Calais as he got news of the agreement on his mobile telephone.

Unionists in Marseille and Normandy agreed to end their protest which had blocked ports and oil refineries.

Glavany said he had reached "a good agreement" with protest leaders who were seeking relief from rising fuel prices, which have tripled over the past 18 months.

News of the deal cheered British tourists at Calais, where scuffles had earlier broken out between fishermen and angry motorists.

Trucks, which had been backed up for more than six kilometres (four miles), began moving towards the Eurotunnel rail shuttle.

UK ferry operator P&O Stena Line said it had resumed full passenger and freight services from the British port of Dover after fishermen began dismantling the blockade.

The ferry company said passenger cars had been facing about nine hours of delay crossing the channel from Britain while truckers faced six hours of delays.

The British government, which plans to raise the issue at a meeting of the European Union, says it will seek compensation for the delays caused to private and commercial travellers.

UK Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said: "It is totally unacceptable that Britain could be held to ransom in this kind of blockade raising out of a dispute in France."

Reuters contributed to this report.

P&O tries to stop French port blockades
August 31, 2000

French Government
European Union

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