EEC AND GULF COUNTRIES IN TRADE, COOPERATION TALKS.

Nov 17, 1984

EEC AND GULF COUNTRIES IN TRADE, COOPERATION TALKS.

BRUSSELS, NOVEMBER 15 (IPS-IFDA/YOJANA SHARMA) – The European Economic Community is seeking a loose cooperation pact with the Gulf countries as a framework for discussing the thorny problem of Gulf petrochemical imports to Europe, according to EEC sources here.-

Officials of the EEC and the Gulf Cooperation Council met in Riyadh and Manama last week in closed-door talks to discuss a more open EEC market for Gulf petrochemical exports and to sound out the possibilities of a cooperation agreement.-

EEC officials declined to comment on the outcome, saying only those meetings would continue in Manama in January.-

But EEC sources told IPS this week that the Community's first priority is an economic cooperation agreement between the EEC and the GCC countries (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman).-

They said this would not have any specific trade provisions but would enable trade matters to be discussed within a "framework" agreement.-

EEC officials see this as an ideal forum to solve problems over petrochemical imports, the sources said.-

In June the EEC imposed a 13.5 percent common customs tariff on imports of Saudi methanol, angering the GCC countries, which were in the process of lobbying the EEC to soften quotas and ceilings on Arab petrochemicals in preparation for new middle eastern exports.-

European industries, however, feared that if relations between the EEC and the GCC break down, a price-cutting free-for-all would break out in petrochemicals that would be disastrous for Europe.-

The European petrochemical industry is hoping that contacts between the EEC and the GCC will lead to an agreement on pricing and volume of petrochemical imports from the Gulf, particularly for polyethylenes, methanol and ethylene glycol.-

Recent forecasts estimated that Gulf supplies of these products will soar 20-fold between now and 1990 as new Gulf plants come on stream.-

Until October, the Gulf countries had seemed cautious about a cooperation agreement, but Gulf diplomats were reported to have spoken positively about prospects for an agreement while they were at UN headquarters in New York for the General Assembly.-

The EEC sources say the Gulf countries wanted to work on coordinating their own economic and defence policies before negotiating with other countries as a group.-

While in recent months this coordinating has improved considerably, Arab countries have recognised an urgent need for collective bargaining with the EEC as the only way to improve their terms of trade.-

A recent bulletin of the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) called for collective bargaining by its members to counter attempts by EEC and other western countries to deal with OAPEC members individually in order to impose unfair trade terms.-

As a result, considerable weight is sometimes attached to the principle of "fair comparability" or "fair relativity" with wages paid elsewhere in the economy.-

But the methods of comparability and the groups with which comparisons are made as well as the relative importance given to this criterion for fixing pay levels, vary from county to country and often raise difficult technical problems, ILO adds.-

With the intensification of inflationary pressures during the 1970’s, the protection of the real purchasing power of wage earners has assumed increasing importance, says ILO.-

Like wage earners throughout the economy, PTT employees in most countries have experienced little growth in real wages and in some cases have suffered a significant decline in their purchasing power, with higher-paid occupations often faring worse than others.-

This has often been the result of explicit wage restraint measures adopted by many countries over the last decades with the measures sometimes aimed primarily at or having their main impact on the public sector.-

Younger workers in most countries earn less than older workers - their pay being determined either through a system of wage abatements below the adult rate or by the far more common method of special lower grades for younger workers and fewer incremental steps within the grade.-

However in virtually any PTT administration, "there are now no differences in the pay scales applicable to men and women".-

There is however a tendency towards job segregation, with women often concentrated in the lower-paying jobs.-

"To ensure a full application in the PTT of the principle of equal pay for work of equal value, it is important to ensure that jobs occupied by women are not being systematically undervalued" the ILO office adds.-

Increased demand for communication and information, and the need to rationalise processes through mechanisation and automation have brought about technological changes.-

In the Industrial countries it has led to declining demand for manpower, specially in the postal services where operation was labour-intensive.-

But in the Third World countries, governments have had to assess the desirability of such changes in the general framework of employment policy and manpower problems, and financial constraints.-

"It may well be that any overall, or even large-scale introduction of mechanisation or automation will have to be considerably slowed down" in the Third World.-

Some technological changes have brought about marked improvement for some postal workers, specially by reducing fatigue of physically carrying mail sacks or packages.-

But the technological changes have done little to improve the conditions of other categories of workers, who continue be engaged on repetitive tasks, and have even introduced new problems and potential hazards such as those arising from the use of Visual Display Units (VDUs) or microwave systems.-

In the telecommunication services, a serious source of danger to workers, and sometimes the publics arises when electricity and telecommunication wires are close to each other or cross, or for carrying both networks on same poles.-

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has published some recommendations in this area, particularly for protection of staff and plant against a large earth potential due to a neighbouring electric traction line and protection against over-voltages.-

In the case of workers in radio, TV and similar services, the main potential hazard is that of radio frequency radiation, considered in all countries to be the most dangerous factor as far as safety and health of workers, and sometimes of the public, are concerned.-

ILO says that in this area it is first and foremost necessary to define maximum safe levels of power density or field strength.-

While this has been done in many countries for persons working with appliances generating and emitting radio frequency radiations, there are considerable discrepancies in these levels owing to different approaches and criteria applied.-

The ILO itself is preparing a publication on occupation hazards from non-ionising radiations. A draft code of practice on non-ionising radiations is under way, and an expert group is to review and adopt this draft in 1986/87.-