Passage 1
In April, the EC imposed a ban on livestock, meat and dairy products from 18 eastern countries following an outbreak of hoof and mouth disease in Croatia. Hungarian Foreign Minister Geza Jeszenszky told EC leaders that the “entirely unwarranted (move) smacks of a most regrettable survival of the notion of an Eastern bloc.”
The EC followed with antidumping duties and “voluntary” export restraints on certain steel products from Hungary and Poland. And just days after signing the EFTA free trade agreement in early April, Austria introduced import quotas on chemicals, cement agricultural machinery, and steel from Eastern Europe. West Europeans claim that their eastern neighbors have an unfair advantage because of low wages, state subsidies and low environmental standards.
Although the EC and EFTA agreements are supposed to lift tariffs and trade barriers on most industrial goods over 10 years, most agricultural products are not included in the agreements. This is critical for Hungary, with its extensive farm sector.
“The EC is never going to let Hungary achieve its potential output,” says Iowa David Andres, who has studied Hungarian agriculture firsthand ,” They’re already afraid of Hungary.”
Statements:
45.There will be a lot of improvement in exports of Eastern Europe’s products except agricultural products.