Pressure On France By E.E.C. Executive

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31881, 8 January 1969, Page 12

Pressure On France By E.E.C. Executive

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) BRUSSELS, January 7. Unless France raises her preferential interest rate for exporters to other Common Market countries by the end of this week, she can expect to be called to answer to the European Court of Justice, according to informed sources in Brussels.

i The Community’s excutive commission told France last month that the level of her rate was contrary to a commission ruling of last July and to the Rome Treaty founding the Common Market. It asked her to raise the rate from 2 per cent to 44 per cent within 21 days. I That decision, taken in the! aftermath of the May and June unrest in France,, allowed France to lend money to exporters at a 2 per cent interest rate —3 per cent lower than the Bank Rate at the time. Under the same decision, she was to raise the preferential rate by November to a minimum of 3( per cent and not more than U per cent lower than the Bank Rate and to abolish it by the end of this month. France raised the preferential rate to 3 per cent on December 31, but in the meantime the Bank Rate had risen to 6 per cent, so that the difference between the two is still 1| per cent more than that allowed by the commission. The sources say the commission is likely to refer the matter to the European Court of Justice in Luxemburg if France fails to comply with; its request.