PORTUGAL GRAIN AGENCY BARRED FROM IMPORT TENDERS A Portuguese court has made a preliminary ruling that the state grain buying agency EPAC should not be allowed to take part in public import tenders open to private importers, grain traders and officials said. Under the terms of Portugal's January 1986 accession to the European Community, EC, a grain import monopoly held by EPAC (Empresa Publica de Abastecimento de Cereais) is being reduced by 20 pct annually until all imports are liberalised in 1990. Private traders protested last year that EPAC was being permitted to take part in tenders open to them for the first liberalised 20 pct share of the country's annual import needs. The grain and oilseed importers association ACICO opened legal proceedings to stop EPAC participating in the public tenders. Miguel Ascensao of ACICO told Reuters that Lisbon's civil court, in a preliminary ruling, had decided EPAC should not be allowed to take part in tenders open to private traders. Trade sources said the ruling, though effective immediately, was subject to appeal and would have to be confirmed in further proceedings. A member of the government Cereals Market Commission said that, as a result of the court's decision, the Commission would not be able to accept offers from EPAC in a public tender being held today for the import of 80,000 tonnes of corn. Ascensao said the court ruling stated that EPAC's participation in the public tenders violated the clauses of Portugal's EC accession treaty dealing with the gradual dismantling of the state agency's import monopoly. It also said the participation of EPAC, which still controls the national grain storage and distribution network, was unfair competition to the private traders. Traders said they believed the EC's Executive Commission was unlikely to get involved in the dispute, preferring to leave the case to be resolved as an internal Portuguese issue. "They (the EC Commission) will be keeping a low profile," one trader said. ACICO says it is ready to take its case to Brussels if necessary.