U.S. SOY PRODUCERS THINK EC OILS TAX UNLIKELY American soybean producers are confident the proposed European Community (EC) tax on vegetable oils and fats will be rejected but are leaving nothing to chance, American Soybean Association (ASA) president-elect Wayne Bennett said. Bennett, who is leading one of three soybean producer delegations on a lobbying tour of EC capitals, was speaking at a lunch. After meetings at the Economics and Foreign ministries this morning, he said the Dutch Government had indicated it would vote against the proposal, as had a number of other countries. "Our information suggests we will have the required number of votes in Brussels to prevent the tax proposal going forward," he said. "The proposal has been talked of in Brussels for the past 20 years, and dropped every time. What we want now is to kill it once and for all," Bennett added. Backing up the soybean producers' active lobbying, the U.S. Government has also indicated it will be prepared to retaliate with penal import taxes if the proposal does get through, he said. The U.S. Government also feels it has a good case to fight the proposed tax in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), a U.S. Embassy spokesman said. U.S. Exports of soybeans and products to the EC account for one-fifth of annual production, and are worth about 2.5 billion dlrs a year, Bennett said. The proposed tax on oils and fats would hit U.S. Producers badly while at the same time virtually doubling the price of soyoil in the EC, which would suffer far worse than other higher-priced oils because of the nature of the proposed tax, he added. The revenue to the EC from the tax would simply be used to finance the EC's own oilseed subsidy machine, he said. "We in the ASA are dedicated free-traders. We helped defeat the Wine Equity Act two years ago, but we will not stand by and watch our own farmers suffer from such protectionist EC measures," Bennett said. "The mood in the U.S. Is turning increasingly protectionist, and the EC's actions are fueling the chances of a trade war," he added.