Danish drivers sizzled
Page 5
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
DENMARK stopped sending food to France last month by road after angry French farmers pulled drivers from their lorries in a border incident and slashed their tyres.
Tons of Danish bacon and ham were taken off the vehicles, piled in the road where it was soaked in petrol and set alight.
The drivers of the Danish and Dutch lorries involved in the incident at Tourocing on the Belgian-French border complained to police that they had been manhandled.
But although a squad of French riot police was sent to the scene the men, it is reported, did not intervene.
The violence shown to international transporters is linked to the dispute over Japanese videos which resulted in shipments being diverted to one customs post in South-West France last year.
In both cases the French are complaining that cheap imports are ruining their markets. In the case of food, stability will not return until EEC Agriculture Ministers have reached a new agreement on a price. structure for the next 12 months.
The breakdown of the talks in Luxembourg indicates there will be more problems ahead for drivers of foreign food lorries trying to enter France in the face of pickets of angry farmers.