MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile to appeal to WTO over EU's salmon barriers.

Chile said it has appealed to the World Trade Organization against limits placed by the European Union on farmed salmon imports at the beginning of February.

A formal appeal for consultations was lodged with the WTO Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Under the WTO's rules covering trade disputes, the two sides will enter talks for 60 days to see if an agreement acceptable to both can be worked out.

Last week the EU applied quotas and minimum prices from imported farmed salmon from leading producers Chile, Iceland, Norway and Faeroe Islands.

The EU took the action after Ireland and Scotland lodged complaints of dumping by the four countries, which supply most of the farmed salmon sold in Europe.

An important industry for the country, Chile exported salmon worth 1.3 billion dollars in 2004, according to exporters group Salmon Chile.

Norway, the largest exporter of salmon to Europe, will also make an appeal to the WTO against the quotas, Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik said Wednesday.

"We feel that the protective measures adopted by the EU are unfounded within the framework of the World Trade Organization," Bondevik, whose country is not an EU member, told reporters.

"The domestic market is based on the principle of free competition. The European Commission's measures are not in line with this principle," he said.