Three European auto plants were shut down Friday

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Protests Over Gasoline Prices Persist in Europe as Auto Plants Close

A WSJ.Com News Roundup

LONDON -- Three European auto plants were shut down Friday, as protests over fuel prices gained momentum on the continent after the situation in Britain returned to normal.

The protests which began in France are moving quickly, with a mounting economic toll. In Belgium, Ford Motor Co.'s Genk assembly line ground to a standstill Friday. A Ford official said blockades prevented essential component deliveries to the plant. Ford's other plants in Europe were not affected.

The Belgian blockade also halted production at General Motors Corp.'s Opel plant in Bochum, Germany. The morning shift was idle at the plant, which is about 60 miles from the Belgian border, but production was expected too resume soon, GM's Belgian spokesman Dirk Snauwaerp said.

A GM plant in Antwerp, Belgium was also blocked off from supplies and couldn't produce cars between Thursday afternoon and early Friday, Mr. Snauwaerp said.

Meanwhile, protests intensified in Germany. About 200 trucks, taxis and tractors blockaded the center of the northern city of Bremen, and about 1,600 protesters planned to block autobahns in the eastern state of Saxony later Friday.

The government reiterated that it won't budge on plans to raise gasoline prices by another 7 pfennigs (3 cents) per liter next Jan. 1, part of an 'ecology tax' that took effect last year. Government chief spokesman Uwe-Karsten Heye said there was no risk to the upswing of the German economy, which is expected to post around 3% growth this year and has helped level off unemployment.

In the Netherlands, hundreds of truck and taxi drivers blocked roads outside government offices, and halted road traffic Friday morning to Schipol Airport outside Amsterdam.

The Netherlands has one of Europe's highest tax rates on fuel, topping 70% of the price at the pump. A liter of 95 octane gasoline costs 2.67 guilders ($1.04 or 1.2 euros).

Truck drivers made their way slowly to The Hague from around the country, stopping along the way in wildcat blockades. By mid morning the national automobile association reported 31 blockades on highways leading to the country's largest cities, creating huge backlogs of traffic. The situation was similar in Spain where horn-blaring trucks, moving at a snail's pace, clogged roads leading into Barcelona during the morning rush hour.

In the opening salvo of a wave of protests by Spanish truckers and farmers thousands of motorists were trapped on highways around Spain's second largest city, state radio said.

The go-slow was called by a makeshift coalition of truckers, taxi drivers, fishermen and other workers who depend on fossil fuels to make a living and say their livelihood is threatened by soaring costs.

The coalition is due to hold talks with the government on Monday to press for a cut in fuel taxes, which in Spain account for about 60% of the pump price. The government has ruled out a reduction, agreeing only to freeze plans to raise the tax.

The coalition last week announced a boycott of Repsol, Spain's largest oil company, and says that if the talks with the government fail it will begin blockading refineries.

In Britain, fuel-tax protesters called off their pickets of depots and refineries. But oil companies and the government warned it would be several days, or even weeks, before gas pumps are full again.

http://dowjones.work.com/index.asp?layout=story_news_main&doc_id=8024

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), September 16, 2000


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