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The Sunday Times    11/04/2005 10:55:48

Paul Lamarra

A Norwegian politician has branded the Scots “cowards” and called for a boycott of Scotch whisky.

Ivar Kristiansen, a Conservative member of the Norwegian parliament, made his comments in response to lobbying by Scottish salmon farmers to have import quotas and minimum prices for Norwegian salmon imposed by the European Union.

Controls were introduced in February to prevent Norway from flooding the market with thousands of tons of cheap farmed salmon.

Tony Blair is understood to have lobbied Matti Vanhanen, the Finnish prime minister and Silvio Belusconi, the prime minister of Italy, while the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) secured support from Germany, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Belgium to push through the quotas.

Kristiansen accused Scotland of acting unfairly and of threatening the livelihoods of Norwegian fish farmers.

“Those cowards from Scotland have been allowed to steer the development of the salmon industry in Norway. They’ve used every weapon imaginable to torpedo our salmon farming,” he said.

“Boycotting whisky is a symbolic act. There are more than enough other whisky- producing countries that we can buy from.”

Norway, which supplies 60% of Europe’s farmed salmon, presented its concerns to the World Trade Organisation in Geneva last month.

This week the EU is expected to decide on whether to impose a further 16% duty on Norwegian salmon imports.

Scottish salmon accounts for 45% of all food exports and is worth an estimated £700m a year to the economy.

Brian Simpson, of Scottish Quality Salmon, said that the controls had stabilised prices to everyone’s benefit.

“Prices for the first quarter have been much more stable — so fish farmers are a little happier than they were. Most people would say so far so good,” he said.

However, there have been warnings that the import limits could lead to an estimated 3,300 job losses as more than half of Scotland’s fish farms are owned by Norwegian companies which will choose to close farms here before farms in Norway. About 1,000 jobs in the Western Isles alone depend on Norwegian firms.

Kristiansen will meet representatives of the Scottish fish farming industry in Edinburgh later this month.

This week Willem de Munck, the EU official charged with protecting the European salmon trade, will address an aquaculture conference in Edinburgh.

A spokesman for the Scotch Whisky Association said that Kristiansen’s call has had no noticeable effect on whisky sales to Norway.