PORTUGUESE COMMUNIST PARTY

Parliamentary Group

DRAFT RESOLUTION NO. 478 / 4ª

" DEFEND THE MOUNTED, CHERISH THE ROW OF THE CORK "

When deciding to constitute in June 2006, by proposal of the Parliamentary Group of the

CFP and the favorable vote of all parties with parliamentary representation, the

Working Group " DEFENDER THE MOUNTED, VALUING THE ROW OF THE

CORTICE " , the Assembly of the Republic gave a first and very important

contribute in the sense of being given to this important and strategic national row a

attention that has long been due to him.

By approving a year later, on June 6, 2007, by unanimity, a

Resolution on the same thematic, " DEFENDER THE MOUNTED, VALUING THE

ROW OF THE CORK " , the Assembly of the Republic, as stated in the

preamble to the said Resolution, took on a new and decisive commitment

political in the sense of keeping an attentive and continued form this important

and strategic sector of the national economy and take the initiatives considered

necessary for the defence and development of the same.

It is from this new way of looking at this important reality and having it present the

strategic line of " DEFENDER THE MOUNTED, VALUING THE ROW OF THE

CORTICE " , which the Parliamentary Group of the CFP has been following

attentively to evolve from the situation of the sector promoting for this contacts with

workers and entrepreneurs linked to the same in order to better apprehend them

existing difficulties, their causes and possible measures to be taken in the sense of

overcoming them with success.

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In the course of the cited contacts has the Parliamentary Group of the CFP been

informed of situations and facts that lack in-depth research and

urgent on the part of the Competition Authority and, consequently, of

measures that allow to unlock the stranglehold of which they will be

victims hundreds of entrepreneurs in the sector, they say, by the position and

Monopolistic measures that have been being imposed by the Group

Amorim and satellite companies of the same, specifically at the level of

marketing, either upstream or downstream of the processing.

Second information collected in the course of your recent journeys

Parliamentarians, held in the district of Aveiro, on past days 6 and April 7 of

2009, there will be at the present time about 600 micro, small and medium

entrepreneurs at risk of bankruptcy and consequently about 5 thousand posts of

work at risk due to the deliberate bottlenection to the marketing of its

production.

They are entrepreneurs who know the sector, know how to produce and want to produce, but

who will be unable to commercialize the product of their labor due to

disloyal practices that have been intensifying.

Upstream there will be pressures and shares of intermediaries with the producers of

cork aiming to hinder the acquisition of raw material by some

companies and the recourse to price instability that have nothing to do with any possible

and effective changes of the market. At this time there will be producers with

manifests difficulty in the runoff from the production of the last campaign what

will be even leading to the decision not to carry out further extractions.

Downstream will be using mechanisms and influences in the sense of not allowing the

normal runoff from production, there will be recourse to companies based in

"offshores" for commercialization operations of dubious liceness and legality and

the dumping practices with the objective manifest of liquidating the competition.

" DEFEND THE MOUNTED, CHERISH THE ROW OF THE CORK " requires

stability of the sector, effective policies to combat monopolistic practices and

measures that could contribute to winning the bottlenecks that will be on

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check and that they will be able to, all of which indicates you, result, not so much of instability of the

market or of the so-called "international crisis", but much more of the action

deliberate of some to, taking advantage of the conjuncture, strengthen their positions in the

sector, eliminate competition and get new and unwarranted state supports.

Face to the exposed:

The Assembly of the Republic resolves, in accordance with Article 166 (5) of the

Constitution of the Republic, recommend to the Competition Authority a

in-depth and urgent research on what is going on in this important

and strategic sector for the national economy, specifically at the level of

marketing upstream and downstream with a particular focus on imports

and exports and the taking of measures or recommendation of proposals that

consider necessary to the normal functioning of the market and stability of the

sector.

Assembly of the Republic, April 23, 2009

The Deputies,

AUGUSTINE LOPES; JOSÉ SOEIRO; JOÃO OLIVEIRA; ANTÓNIO FILIPE;

BERNARDINO SOARES; MIGUEL TIAGO; JORGE MACHADO; BRUNO DIAS;

FRANCISCO LOPES; HONORIUS NEW