Times On Line April 02, 2003 From David Adams in Arauca, Colombia

VENEZUELA sent its air force to bomb Colombian paramilitary fighters who had invaded its territory and attacked an army border patrol, President Chávez claimed during his weekly television broadcast.

The paramilitaries retreated after a 90-minute gun battle, according to Señor Chávez. “I said to bomb the area, not on direct targets but over the adjacent area to warn them,” he said. “We did it, it was effective and they withdrew toward Colombian territory.”

The attack has not been confirmed by Colombia, whose President Uribe is due to meet Señor Chávez shortly to discuss border controls.

The incident highlights increasing tensions along the lawless, 1,400-mile (2,200km) sparsely populated border of jungle, mountain and savanna, which is a haven for rival paramilitary forces and two guerrilla armies fighting for control of the drug trade.

Colombian officials accuse Señor Chávez, a leftist revolutionary, of not doing enough to prevent guerrillas carrying out hit-and-run attacks from bases inside Venezuela. Colombian police and army posts in the border province of Arauca report coming under rebel mortar fire from across the muddy, 110-yard-wide river that marks the border, using customised 100lb gas cylinders packed with explosives, glass, nails and human excrement.

Some officials accuse Señor Chávez of providing the guerrillas with secret logistical support but the Venezuelans say Colombia does not do enough to prevent its long-running civil conflict from spilling over the border. According to Colombian intelligence reports, guerrillas operate at least two camps in Venezuela, where rebels are given weapons and explosives training. Colombian military sources claim that guerrillas obtain guns from corrupt Venezuelan military officers in exchange for cocaine. They say about 20 per cent of captured guerrilla weapons are stamped with Venezuelan Military Industry markings.

Captured guerrillas and deserters have confirmed the reports. One defector, an 18-year-old commander with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), said she had travelled in and out of Venezuela at will, visiting Farc bases and training new recruits in Venezuela. “The guerrilla (commanders) are counting on Venezuela for their victory,” she said.

Recently Venezuela has shown signs of co-operation. Last month its soldiers, acting on Colombian intelligence, intercepted a 3,000lb lorry bomb that Farc rebels had planned to use to blow up a bridge across the border. Venezuela also arrested three suspected National Liberation Army rebels accused of planting a bomb that killed seven people in the Colombian border city of Cucuta.

Atlanta Business Chronicle

Atlanta-based Colonial Pipeline Co. will pay a $34 million penalty and spend at least $30 million to improve safety to settle pollution charges for spilling 1.45 million gallons of oil and petroleum products in five states, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said.

The EPA said the $34 million payment is the largest civil penalty a company has ever paid to the agency.

The government found Colonial violated the Clean Water Act when the company's pipeline corrosion, mechanical damage, and operator error resulted in the release of approximately 1.45 million gallons of oil and other petroleum products. In one spill, more than 950,000 gallons of diesel fuel spilled into the Reedy River in South Carolina.

The U.S. Justice Department said Colonial, operator of the world's largest pipeline for refined petroleum fuels, will upgrade environmental protection along its 5,500-mile pipeline stretching from Texas to New Jersey. Colonial pleaded guilty in 1999 to a criminal charge and paid a $7 million fine stemming from the spill in the Reedy River case.

Colonial's owners include Koch Industries Inc., ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil Co., Shell Oil Co. and the Citgo Petroleum unit of Petroleos de Venezuela.

Colonial will be required to inspect the pipeline for corrosion and make repairs under the supervision of a monitor.

The EPA said it has recently taken action against several other pipeline companies for oil spill violations, including Olympic Pipe Line Co. and Shell Pipeline Co.

Vanguard (Lagos) Posted to the web April 1, 2003 Hector Igbikiowubo, With Agency Report Lagos

CONTINUED stiff resistance faced by coalition forces in Iraq and fresh reports of bloody unrest in Nigeria pushed oil prices higher yesterday as traders betrayed concern. The price of reference Brent North Sea crude oil for May delivery rose 77 cents per barrel from the previous closing to 27.12 dollars in late trading. New York's benchmark light sweet crude contract for May delivery crept up 24 cents to 30.40 dollars a barrel in early deals. The rises came despite assurances from the White House that there was no need yet for the United States to tap its strategic petroleum reserve. "We have seen no evidence to date of a severe supply disruption, nevertheless the experts continue to monitor it," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters. Traders were trying to sift through the reams of war news to work out how the campaign in Iraq was really progressing, said GNI trader Robert Laughlin.

"The interest is very much... in terms of the propaganda machine over the weekend, as the Americans still said the war effort is being successful despite the fact there appears to be a mini-ceasefire," he said. Advances by US and British troops towards Baghdad appeared to slow over the weekend, with some experts warning that supply lines were becoming stretched. Yesterday, British commandos saw fierce fighting as they launched a major assault on the key southern city of Basra.

Meanwhile, continued ethnic unrest in Nigeria, which has reduced the country's oil exports by more than a third, was also fueling concern, analysts said. Police in the troubled Niger Delta said that scores of people were feared killed over the weekend in clashes over land rights near Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital. "The market is up because people are still worried about the situation in Nigeria, where there was more violence over the weekend," said Deutsche Bank analyst Adam Sieminski. "It means that the 800,000 barrels a day of production that was lost last week is still out, in contrast to statements Thursday and Friday suggesting that a compromise between ethnic groups and the government had been reached," he added.

For the moment, there were few real concerns about supplies, but more bad news could send prices soaring, Sieminski said. "There is still enough oil coming from Saudi Arabia and even Venezuela to keep the market supplied, but with Iraq out and the conflict in Nigeria still continuing, the market is tightly balanced, and if anything else should go on, we would see higher prices," he said. However, Prudential Bache broker Tony Machacek said he considered it unlikely that prices would go much higher on the back on new supply problems in Iraq. "So far, a lot of the oil fields appear to have been militarily secured, so it is unlikely that (Iraqi leader) Saddam (Hussein) or his army will be able to disrupt supplies from Iraq very easily," he said.

<a href=www.eubusiness.com>EUBusiness.com

WASHINGTON, April 1 (AFP) - The United States on Tuesday chided major trading partners, including the European Union, Japan and China, for regulations and laws that it says thwart expanded global trade.

"American workers, businesses, and farmers expect a level playing field abroad," said US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick in the annual assessment of the practices of US trading partners.

The 422-page report, known as the 2003 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers, summarizes the US view on trade policies of some 56 trading partners.

It comes on the heels of a setback in negotiations for the new round of global trade talks launched in Doha, Qatar in 2001 that are slated to be completed by 2005.

The USTR said that the EU's de facto ban on genetically modified foods has hindered US exports of corn and threatens exports of soybeans.

"Biotechnology continues to be more of a political than a scientific issue in Europe and prospects for improvement remain dim," the report stated.

In recent weeks, Zoellick has said he hopes President George W. Bush's administration will "soon" take formal action to challenge the EU on its position in the WTO.

"The Bush administration is committed to identifying unfair barriers to US exports and to working aggressively with our trading partners to eliminate those barriers," Zoellick said in a statement released with the report.

The US again called on Japan to revive its sluggish economy through increased deregulation that it said impedes "economic growth and restricts market access for US companies."

"Japan still has much work to do," the report said, adding "in large part because it has not moved more aggressively to deregulate, the Japanese economy remains mired in stagnation -- output has grown by only 0.5 percent since 1998."

And it called on the Japanese government to reduce its overall capacity of its domestic steel market and cited allegations that Japanese steelmakers were involved in price-fixing schemes.

"With respect to Japan's domestic market, it has been alleged that Japan's integrated producers have coordinated output, pricing, and market allocation goals," the report said.

"In addition, it has been alleged that Japanese mills have entered into arrangements with foreign counterparts to regulate bilateral steel trade," the report said.

The US said imports of Japanese steel are down as a result of President George W. Bush's steel tariffs imposed in March 2001. Those tariffs were ruled inconsistent with global trading rules by a WTO panel of experts last month.

The US praised China's entry into the WTO and said that "in the long run," it will "promote the rule of law throughout China."

"Nevertheless, China's membership in the WTO will not remove all commercial problems," the report stated.

Specifically, the report said US firms have had trouble obtaining patents for pharmaceuticals and that its insurance market is not growing as quickly as its potential.

"A wide range of foreign firms also emphasized that China's regulations remain vague and do not reflect fully China's WTO commitments," the report said.

The report was especially harsh on the question of agricultural trade barriers.

"US agricultural producers are among the most competitive in the world ... yet US agricultural exports would be even greater without the NTBs (non-tariff barriers) that are used against them," it said.

The EU moratorium, it said, has led to a 55 percent drop in US corn exports to EU nations while US poultry exports to Russia have decreased by almost 45 percent since import restrictions imposed by Moscow.

The report also cited Chinese tariff-rate quotas on many grains and farm products, Mexican anti-dumping duties on beef, rice, pork, and apples; and other measures by Australia, Japan, Taiwan and Venezuela.

Fox News Channel Tuesday, April 01, 2003

NEW YORK  — Oil prices fell 4 percent Tuesday as Nigerian unions called off a planned general strike, raising hopes that oil production halted there by recent ethnic clashes might soon restart.

The move eased fears of further disruption to world oil supplies with Iraq's crude exports halted since near the start of a 13-day U.S.-led invasion.

U.S. light crude slid $1.26 a barrel to $29.78 while London benchmark Brent futures fell 82 cents to $26.36 a barrel. Oil prices are more that $10 a barrel below 12-year highs hit in late February.

Prices fell as Nigeria's biggest union called off a planned three-day strike. "News of the agreement on the Nigerian strike has given the market some breathing room," one London oil trader said.

Recent tribal clashes have shut nearly 40 percent of Nigeria's 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude production for more than a week. The West African country is one of the top six oil suppliers to the United States and U.S. refiners need Nigeria's high-quality crude to build up gasoline stocks for summer.

Oil companies Shell and ChevronTexaco have said they will not resume operations from Forcados and Escravos in the western Niger Delta region until they can be sure of their staff's safety.

Jitters spurred by the Nigerian and Iraqi supply disruptions have helped support oil prices in recent days since the market fell 25 percent just before the the war when dealers took the view that Baghdad would not resist for long.

Tuesday's falls gained pace after Iraq's Information Minister delivered a television message from President Saddam Hussein, fueling speculation that the Iraqi leader may be dead.

"People interpreted the fact that Saddam Hussein did not deliver his own message as 'He is no longer with us,"' said a New York trader.

Prices have come under further pressure from signs that world oil supplies are sufficient to meet lower seasonal demand in the second quarter.

"What's driving prices right now is the offset between supply security fears, balanced against expectations of softer demand, which you normally get at this time of the year," said Kevin Norrish, energy analyst at Barclays Capital.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has compensated for lost Iraqi and Nigerian crude with increased supplies. Top world exporter Saudi Arabia in March hit its highest production level for 21 years.

"As far as the war is concerned, we have lost Iraqi supplies but clearly OPEC is still managing so far to make up for that," Norrish said.

Global energy demand on the 77 million bpd world market normally drops about 2 million bpd in the second quarter when warmer weather sets in the United States and Europe.

Demand then picks up again when gasoline consumption for motorists rises during the summer holidays.

Nigeria's high-quality crude, ideal for gasoline production, is missed because it is a popular feedstock among U.S. refiners.

Gasoline stocks in the United States are running well below year-ago levels as the world's biggest consumer of motor fuel gears up for peak demand.

"Looking at where U.S. gasoline inventories are and where prices are, lots will depend now on how soon Venezuela will get its gasoline production back to normal," Barclays' Norrish said.

Venezuela, struggling to get output back on stream after a crippling opposition strike, has said it will this week restart gasoline exports to the United States and expects all refining and exports to return to normal within four to six weeks.

The strike had contributed to extremely tight oil inventories in the West even before the war in Iraq.

Analysts polled by Reuters predict that U.S. government data due on Wednesday will show a large crude stock rise after a week of heavy imports.