The Channel port of Calais in northern France ground to a halt yesterday after ferry staff and dockers staged a 24-hour strike to protest against the planned withdrawal of duty-free shopping in July 1999.
The strikers also blocked the motorway entrance to the Channel Tunnel for four hours, barring all freight and tourist passengers. However, a spokesman for the Eurotunnel operator said passenger trains between Britain and France were not affected.
P & O Stena Line, the newlycombined ferry company, cancelled its Dover-Calais services and sailed to Zeebrugge, while Hoverspeed operated to Ostend rather than Calais. The strike forced the Sea-France ferry company to leave its four ships at dockside. In Britain, the action meant the cancellation of DoverCalais ferry services and severe disruption to tunnel shuttle services. The only cross-Channel services unaffected were the London to Paris and Brussels high-speed Eurostar trains.
Protesters fear the European Union's decision to axe duty-free shopping will lead to cutbacks in the ferry industry, with onboard tax-free shopping accounting for about 30 per cent of ferry company turnover.
Campaigners say abolishing duty-free shopping will cost up to 23,000 jobs in the UK alone. They predict most jobs will go within a year of the change. A recent study by the Centre of Economics and Business Research predicted 115,000 fewer visits would be made to the UK by the year 2005 if duty-free sales were axed.
Ship owners say the demise of duty-free would inevitably lead to higher prices for sea crossings, which would in turn affect mammoth supermarkets in the Calais area which thrive on British shoppers who come for a few hours to load up on less expensive continental goods.
Best-sellers are French wines and beers which, even with duty paid, since they are not in dutyfree zones, cost less than in Britain where higher taxes are levied. If travellers had to pay bigger prices for the Channel crossing, the differences might be much lower.
Some 20 million travellers pass through Calais port annually and there are up to 160 daily departures for Britain at the height of the season.
"Sea-France would probably go out of business since half its turnover comes from duty-free. No more duty-free means higher passage prices and less traffic," said Mr Roger Lopez, secretary of the CGT seamen's union in Calais. Seamen are also protesting against new EU regulations allowing European seamen to work in each other's countries, a move French seamen believe may incite employers to replace them with crews from southern European countries where salaries are lower.
The Freight Transport Association estimated the cost of the strike to British industry as more than £500,000. The 24hour strike was due to end at 5.45 am today.