Finance ministers have rejected a proposal from France

Date: 27/05/1999

to cushion the impact of the abolition of duty-free sales within Europe from 1 July. Paris had called on its EU partners to consider a German idea to introduce value added tax on sales at airports and ferries from July but phase in duties at a later date. The issue is set to be discussed again at next week's Cologne summit, but Irish Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy said the debate at this week's meeting had been “totally negative”.