Given that dock dues have existed for 150 years, however, it would appear that it does not actually protect workers against unemployment.

During the 1840's Lee fought a series of legal battles against the dock dues levied by Rochester Corporation on coal and coke.

Furthermore, the fact that income from dock dues is used, in particular, to finance various social aid funds is not mentioned. It is actually the responsibility of the State to provide proper social protection.

(PT) I wish to congratulate Mrs Sudre on her report, which concerns extending exemption arrangements for dock dues, authorising partial or total exemption from this tax for local production in the French overseas departments.

In France, dock dues, VAT rates or reduced excise duties, applicable to Corsica and to the French Overseas Departments, are periodically called into question and must also be periodically renegotiated in Brussels by the government.

The proposed instrument provides for the continuation of the system of dock dues, with an exemption mechanism for certain local products from our four French overseas departments of Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique and Réunion, for a ten-year period beginning on 1 July 2004.