British treasury chief Gordon Brown blames high crude oil prices on OPEC

The Associated Press

Britain’s Treasury chief blamed oil-producing countries in OPEC for high gasoline prices that have sparked threats of protests by British farmers and truck drivers.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown said Sept. 11 he believed the international community could bring oil prices down but made no pledge to cut Britain’s high fuel taxes, as some road users have demanded.

“OPEC is a cartel, of course, and I think it is under challenge,” Brown told British Broadcasting Corp. television. “You have got a cartel that has limited production in the past and has been slow to respond to rising demand.”

Brown said he planned to meet OPEC members in the next few days and added: “I believe we can get oil prices down.” European Union finance ministers meeting in Manchester, England, on Sept. 10 urged OPEC to increase oil production, warning that soaring energy prices are threatening global growth and Europe’s economic recovery.

Oil down from $70 high

The Fuel Lobby, a road users’ group, said its members planned protests outside refineries across Britain if the government doesn’t agree to cut fuel taxes by Sept. 14 at 6 a.m. Fuel tax accounts for about half the cost of gasoline sold in Britain.

Fuel Lobby spokesman Andrew Spence said truckers, farmers and members of the public would stage protests but wouldn’t blockade refineries, as happened in September 2000, when widespread blockades over high fuel prices brought Britain to a near standstill. Spence said he didn’t know how many people would take part in the protests.

Brown, however, gave no indication that he was prepared to cut fuel taxes.

“I am aware of the challenge the haulers face, I am aware, particularly, of the problems low-income families face with petrol prices rising,” he said. “But I think everybody knows that, whereas five years ago there were different problems in the country, this is indeed a global problem and it demands global solutions.”