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GV TILT DOWN EEC headquarters.
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SV Foreign Minister Paolo Jorge gets out of car and is greeted. They enter the building.
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SV INTERIOR Mr.Jorge talking with Commissioner Claude Cheysson. Shakes hands then leaves.
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SV M.r Jorge walking down corridor with EEC officials.
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Initials JS





Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: INTRODUCTION: Angola has become the latest country to join the Lome Convention -- the trade and aid pact between the European Economic Community (EEC) and 60 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Countries. Angolan Foreign Minister Paolo Jorge met Mr. Claude Cheysson and other EEC officials responsible for aid policy when he visited the Community's headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday (29 April) to discuss Angola's membership.

SYNOPSIS: Unlike many developing countries Angola is rich in minerals -- oil and diamonds -- but food is by far the country's biggest economic problem. Ninety per cent of food has to be imported. Since the Popular Movement For the Liberation of Angola took over the country in 1975 food production has fallen drastically. Small farmers have refused to sell their crops for money because, they said there was nothing to buy.

Under the convention, Angola will be looking to received aid to help food production and imports. The ACP countries have been pressing for longterm contracts for the supply of food from the EEC's surplus at specially subsidised prices. These could be paid in local currencies, thus conserving valuable foreign exchange reserves. Angola, whose leadership continues to rely on the support of the Cuban army and the Eastern Bloc, now is turning towards the west as well for economic co-operation.