were for the companies and EdF, with
Governments concerned solely with the
financial terms of the guaranteed funding
dealing with ECGD/COFACE-supported
credit terms under the OECD Consensus: a
major advantage lay in the fact that the Consensus had introduced a special "nuclear power agreement" which had the effect of making the ruling interest rate for nuclear stations 1% higher than normal
Consensus rates. The Guangdong project had been argued by the UK/France as an exemption in view of the fact that negotiations were in progress, and hence
the interest rate was defined as the
Consensus rate ruling at the date of contract with the rate varying every 6 months, there was continual play about holding the rate, and 9.5% became something
of an obsession when Consensus rates rose
above this.
But the UK and French had legacies from
past negotiation:
(a) The French admitted that in previous credit agreements they had accepted a "special" premium rate for China - considerably lower than the normal ECGD/
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