Protest By Denmark

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29778, 22 March 1962, Page 7

Protest By Denmark

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) COPENHAGEN, March 20. Denmark has protested to Britain over “unfair treatment” in the allocation of butter quotas for the coming year, a usually well-informed source said tonight. Denmark had been assured that the complaint will be discussed.

Reaction came in from other areas tonight to the British decision to restrict butter imports to 390.000 long tons for the 12-month period from April 1. In Paris, French dairy trade circles tonight expressed disappointment at Britain’s decision. Usually well - informed sources believed the import quota of 1500 long tons Britain gave France for the last six months would be maintained for the next six months.

Britain’s National Farmers’ Union said tonight that it welcomed the announcement that the Government had decided to take measures to stabilise the United Kingdom butter market for the next 12 months The first reaction from the trade in London was that supplies of butter would cer-

tainly be adequate over the 12-month period covered by the licensing control. Butter traders said some 60,000 tons of home production would probably have to be added to the imports of 390,000 tons, giving a total of about 450,000 tons. This is equivalent to a weekly consumption of nearly 9000 tons —rather more than the present rate.

Traders did not expect market prices to show any notable changes—at least fer the time being—following the quota announcement. Denmark claims that her 93,000-ton quota—barely the average of her butter exports to Britain over the last seven years—was calculated on a different basis from others Britain has fixed, a source said in Copenhagen. "Breach of G.A.T.T.” She made a request to the British Foreign Office for discussions of the quota and was told they would take place in a day or two, the source stated. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the quota was clearly a breach of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade regulations. A spokesman for the Dutch Dairy Commodity Board said tonight the board thought the Dutch quota was “disappointing,” the more so "because the Dutch have always tried not to disturb the situation in the British butter market,” by such actions as dumping. He said Britain had fixe! a quota of 8000 tons for Holland over a six-month period ending next week. ' The board would discuss the situation at its regular meeting tomorrow, the spokesman added.

Holland appreciated that she would be able to continue butter exports to Britain on the present scale, a spokesman tor the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries said in The Hague tonight. He said, however, that the system of quotas was “a strange conception for People living on the European Continent, who think in terms of free markets ” He said the quota system was particularly difficult to understand for the Common Market countries, “which are deleting the word ‘quota’ from their dictionaries.”