MR LINTON SATISFIED

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30129, 13 May 1963, Page 14

MR LINTON SATISFIED

Dairy Board In Accord (N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, May 12. The Government had kept the Dairy Board in . touclf with the negotiations throughout, said Mr A. Linton, chairman of the Dairy Production and Marketing Board, of the butter duty agreement with Britain announced today. The board agreed with the final decision reached, Mr Linton said in a statement supplied before leaving for London on Saturday afternoon. The dairy industry was vitally concerned with doing two things: protecting its historic right to a substantial share of the United Kingdom butter market, and minimising the effects of dumping on the price paid for its butter, said Mr Linton. Because the proposal to remove the 15s tariff on foreign butter imported into the United Kingdom gave a fairly substantial advantage to competitors, the board was naturally concerned to see that the industry’s interests were more strongly protected in other directions. It was true, as the United Kingdom Government pointed out, that the present butter quota system was imposed to prevent the material injury being suffered by the New Zealand dairy industry from dumping, said Mr Linton. It was also true that, through the quota system a satisfactory degree of price stability had been achieved. Because of this, the industry regarded the undertakings now given by the United Kingdom Government as being of the utmost importance to its future. They appeared also to be a reasonable quid pro quo for New Zealand's agreement to the suspension of the duty on foreign butter entering the United Kingdom. “One does not like to see alterations that interfere with Commonwealth preferences.” said Mr Linton. “However, if for reasons of its own the British Government wants some changes made, the board considers it reasonable that worth-while protection for the future should be given to our historic rights in the United Kingdom market. That appears to have been done, so the board has agreed to the arrangement now reached by the two Governments.”