“Hindsight Could Be A Guide"

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31256, 31 December 1966, Page 10

“Hindsight Could Be A Guide "

Hindsight is a useful gauge for measuring any situation, and it could now be well employed, according to Mr H. A. Seifert, a spokesman for New Zealand-owned meat export freezing companies.

Commenting on the current season, he says: “We are at one of the lower periods in the cycle of primary produce prices In Britain and Europe. We have experienced such a situation before. Our main grade of lamb has sold at a low point of 21|d on Smithfield, as at the end of January, 1964, to recover to a high of 31 fd early in January, 1965. These were the high and low points of the last three years.” On the prospect of Britain’s entering the Common Market, Mr Seifert asks whether New

Zealand cannot bank on three safeguards. “A common market, with or without Britain in it, .will require a growing supply of imported meat.

“A German eats less than half as much beef as an American, but how long will he be content to do so? If he is to eat more meat, the Common Market countries will have to increase their imports. “Second, the Kennedy Round of talks, with powerful American influence, will almost surely tend to liberalise the Common Market’s restrictions on food imports. “Third, any unduly harsh policy toward New Zealand and other developed foodexporting countries of the Southern Hemisphere would have a most adverse effect on world trade. The great industrial nations of Europe would suffer a heavy loss of valuable export markets.”