ANTI-DUMPING DUTIES No Decision Expected For Three Months

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31866, 19 December 1968, Page 30

ANTI-DUMPING DUTIES No Decision Expected For Three Months

(N.Z.P.A. Staff Correspondent!

LONDON, December 18. The application made to the Board of Trade for the imposition of anti-dumping or countervailing duties on subsidised cheddar and cheddar-type cheese exported to the United Kingdom market will probably not be resolved for about three months.

Officials in Whitehall said yesterday afternoon that a preliminary inquiry, to be carried out as quickly as possible, might be completed within two to three weeks.

It would probably be aimed at determining whether or not there was a prinia facie case for the imposition of the duties.

If the board felt such a case had been established it had the power to impose provisional duties, pending a final decision on the application.! The names of countries! named in the application as •'dumpers" have not been publicly revealed. But the list is thought likely to contain the names of Australia, the Irish Republic. Denmark, the Netherlands and France. New Zealand has been: specifically excluded In the House of Commons yesterday afternoon the Minister of Agriculture (Mr Cledwyn Hughes) said in a written replj’ to a Parliamentary question that be had been told bv the President of the Board'of Trade the application would be dealt with "as speedily as possible." Period Extended The Minister reiterated! that it had been decided to extend to March 31, 1970, the proposed period for ex-| porters to exercise “re-, straint” over quantities of ! cheddar and cheddar-type. cheeses sent to Britain. “I regret however, that al-1 though a substantial measure of co-operation has been forthcoming it has not yet been possible to obtain the agreement of all our principal suppliers to the necessary limitation of sendings," Mr Hughes said. He said that the British Fanners’ Unions and Milk Marketing Boards had applied for the imposition of antidumping duties on “certain imported cheese.” Support Lacking The British Farmers’ Unions and the Milk Marketing Boards said in a joint statement that in the four, months that had elapsed | since the efforts to achieve! “voluntary" restraint on sup-: plies had begun “it has become apparent to the boards and the unions that these proposals, although energetically pursued, have not been receiving adequate support from all exporting countries. “The continued high rate of cheese imports have therefore left the boards and the

.unions with no option but to; submit an application forj I anti-dumping duties.” Not Named i The organisations said; (when the application was sub-: jmitted to the Board of l '.Trade a request was made! jthat it be dealt with “as a 'matter of great urgency.” I Neither Mr Hughes nor the | fanning groups named the: [lrish Republic as the country) Iso far proving to be most ob-i stinate in regard to the “voluntary” restraint scheme. There is a feeling in some quarters that under the threat of anti-dumping duties being levied the Irish might prove !more eo-operative over ’he Ischeme. But a spokesman at the Irish Embassy in London said; that the decision of the farm-] ing groups to make the appli-l cation did not change the) position. Contracted Demand “We have supplied cheese to meet a contracted demand in Britain.” the spokesman said. “We would no doubt take Ithe view that if countervailiing duties are to be applied they should not be applied to I us, mainly because of our free trade agreement with the [United Kingdom." The spokesman said hist country still rejected pro-: iposals that had been put for-! ward in relation to the volun-i tary restraint scheme. An application for the im-i position of anti-dumping dut-| ies was last considered by] the Board of Trade in Aug-: ust. The application was | I made in respect of subsidised

Italian refrigerators exported to the United Kingdom. The 8.0. T. imposed a provisional duty on them which amounted to nearly 90 per cent of the export subsidy paid out in Italy.