Progress On Minister’s Visit

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32117, 13 October 1969, Page 24

Progress On Minister’s Visit

(N.Z.P.A. Staff Correspondent) LONDON, October 12.

The first week of the European tour of the Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Marshall) appears to have been more successful than had been expected when he arrived in London on October 4. He began his tour of the capitals of five of the six Common Market countries with a schedule taking in Ministers and officials who are the most sympathetically attuned to New Zealand’s case for special treatment should Britain enter the European Economic Community. In both Brussels and The Hague evidence of this was quickly forthcoming. But what was particularly pleasing to Mr Marshall and the officials travelling with him

was the reception given his proposition that a special arrangement for New Zealand should be more than transitional—that it should’not be terminated at the end of a five-year or seven-year period. As one official put it yesterday, the case for this was accepted at least "intellectually.” It is a moot point whether this acceptance will later be translated into action of benefit to New Zealand. The test, however, will not come until Britain begins negotiations with the Six.

Certainly neither the Belgians nor the Dutch are strong enough on their own, or together, to insist against opposition'from the big three of the Market—West ! Germany. France and Italy—that New Zealand should have treatment close to that which she is seeking. Even so, the fact that they have accepted Mr Marshall’s argument that to New Zealand there is no great differ-

■ence between sudden death (instant cut-off from the British dairy market) and slow strangulation (through a phased cut-off inherent in a transitional arrangement) is an encouraging advance for Wellington. The biggest test for Mr Marshall’s persuasiveness with this line of argument will come tomorrow in Paris. French Ministers and officials are much more sceptical of New Zealand’s claims than their colleagues in, other European capitals. Some other points of considerable interest have also emerged in this first week of the tour—the emphasis Mr Marshall is placing on the possibilities of a trade agreement with an enlarged Community to deal with the New Zealand position and the clear emergence of Mr Merwyn Norrish, Ambassador in Brussels, as New Zealand’s “Mr Europe.” / It is evident now Mr Mar-

shall believes that from New Zealand’s viewpoint the conclusion of a trade agreement holds better possibilities than any other arrangement which might be made. He insists it is too early yet to examine this idea in detail with the Six but nevertheless has impressed it on Cabinet Ministers in both Belgium and the Netherlands. Mr Norrish, who has been Ambassador in Brussels for about two years, appears likely to be the senior official of New Zealand’s team to watch over New Zealand’s position should negotiations begin. He accompanied the Minister in London and will link with him again in Paris.

At Geneva later in the week the Ambassador will take charge of New Zealand’s negotiating team in the G.A.T.T. dairy group discussion. Should these end in time he will again join with Mr Marshall in Bonn the next week and perhaps also go to Rome.