Tough British Trader Policy Advocated

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32164, 6 December 1969, Page 52

Tough British Trader Policy Advocated

(N.Z.P.A. Staff Correspondent) i LONDON, December 5. :• Britain could no longer afford privileges for Commonwealth food producers, Sir Peter Runge, chairman of the National Export Council, said yesterday.

Addressing a joint farming and industrial conference, Sir Peter Runge, said British agriculture had been set a growth rate of 9 per cent but he doubted if it could achieve a rate of much more than 6 per cent. Therefore, to maintain high agricultural growth the wages of farm workers must be raised. It was realised in doing this ,he said, that no national objective in any sphere could ignore the ties of the Commonwealth. The fact must be faced, however, that British trade

with the Commonwealth, expressed as a percentage of trade with the world, had fallen 50 per cent in 10 years—from 44 per cent to 22 per cent. The Commonwealth was no longer based on trade and Britain’s position as head of it was no longer based on economic strength. Old-style trading relationships with the commonwealth were by no means sacrosanct.

Sir Peter Runge did not specifically mention New Zealand. But he said: “Over the years, sometimes as part of long-standing policy, sometimes through a desire to be helpful to a particular country, we have given a privileged position to many of our Commonwealth food suppliers.

“In, many cases we have given what amounts to a gauranteed market, or a guaranteed price, or both, for our food requirements. “I seriously suggest that we are no longer in a position to afford to behave like this unless we can get more substantial trading benefits in return than we do at present.”

Sir Peter Runge said Britain imported food worth more than $3500m a year at a time when many countries had deliberate policies for producing food surpluses. Britain should use this buying power as a means of promoting exports, as Japan had done. “Britain is an important buyer of food in the world and the customer is always right,” said Sir Peter Runge. “I would like to see the development of clearer and tougher policies.”