French Power In E.E.C. Talks

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32306, 26 May 1970, Page 26

French Power In E.E.C. Talks

(N.Z.P.A. Staff Correspondent) LONDON, May 22. The French Government looks certain to hold the key position at the head of the Common Market’s negotiating team with Britain when New Zealand’s relationship with the United Kingdom is under detailed negotiation.

This is the implies-1 tion of decisions made by the Council of Ministers of the E.E.C. on the procedures the community intends to follow in the British entry negotiations.

The council agreed that the community’s negotiating team should be led by the chairman of the council. The Belgian Foreign Minister (Mr Pierre Harmel) will be chairman for the opening ceremony on June 30. He will be succeeded by the West German Foreign Minister (Mr Walter Scheel) from July until December 31, when the French Foreign Minister (Mr Maurice Schumann) will take over. The early months of next year are expected to be the crucial period for the negotiations, and the New Zealand problem is likely to be one of the points at issue about that time. Senior Whitehall officials do not expect to talk in detail about New Zealand during the opening session on June 30. Nor do they expect it to be raised at any length during the second meeting between Britain and the Six, which will probably take place about July 20 if the Labour Government is reelected.

Perhaps from New Zealand’s viewpoint the most disturbing feature at present is that both Britain and the E.E.C. are tending to insist that “the ball is largely in the other’s court” The community takes the view that it is over to Britain to say what it wants for New Zealand, whereas Britain is proving reluctant to indicate what it will seek. It is evident, however, that

I Whitehall has done much more work on possibilities of I a solution than has the E.E.C. {Commission. Officials make it clear in I Whitehall that when the New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Overseas Trade (Mr Marshall) arrives in London they will have a number of detailed propositions to put before him.

They decline to say what these propositions involve. But one of them, it seems, is the long-standing suggestion that New Zealand dairy supplies to Britain be cut in half over a period, with economic compensation being offered through high prices. Wellington has rejected this idea before and Mr Marshall will probably reject it again during bis visit.