BRITISH ENTRY Peers plead for Commonwealth

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32554, 13 March 1971, Page 17

BRITISH ENTRY Peers plead for Commonwealth

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter — Copyright) LONDON, March 12. In the House of Lords yesterday, a Labour peer, Lord Greenwood, said, during a debate on the effects of Britain joining the European Economic Community: “We must speak and ask questions, while there is still time, on behalf of our Commonwealth friends whose voices may otherwise be not heard. “Sugar is probably the greatest problem, and transitional protection will not be enough to protect the countries whose economies depend almost entirely on sugar.

“Is there any reason why we should not get for our traditional suppliers the same terms as the existing members of the community obtain for their traditional suppliers?”

“If we were to enter the E.E.C. on the wrong terms, Australia’s major export industries would all be threatened.

“Many farms would be wiped out as viable units of production, and whole communities geared to producing for the United Kingdom market would be imperilled. New Zealand case

“The case for New Zealand Is even stronger. During the war the whole of the New Zealand output of meat and dairy produce came to feed a beleaguered Britain which, at that time, had few helpers outside the Commonwealth.”

Another speaker. Lord Milverton, a Conservative, said: “We cannot hope to win new friends by abandoning oid ones. The need for permanent arrangements, the idea of the transitional phasing out of Commonwealth ties would surely be merely a camouflage to unscrupulous abandonment, of our friends. “It would be better to tum to a special relationship with the United States and to old ties of the Commonwealth rather than go into this dubious position.” Real problem

In a speech at a banquet arranged by the Council of the European Movement in Edinburgh last night,, the British Foreign. Secretary (Sir Alec Douglas-Home) said that the problem of securing for New Zealand a sufficient market for her dairy produce traditionally sold to Britain was one of the real problems to be solved in the United Kingdom’s negotiations. “New Zealand’s dairy market, and Commonwealth sugar supplies, are of immense consequence to tried and trusted friends,” said the Foreign Minister. “These, together with the financial question, will have to be settled very soon.

“We have now had 10 years of preparation and debate in Britain. Ten years is a long time, and Britain cannot be kept waiting much longer; nor can the develop-, rnent of the Community be held back by indecision. “Even when we have achieved settlement on the New Zealand, sugar and financial issues, there will remain an argument which cannot be clinched. Long-term profit “The immediate bill is calculable, and has to be paid, but to the long-term profit we cannot put a figure.” Sir Alec Douglas-Home said that there was little doubt that, in a market of 300 m people, Britain would stand to gain in terms of economic growth enough to “more than cover the entrance subscription to the partnership."

Prices would rise if Britain

went in, but they would be nothing in comparison with the increase in prices that had been taking place for several years because of inflation.

Whereas world prices for food had risen over recent years, in the E.E.C. they had been largely stable. It was to the long-term opportunities that Britain should look, he said. Last point In Brussels last night Dr Sicco Mansholt, the vicepresident of the E.E.C Executive Commission, said that the question of Britain’s contribution to the Common Market’s budget would be the last point settled in the final package deal of the United Kingdom’s entry negotiations. How much Britain should

pay during her transitional period to the federal-type budget is the pivotal issue in the negotiations; no progress has been made on it for three months. In an address to the Royal International Affairs Institute, Dr Mansholt said, however, that the political will existed to settie this and other major problems.

> But the Dutch Socialist i said that the attitude of the ; British Labour Party towards • British membership of the Community was rather worrying.

“National disaster” In London, the formet Labour Government’s economic adviser, Mr Nicholas Kaldor, has said that there is an overwhelming probability that Britain’s entry into the Common Market, if irreversible, would lead to national disaster. Ir. an article in the “New Statesman,” Mr Kaldor says that, far from producing the dynamic effects predicted by pro-Europeans, British entry would have adverse effects, mainly because the heavy initial cost would set Britain off on the wrong foot.

Mr Kaldor’s article is one of a series against the Common Market now being published by the Left-wing magazine. Mr Kaldor, who has served as an adviser to many governments including Chile, Guyana, Turkey, Iran and Ceylon, foresees successive devaluations of sterling, and all-round cuts in wages.