N.Z. will be ‘on trial’
New Zealand will be on trial at international trade talks that will start in Geneva on March 7,
according to Mr Kevin Clark, the co-ordinator of the New Zealand Coalition for Trade and Development. More than 150 rich and poor countries will meet to negotiate a Common Fund, designed to stabilise world produce prices. "Developing countries will be critical of NewZealand's apparent lack of commitment to the proposals." Mr Clark said.
"Third World producers desperately need the kind of stabilisation arrangements that our farmers have long demanded for their own produce, and in some cases have obtained." The fund would work in • similar fashion to the
New Zealand Wool Board, intervening in world markets to buy and store a product when the price was low, and releasing stocks when the price w-as high, he said. The commodities would at first be bananas, bauxite, cocoa, coffee, copper, cotton, hard fibres, iron ore. jute. manganese, meat, phosphates, rubber, sugar, tea. tropical timber, tin. and vegetable oils. “It is a pity the New Zealand experience, which has helpted give dairy, meat, and wool producers more predictable incomes, has not been used to help the rural poor of developing countries.
"Primary producers in the South . Pacific and other less privileged regions of the world, who are trying to help themselves. are even more sav-
agely hit by fluctuating prices than their NewZealand counterparts," Mr Clark said.
“The Common Fund has been supported by rich and poor countries alike, at a succession of international conferences. So far New Zealand has given its support only in principle. Next month we will be asked to get off the fence.’’ The New Zealand Coalition. which is an informal coalition of people drawn from non-government international development agencies, is launching a campaign in support of the fund. Mr Clark said it had prepared 50.000 leaflets to help persuade New Zealand to take an active and positive role in the crucial Geneva conference.
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Press, 26 February 1977, Page 20
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328N.Z. will be ‘on trial’ Press, 26 February 1977, Page 20
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