Daunting tasks abroad

Press, 3 October 1977, Page 16

Daunting tasks abroad

The Minister of Foreign Affairs (Mr Taiboys) faces some daunting tasks on the five-week overseas trip on which he set off at the week-end. So do the officials who will accompany him on various stages. Probably the easiest part will be in the United States where he will speak to the General Assembly of the United Nations and will meet U.N. officials and officials of the American Government, including the Secretary of State (Mr Cyrus Vance). He will renew his acquaintance with the Deputy Secretary of State (Mr Warren Christopher), who was in New Zealand earlier this year for the meeting of the A.N.Z.U.S. Ministerial Council. From the foreign policy talks Mr Taiboys gave in New Zealand during September it may be assumed that he will speak strongly on southern Africa in the United Nations and on the subject of the rich and the poor nations. Three of his recent foreign policy talks were concerned with trade and world economy and it would be surprising if these were not his main preoccupations abroad as well. Yet even the American talks will have tricky patches: If New Zealand is, in fact, going to move closer to the Soviet Union as a trading partner, Mr Taiboys will want to clarify what this means for New Zealand’s relationship with the United States.

In South Korea the talk will be mainly about trade. The economy of South Korea has been developing quickly and some trade opportunities are opening up. In China the talks may be more about the continuing bilateral relationship than trade. Again, Mr Taiboys might have some reassuring to

do about relations with the Soviet Union. Such Chinese interest as exists in the South Pacific is attributable largely to the Chinese-Soviet struggle. Whatever problems Mr Taiboys has to deal with in other parts of the tour will pale beside the complexities of the Japanese part. Mr Taiboys is due in Tokyo on October 18, but officials are expected to begin talks by the end of this week. The main topic will be whether Japan will grant access to New Zealand agricultural products in return for New Zealand’s granting access to Japanese fishermen within the 200-mile zone. It is much too early to be defeatist about the proposed deal but it has to be acknowledged that New Zealand faces enormous political, institutional, and legal obstacles. A Government policy of self-sufficiency in food, a powerful agricultural lobby, and a legal system which supports the status quo are among the difficulties. Whether the Japanese Government is anxious enough about its future supplies of fish to remove all these obstacles to the expansion of New Zealand exports to Japan is the key question.

If the talks break down Mr Taiboys and his officials will need all their bargaining and diplomatic skills to avert a deterioration of the relationship between New Zealand and Japan. New Zealand, having been so firm on the issue, cannot back down now. Mr Rowling has wished Mr Taiboys well on his trip, the importance of which transcends party politics. The mission may be New Zealand’s most significant since Britain joined the European Economic Community.