‘Grave danger to N.Z. in sheepmeats policy’

Press, 28 November 1977, Page 7

‘Grave danger to N.Z. in sheepmeats policy’

NZrA London. A strong warning on the consequences of a Common Market sheepmeats regime could have for the New Zealand economy has been given bj' the Minister of Agriculture (Mr Maclntyre). Speaking to an aduience of British journalists, members of Parliament, and meat-trade executives at a dinner at the New Zealand High Commission in London, Mr Maclntyre said the possibility of an E.E.C. sheepmeats regime was potentially an even more serious issue for New Zealand than that faced over continuing access for butter and cheese. The broad outlines of a sheepmeats regime are expected to be put before E.E.C. Agriculture Ministers in Brussels in mid-De-cember. Mr Maclntyre said that an enforced increase in lamb prices would play havoc with a market which was vital to New Zealand’s whole economic structure. The whole New Zealand sheep industry — meat and wool — was based on exports to Britain, he said. But Britain also had a lot at stake as the E.E.C.’s largest producer. consumer. and importers of sheepmeats. “The economics of the British trade, including the fact that • Britain buys almost half its total consumption (about 15 million lambs — two thirds of New Zealand’s lamb exports) from New Zealand. are based on high consumption, fair prices, and fair returns to efficient procuers,” Mr Maclntyre said. If the present Common Agricultural Policy philosophy were impsed on the sheepmeat regulations, and British prices forced to move towards French prices, consumption would be affected drastically. Lamb sold in France was now about two-thirds more expensive than lamb tn Britain, and an increase of that order would “de-

stroy a large part of the market that British and New Zealand interests have developed and serviced for nearly 100 years.” in New Zealand's view, an artificial consumer price increase would, cut consumption while stimulating production — leading to surpluses like those found in the E.E.C. with beef, butter, wine and milk. New Zealand did not see the need for a sheepmeat regime at all. But, Mr Maclntyre said, while he could not interfere with the E.E.C.’s internal mechanisms, “I intend to ensure that (the Community’s) Agriculture Ministers understand our view that the basic con-

tradication between supporting farmers and at the same time making people eat less, applies as much to sheepmeats as to dairy products or beef or sugar.” The E.E.C. was only 65 per cent self-sufficient in sheepmeats and should be able to take a relaxed altitude towards imports, he said. Mr Maclntyre who is in London as part of a fact-finding tour of several E.E.C. capitals after attending the Food and Agriculture Organisation conference in Rome last week, said earlier that New Zealand was still in serious economic difficulty. All the problems faced by other Western nations

had also been faced by New Zealand — with the added problems that “we alone among the developed democracies depend mainly on agricultural exports for our wellbeing/’ Gains had been made in finding new export markets, particularly in the Pacific Basin and the Middle East. “But progress is slow, and we will make no progress at all if at the same time we face a decline in our markets in Europe. The quantities of dairy products and of lamb that we sell to Britain are still central to New Zealand’s ability to export and to retain reasonable living standards,” Mr Maclntyre said.