Japanese have changed terms— P.M.

Press, 23 June 1978, Page 1

Japanese have changed terms— P.M.

By

DEREK ROUND,

), NZPA political correspondent

The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) said yesterday that Japan had now modified some of its proposals on access for New Zealand products—to New Zealand’s disadvantage.

“My present feeling at first sight is that what is at present proposed is inadequate in terms of what we think is reasonable,” he told a news conference. Mr Muldoon said he did not think it would be helpful to give details of the new proposals because he was not sure they were the final answer.

“I think what is coming through is that different sections of the Japanese bureaucracy have got differ, ent views on what it is that they are offering—that is the only explanation that I can give,” he said. Mr Muldoon was speaking after studying a report on talks earlier this week between senior New Zealand officials and Mr Kenichi Kakudo, a counsellor in the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry who returned to Tokyo yesterday. He said he wanted to discuss the report with other Ministers and officials and try to assess what it meant. In Tokyo, the Minister of Agriculture (Mr Ichiro Nakagawa) is also assessing a report on Mr Kakudo’s talks before deciding whether to come here after trade talks in Canberra next week. N.Z.P.A.-Reuter reported that Mr Nakagawa and other officials had withheld comment on Mr Muldoon’s remarks that the Japanese proposals had been modified to New Zealand’s disadvantage. “We must first hear the report from Mr Kakudo,” one official said. But he said a Cabinet meeting today was likely to approve Mr Nakagawa’s visit. Mr Muldoon, answering questions on the talks with Mr Kakudo, was asked if

there had been any fresh proposals made by the Japanese. He said he would use the word, “altered,” rather than “fresh.” “One of the curious features on this exercise is that some of the things that were put forward as proposals have subsequently been modified adversely,” he said. New Zealand was getting slightly different versions of the same proposition from different sources. Asked if there was any point in Mr Nakagawa’s coming in view of what New Zealand regarded as an inadequate response, Mr Muldoon replied: “Well, that is really for him to decide. All I can say is that he has been invited and he would be made welcome if he were to come." To a question about whether Mr Nakagawa would be able to talk about fishing rights which the Japanese want discussed at the same time as they talk about New Zealand access to the Japanese market — Mr Muldoon said: “Well he’s the Minister of Agricul ture, and if he were to come here and make proposals which we see as being reasonable, then there is no reason whv we should not go on to the second issue: that is access to our fishing grounds. And that position has not changed.” Mr Muldoon, replying to a question on whether the Japanese proposals had changed substantially since the former Japanese Agriculture Minister. Mr Zenko Suzuki, out new proposals to him m Melbourne last month, he said: “We are talking

about the whole series of discussions. We have to have a little more clarification as to just which version of the proposals is finally the correct one.” The Prime Minister said at the time that the Gov. ernment would take up details of Mr Suzuki’s proposals with Mr Nakagawa. “If it checks out — and on the basis of what Mr Suzuki said when he went back to Japan it may well do that — then we would probably regard the move as adequate in terms of what we have asked the Japanese for,” Mr Muldoon said after he returned from Melbourne. Some obervers said at the time that. Mr Suzuki’s latest offer appeared to fall well short of New Zealand’s minimum conditions for allowing Japanese to fish here. These were set out by the deputy Prime Minister (Mr Taiboys) in talks with Mr Suzuki in Wellington in February. Since then the Deputy Secretary of Trade and Industry (Mr H. C. Holden), has had talks in Tokyo on the proposals, the Japanese Ambassador to New Zealand (Mr Umeo Kagei), has been home for consultations, and Mr Kakado was in Mew Zealand for talks last Monday.

There have been conflicting reports about whether Mr Nakagawa was coming and Mr Muldoon, who had said last month that the visit was definitely on, eventually told journalists last week that Mr Nakagawa would probably not come unless he had “something worth while that’s acceptable to us.”