Different line needed on sheepmeats

Press, 3 July 1978, Page 16

Different line needed on sheepmeats

Wellington New Zealand should not base its expectations of an E.E.C. sheepmeat regime too closely on experiences in the dairy or beef sector, the British High Commissioner (Sir Harold Smedley) says. The situation regarding the regime was “very different — the European farmer produces only 63.5 per cent of the European Community’s requirements for mutton and lamb.

“The United Kingdom and France are the only two countries with significant numbers of sheep,” he told the Royal Agricultural Society. Between them. they accounted for 79 per cent of the community’s entire sheepmeat production. "Britain consumes 52 per cent of the mutton and lamb eaten in the community, and New Zealand accounts for 83.6 per cent of the community’s Third Country imports. “These statistics paint a different picture from that in the dairy or beef industry,” said Sir Harold.

The Treaty of Rome imposed an obligation on the Community Council of Ministers and member states to introduce a sheepmeat regulation.

“Our efforts have been directed to securing a draft which is acceptable to us and to New Zealand. The British Minister of Agriculture (Mr Silkin) had defined three basic essentials for a sheepmeat regime.

They were that the producer should have a fair price, that the consumer should be protected from unnecessary and large increases in price, and that New Zealand’s imports should be preserved and safeguarded.

“I believe that these considerations cover New Zealand’s essential needs,” Sir Harold said. “I have no doubt that the discussions will be long drawn out and arduous but we (the United Kingdom) are in these discussions from the start, unlike those over dairy products, and that makes a lot of difference in any negotiation.”