THE PRESS WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16, 1978. Sorting out the fishing mess

Press, 16 August 1978, Page 20

THE PRESS WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16, 1978. Sorting out the fishing mess

A likely explanation for the deadlock in the fishing talks between Japan and New Zealand is that the trade agreement between the Japanese Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture, Mr Nakagawa. and the Prime Minister, Mr Muldoon. has proved unacceptable to the Japanese Government. Mr Muldoon is trying to salvage what he can, both in the interests of New Zealand and for his own political satisfaction. The agreement has remained secret, but it may have been that New Zealand gained no more in those talks than a few* tariff cuts and the sale of milk powder for aid to help New Zealand's access to the Japanese market for agricultural products If the Japanese Government has turned down even these. New Zealand has nothing to show for some of the longest negotiations it has ever held. To many observers of the Government’s dealings with Japan, it seemed that the principle of New Zealand’s obtaining greater access to the Japanese market in return for Japanese access to New Zealand’s fishing waters had been well and truly settled. It seemed that the recent talks in Wellington were talks about fishing, the establishment of quotas, the size of nets, fishing areas, and so on. But it has turned out that Mr Muldoon wants a form of wording in the agreement relating to the level of access to the Japanese market for New Zealand agricultural produce. When negotiating with the Soviet Union and South Korea on fishing rights New Zealand made the point that future levels of access to their markets would be one of the criteria in determining future access to New Zealand's fishing grounds. Japan still apparently refuses, as it has refused from the beginning, to allow the issues of access for agricultural products and access for fishermen to be linked. On the surface the deadlock appears to be one of semantics; but the matter probably goes much deeper. Mr Muldoon is understandably wary of an agreement He had believed that considerable progress was made in the informal talks in Melbourne with the former Japanese Minister of Agriculture, Mr Zenko Suzuki. The assurances he felt

he had received in private were not forthcoming in public. This experience probably in part explains his comment yesterday: “We have got a lot of things said in private, but people keep on pouring cold water on them in public.” The latest cold water came from the Japanese Minister of External Economic Affairs (Mr Nobuhiko Ushiba) who was in Wellington earlier this month on a mission entirely separate from the fishing talks. He still insisted that fishing and market access are separate matters. Another explanation for the deadlock is that Mr Muldoon has reconsidered the benefits New Zealand gained in the earlier talks and has come to the conclusion that they amounted to little. From the few clues available that seems a less likely explanation. The more likely explanation is that Japan is stalling. New Zealand should remain firm in its resolve. The Japanese negotiators are apparently prepared to wait in Wellington. New Zealand should not hesitate to take advantage of their patience until an agreement satisfactory to both sides is made. Japan may maintain that the allocation of fishing rights by New Zealand is purely a management matter over which New 7 Zealand has acquired jurisdiction and that, in exercising this jurisdiction, the New' Zealand Government should not treat it as a trade negotiation. In fact New Zealand is entitled to dispose of fishing rights where it Chooses and it will more readily accommodate Japan if Japan is reasonable about New Zealand exports. In the end a respectable solution may be found in concurrent but separate agreements; this solution contains no obvious disadvantage to New’ Zealand. Japan, however, must be conscious that the fishing rights will have to be renewed, if they are granted at all. Even if the two countries’ objects are not linked in one agreement, the link will always be implied Mr Muldoon may have to settle for some niceties in negotiation; but he need not sell New Zealand short when dealing with such tough negotiators as the Japanese have proved to be