‘Hidden’ E.E.C. levies cost Britain millions

Press, 21 December 1978, Page 9

‘Hidden’ E.E.C. levies cost Britain millions

NZPA-Reuter London; The “hidden” costs of Britain’s membership of the, European Economic Com-I munity and its controversial! Common Agricultural Policy cause the payment by Britain of millions of dollars each year to its wealthier E.E.C. partners, according to a new study. A wide-ranging and finelydetailed examination of the C.A.P. by Professor Ulrich Koester, of West Germany’s Kiel University, has shown that every’ one per cent increase in the fixed prices of Europe's agricultural produce results in a big increase in the amount paid by Britain to the support' fund

The study, published in London by the centre for European agricultural studies at Wye University in Kent, shows that for every one per cent increase in the “common” price for butter in the Community, Britain has to pay about 55.6 M to

jits wealthier partners which produce the bulk of Europe’s ■butter. Italy, the E.E.C.’s (p. orest member, is in much I the same position. 1 Applying the same computations to a one per cent I rise in the prices of wheat, barley, beef, sugar, and dairy produce shows that Britain has to disperse almost SIB.BM — an amount almost exactly matched by a net gain for France. Wealthy West Germany paid out only about $376,000 for each percentage rise.

“It is not at all surprising that the U.K. is more strongly opposed to a price increase for butter than for other products,” the study says.

The paper — called a “finely-detailed and widerrnging dismemberment” of the C.A.P. by the “Financial Times” — says a farmer’s income is now only partly dependent on his efficiency. “The effect of political decisions is more and more dominant creating a feeling

|of insecurity among farmei .” ' In the first seven years of this decade, food prices in Britain have increased by an annual average of 14.3 per cent, compared with 4.9 per cent in West Germany. Farmers’ incomes have altered erratically, and in isolation showed no indication of being the fruits of a “common” policy. Professor Koester is particularly scathing in his views on the operation of th’ Monetary Compensatory Amounts, used by the Community as virtual levies and subsidies in its bid to impose common trading prices and fair competition on agricultural markets.

“Accepting that the M.C.A.s are nothing more than duties as far as the functioning of the Market is concerned, we may state that trade restrictions within the E.E.C. are currently greater than is permitted according to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade rules,” he says.