‘No cause for butter gloom’

Press, 2 July 1979, Page 1

‘No cause for butter gloom’

| New Zealand need not be pessimistic about the failure of the European Econamic Community to reduce the special import Jevy on New Zealand butter entering the British market, said the Acting Minister of Overseas Trade (Mr Thomson) last evening. 1 Representations were being made at the highest levels in Brussels to clarify the matter as quickly as possible, Mr Thomson said. It was announced last week that butter from E.E.C. countries would sell on the British market with a consumer subsidy of 57c a kilogram. The Council of E.E.C. Agricultural Ministers had previously decided in Luxemburg that the levy on New Zealand butter would be reduced, so it could be sold in competition with E.E.C.-produced butter receiving the new subsidy. This has not been done.

Mr Thomson said that he believed no deliberate attempt had been made to

exclude New Zealand butter from the British market, as the Community had a clear understanding of New Zealand’s position. The matter had probably been held over, and a solution might emerge within the coming week.

“New Zealand seeks a solution to the problem as quickly as possible within the machinery' of the E.E.C. Every day that passes is a loss to us,” he said.

The Community’s failure to reduce the New Zealand butter levy has drawn criticism from the British Minister of Agriculture (Mr Peter Walker), reports NZPA in London. Mr Walker has sent a telegram to the E.E.C. Agriculture Commissioner (Mr Finn Olav Gundelach) expressing his shock about the failure of the management committee for milk products to reduce the levy.

Mr Walker has asked Mr Gundelach for his personal intervention to ensure the levy is reduced immediately. New Zealand’s position

on the British butter market should be back to normal within a week, according to trade and industry sources in New Zealand.

Reports of a “deathblow” for New Zealand butter sales and “shutouts” were described by a top official as “alarmist.”

New Zealand Anchor butter sells in Britain at a set minimum of 36 pence (77c) a half-pound. This is 2c more than most E.E.C. brands, which can also be discounted as supermarket specials. Theoretically, the new subsidy means that E.E.C.produced butter will drop in price to the consumer by 12 pence a pound, but Wellington officials say that the management committee for milk products must act, if it has not already acted, to implement the Agriculture Ministers’ earlier recommendation.

The result will be that butter prices will revert to the status quo, and New Zealand will continue to press for an additional reduction in its levy.