Butter ban call: Mr Talboys unbowed

Press, 25 February 1980, Page 6

Butter ban call: Mr Talboys unbowed

i.From_

KEN COATES

' in London

The recent call by British

dairy farmers for a total ban on imports of New Zealand ■y butter has been dismissed by L. the Minister of Overseas Trade (Mr Taiboys) as having no bearing on British ; Government support for continued access to the British market. At the annual meeting of the National Farmers’ Union several dairyfarmers criticised the 115,000 tonnes of butter New Zealand is entitled to sell in Britain this . year, but: Mr Talboys- said that he was not surprised: that- opinion had been .expressed by farmers’ organisations in every country in the y %.E.C. “As we were told in The Hague last year, the farmers’ lobby in Europe would

like to see New Zealand out, but this is not Government policy,”-he said. “British interest in the lamb trade includes millions of pounds' invested in ships and coolstores, and butchers and their customers have a lively interest in a continuation .of that trade,” he said.

Mr Talboys also said that when he met the British Minister of Agriculture (Mr Walker), he had again received assurances of British support in the Council of Ministers when the package of, proposals for continued access for New Zeal arid butter came up for consideration.

In Brussels Mr Talboys met the Agriculture Commissioner (Mr Finn Gundelach) who said that his proposals for New Zealand, dairy export access would be con?

idered this (northern) sum? mer.

Mr Talboys would not discuss tonnages, but it has already been reported that the proposals include a. phasing down to a permanent 90,000-tonne quota for New Zealand butter from 1985.

In the European Parliament, Mr Gundelach was reported as saying that “a more stable level of imports” would have to be achieved, in reply to a question on checking the flow of fats imports intothe Community. New Zealand would have to accept a reduction in its exports to the Community, he said.

However. he warned against exaggerating the effect such imports had on the market, and said that the E.E.C. did not have so many trading friends that it could afford to neglect them.