Envoy’s view of N.Z.-U.S. links

Press, 10 April 1980, Page 11

Envoy’s view of N.Z.-U.S. links

From JOHN N. HUTCHISON in San Francisco New Zealand’s Ambassador to the United States (Mr Merwyn Norish) on the eve of his return home to become the new Secretary of Foreign Affairs, has just completed his fifth swing through the western United States. Halfway through a crushing schedule of speaking engagements and meetings with business and political figures, he examined the problems and opportunities of New Zealand’s relations with North America. The big problems, as he sees them, concern protectionist biases of American agriculture against beef, lamb, and dairy products. The principal opportunities lie in the American market for “a lot more” New Zealand products than are now sold here — if New Zealand works harder at understanding and andapting to the customer. “The longer I have been in the United States,” Mr Norrish said, “the more I have realised that we have to fight that battle (over agricultural quota restrictions) with every strategy. Our over-all relationship is excellent, but we have to persuade Americans to examine our trading needs in terms of that relation-* ship and not just in terms of their domestic political pressures. That is a tall order in a Presidential election year, but 1981 should be the right time to mount a vigorous campiagn.” To audiences which he hopes have influence on American reciprocal trade policy and upon Congress, Mr Norrish emphasises the benefits to American agriculture of opening the United States to more meat and diary products. Combined efforts of New Zealand and American sheep producers could enlarge the American lamb market for both countries, he says. Imports of more lean New Zealand beef can provide an outlet for much fatty surplus from American beef, which can be blended with it for fast-food outlets. As for dairy products, he tells Americans that their dairy price-support system is virtually a cost-plus indexed guaranteed income for dairy farmers which, with import barriers, is

pricing milk out of the market. To consumer listeners, Mr Norrish says that the scarcity effect of barriers to food imports contributes to the galloping inflation plaguing the United States. To groups interested in foreign affairs • he develops the theme of American and New Zealand stakes in a Pacific community, in which both countries face expanding trade opportunities and shifting political and military trends. Mr Norrish has spoken on these themes up and down California. He has discovered that Californians will accept plain talk from a New Zealander, and when he told the California Council on International Trade that the United States was employing a double standard on trade policy, and then spelled it out for them, no eyebrows were raised. He has told several business groups that while the United States asserts that it is leading the fight against Japanese and European barriers, it has raised the level of protection of some sectors of American agriculture. However, he had kind words for the American officials with whom he

deals. “Ease of access to people gives Washington a good atmosphere for a diplomat,” he said. Whenever he had reason to see a Cabinet member or a congressman, he was received with minimum delay, a good reception, and straight, businesslike answers. « r ' “I am struck by how much more we and the Americans think alike than we and the Europeans,” said Mr Norrish, most of whose foreign service has been in France, Belgium, and Britain. “I think Americans accept Australians and New Zealanders as being more like them than anybody except Canadians.” He said that in New Zealand there was an occasional tendency to resent the size and power of the United States. The other side of the coin was the tendency of the United States to take its friends for granted. “These are things we have to live with,” Mr Norrish said, “but they should not obscure the overriding importance of good relations with the United States. I think the Americans do regard the links with Australia and New Zealand as important.