France lied’ about N.Z.’s E.E.C. access

Press, 10 April 1980, Page 12

France lied’ about N.Z.’s E.E.C. access

NZPA London The British Minister of Agriculture (Mr Peter Walker) has accused the French Government of not telling the truth about New Zealand’s Common Market access arrangements. Mr Walker’s hard-hit-ting comments were the latest in a series of verbal battles between British and French Ministers over disputes within the Euro-< pean Economic Community. ■ 1 New Zealand, the dominant outside supplier of both lamb and butter to the British market, has often been caught in the middle of the AngloFrench war of words. One French complaint is that high lamb prices will drop because Britain continues to import “cheap” New ' Zealand lamb. But Mr Walker said President Giscard d’Estaing had not made it clear whether he signed the G.A.T.T. agreement allowing New Zealand to supply unlimited quantities of lamb to the Community provided there was a 20 per cent tariff on imports.

“All predictions show that for years to come, consumer demand will outstrip lamb supplies, and that demand will increase greatly in France if prices there are more reasonable,” Mr Walker told the “Sunday Times.”

French farmers were not being told the truth about the E.E.C.’s huge butter surplus, he said. The French Government allowed its farmers -to believe Britain imported 300,000 tonnes of butter a year from New Zealand and therefore allowed the surplus to grow. “In fact, Britain does not import more than 100,000 tonnes of New Zealand butter a year and so there would be a huge butter surplus whether we bought New Zealand butter or not,” Mr Walker said. | Under a 1976 E.E.C. agreement, New Zealand last year was entitled to send 120,000 tonnes of butter to Britain and 115,000 this year. The amount for next year has yet to be negotiated. Mr Walker accused the French Government of de-* luding its farmers into believing that they contributed little to the dairysurpluses because stocks in France were low. “Thousands of tonnes of , French-made butter are in stock in countries such as Germany,” Mr Walker said. France’s aggressive ■ E.E.C. policies might be , prompted by consider next ■ year’s presidential election and the long- • term desire to become the dominant European food supplier, he said.