N.Z. cheese ‘threat’ to Aust market

Press, 24 April 1980, Page 21

N.Z. cheese ‘threat’ to Aust market

N Z P A Melbourne

Protection from unfair import competition to protect the Australian domestic cheese market is being sought by the Australian Dairy Farmers’ Federation in submissions to federal parliamentarians. The - A.D.F.F., which speaks for all Australian dairy farmers, said that imports of New Zealand cheese posed the most serious threat to the Australian dairy, industry. ■The federation accused the New Zealand dairy industry of unfair competition and of subsidising relatively low-priced sales to Australia Out of high returns obtained on other, markets. . The federation has released the submission exactly 12 months after the Federal. Government received: the Industries Assistance Commission’s final report on assistance for the Australian cheese industry. The I.A.C.’s recommendations have not been made public and have not been acted upon. The federation said the final report differed little from the commission’s draft recommendation of a $2OO a tonne tariff. Although it called the commission’s report “significant” in that it testified to the validity of the daily industry’s case against imports, recommended a doubling Of assistance and came from a hody not having a reputation “for recommending unjustifiable levels of assistance,” the federation disapproved of the form of assistance recommended by the I.A.C.

It said almost all cheese exporting countries, including New Zealand, subsidised exports. If a $2OO a tonne tariff were introduced exporters would simply adjust their prices to maintain the existing landed price. . The federation urged parliamentarians, to support the Australian Dairy Industry Conference’s recommendation of a quantitative quota on New Zealand cheese for an initial period of three years, with the original quota of. 4800 tonnes being set at today’s import level, but with subsequent • years being indexed for growth in the Australian cheese market,.

New Zealand is permitted duty-free access for all types of cheese except cheddar.- - Australia allows in 1220 tonnes of New Zealand cheddar duty-free each year. The federation ,has accused the New Zealand Dairy Board of using relatively' high returns from preferred market sales of its products in the European Economic Community and the United States to subsidise exports to other countries, including Australia. Under this system sales of New Zealand cheese in Australia have quadrupled since 1973 to 74.

The federation said that although it was one of the objectives of the N.A.F.T.A. agreement that trade betweea New Zealand and Australia should take place under conditions of fair competition, this was not occurring under present arrangements.