No ‘secret deal’ with Russia

Press, 24 April 1980, Page 1

No ‘secret deal’ with Russia

PA Wellington Suggestions that New Zealand had made a “secret deal” to sell barley to Russia in contravention of a United States grain embargo were quashed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Mr Taiboys) last evening. No restriction has been placed on New Zealand’s trade with the Soviet Union and the size of a shipment of grain loaded at Lyttelton and Timaru was in line with past exports to the U.S.S.R., Mr Taiboys said. “I am aware of speculation that a shipment of grain being loaded out of Timaru and Lyttelton may be destined for the Soviet Union,” he said. “If confirmed, however, this does not run contrary to the series of measures that the Government an- ' nounced in January in response to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. “We made clear at the time that no restriction was placed on our trade with the U.S.S.R. There . have been exports of grain

from New Zealand to the Soviet Union in the past, and the quantities I believe to be involved in the present shipment are in line with these,” Mr Talboys said. A British ship chartered to a Soviet organisation was to have left Lyttelton yesterday for a Russian port with 22,000 tonnes of barley on board, worth $4,200,000. The Warrior left Timaru on Tuesday after loading 15,162 tonnes of barley and was to top up at Lyttelton with 5000 tonnes, but work on her and two other ships stopped at Lyttelton yesterday because of a lack of deckmen. The Warrior is on charter to the Soviet ship chartering organisation, Sovfracht; and its Wellington agent (Mr V. Leverov) confirmed that the ship was bound for Russia. “She is loading barley for the U.5.5.R.,” he said. He said .the ship would sail directly from Lyttelton to a Baltic Sea Soviet port. The actual port had yet to be decided.