No Reagan hope for easier beef access

Press, 21 July 1980, Page 5

No Reagan hope for easier beef access

N Z P A Detroit The American Republican Party’s declared international free-trade policy does not extend to imports of agricultural goods such as meat and dairy products from New Zealand. This has been made clear by one of the top economic advisers to Mr Ronald Reagan, the party s presidential candidate. - Mr Reagan is a free? ? advocate and the w -,?u as P ec t of our policy will be free trade as much as. possible,” said Mr Bill Middendorf, the co-ordina-tor of Mr Reagan’s international economic-advis-ory committee. Asked if this meant that Mr Reagan, as President, would move to dismantle current American import restrictions which limit sales of New Zealand meat and dairy products, Mr Middendorf said, “I doubt very much if Mr Reagan is going to disturb those restrictions. Free trade is an ideal but you have to deal with conditions in the real world.” Mr Middendorf indicated that he included in these restrictions the Meat Import Bill, introduced bv President Carter earlie'r this year, which limits beef imports from New Zealand . and other suppliers. He said that Mr Reagan’s trade-advisory committee had not actually considered the question of American protectonist policies on agricultural imports.

“We will have to take a hard ’ look at it if Mr Reagan becomes President. But I think we will have to look at it in the context of what would work. I think that under President Reagan you will find a much more sympathetic understanding than in previous administrations but you are not going to find any miracles.” Implicit in Mr Middendorf’s statement was the support traditionally given to the Republican Party by American farmers, who comprise one of the strongest political lobbies in Washington. The statement offers little comfort to a New Zealand Government which bitterly fought the Meat Import Bill and must be clearly hoping for a better deal from a Republican administration. New Zealand ministers

have consistently argued against the agricultural protectionist policies of its main industrialised allies, especially the United States, the Eurp - pean Economic Community, and Japan. the briefing for journalists by Mr Middendorf, a banker, economist, and member of former President Ford’s Cabinet, concentrated on the party’s export-orientated trade section of its manifesto and the problems Japanese car imports have posed for the American automobile industry. “I would like to say something encouraginf for New Zealand but I just cannot give you an answer,” he said. “I can only say that President Reagan 'would not seek curbs and barriers which , would affect the economies of its allies.”