E.E.C. confronted with N.Z. issues

Press, 20 September 1980, Page 26

E.E.C. confronted with N.Z. issues

NZPA London Common Market farm Ministers seem likely to be confronted with all three of the main and contentious New Zealand issues at their next meeting. The much delayed plans for a sheepmeat regulation and the E.E.C. Commission’s proposals on New Zealand butter beyond this year are already fixed on the agenda for. the September 30 meeting. They are now likely to be joined by the most immediate New Zealand problem, the French block to the council’s July decision to give New Zealand producers a price -fise, provided they send less -nutter to Britain for the rest ■“ofthis year. - j-The commission’s special 'Committee on agriculture met again last week but, unlike its two. previous meetings, it did not even discuss' New Zealand. This was taken as an indication that the committee is resigned to having to send the issue back to the council where it began. British moves to have an earlier than scheduled council meeting purely to deal with New Zealand also appear to have foundered, mainly because there was not . enough time to call a special gathering. The British were also experiencing some difficulty because, their Minister of Agriculture (Mr Peter Walker) will undertake a South American tour this week.

Hopes that the butter im-

passe could be solved by what the E.E.C. jargon calls “written procedure” — which would not involve ministers — also appear to have faded. The council agreed in July that New Zealand dairy producers should be paid 75 per cent of the intervention price paid to European farmers, provided that New Zealand cut back its scheduled quota for this year of 115,000 tonnes to 95,000.

The new deal was supposed to run from August 1 but the French, at a technical meeting aimed at implementing council . decisions, blocked the move on the grounds that their Minister (Mr Pierre Mehaignerie) had not fully understood what he was agreeing to. ~ , A compromise, which would have given New Zealand a slightly lower rise, was then offered but New Zealand rejected it. The New Zealand view is that it is not a matter .of reaching a compromise but of implementing a decision passed by the ministers in July. Some Brussels sources have . said that the real motivation behind the French action was to get all the New Zealand issues on the table together, so that compromises and trade-offs could involve all three, along the lines of a better price for butter if less lamb.

New Zealand is likely to reject suggestions of that type, too, although on September 30, the ministers are not expected to get far on New Zealand, except

perhaps on the butter price. The sheepmeat regulation is due to start on October 1, but there is now virtually no chance of that. New Zealand, the E.E.C. Commission and eight E.E.C. countries have agreed that the tariff New Zealand pays on its lamb to Europe will be slashed, provided New Zealand agrees to “voluntarily restraining” its annual sales of about 200,000 tonnes.

France is blocking agreement on that as well. The third issue, that of how much butter New Zealand can send after the end of this year, has barely been discussed by ministers. The E.E.C. Farm Commissioner (Mr Finn Gundelach) decided against tabling his proposals — which would give New Zealand an eventual annual tonnage of 90,000 tonnes — ini July, because of the heat engenered by the discussions on this year’s butter and sheepmeat. France is opposed to the proposals and is not expected to agree to any figure except for next year alone, certainly not the five years Envisaged by Mr Gundelach. Sources said that France would probably try to block the proposals for as long as it could, at least until after the French presidential election in April next year. New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Taiboys) will be back in Europe next month urging action on the commission and on some of the Nine.