E.E.C. ‘ought to scrap farm policy’

Press, 25 February 1981, Page 10

E.E.C. ‘ought to scrap farm policy’

NZPA-Reuter London ’ The European Economic ■. Community’s farm policy is a waste.of money, hurts • non-member producers and exporters, and should be scrapped, a West German economist has said. Professor Juergen Donges, of Kiel University, said in a paper published by the Institute of Economic Affairs, an independent economic study group, that an entirely new farm policy was probably needed. He wrote in the article, released as E.E.C. Agricultural Ministers open two days of meeting in Brussels ~-to discuss farm prices/ that present policy disregarded basic economic rules about efficient use of resources in a mar-ket-oriented economy. “However, welcome to farmers, the Common Agricultural Policy, hasimposed high • costs . on consumers and - taxpayers

within the -European Community as well as on producers and exporters ■in non-member countries, including developing countries,” Professor Donges said. He said there must be more than cosmetic change: “We probably rea quire a removal of the whole policy in its present form.” Professor Donges- said free' farm trade should be opened to third world suppliers within the Common Market. '■ -?■ • He added that farm Incomes should no longer be supported by the ilO, but prices should be allowed to reflect' world-wide supply and demand. Price-support, he said,; “has acted as an irresistible magnet for farmers to produce more than consumers will buy, at higher prices.' Such consequences are not only a misuse of taxpayers’ money but a plain , waste of resources.”