E.E.C. beef dumping called ‘abhorrent’

Press, 28 March 1981, Page 11

E.E.C. beef dumping called ‘abhorrent’

The policy of the Europe Economic Community of subsidising exports was abhorrent to New Zealand, said the chairman of the Meat Board, Mr A. M. Begg, in a paper presented to the Fourth World Angus Forum in Christchurch. . Disruption of air services prevented Mr Begg being present ‘in person and his paper was presented by another member of the board. Mr Begg said it was bad enough to see the E.E.C. “skulking behind trade barriers” and distorting its own production and consumption patterns with controls, but it

was infinitely worse to see the blatant dumping of beef on to outside markets in such quantities and at such low prices that the ripples were felt across the whole world beef trade. E.E.C. exports of beef and veal had increased from 189,000 tonnes in 1978 to a provisional 700,000 tonnes last year. There had been reports of E.E.C. intervention beef carrying an export subsidy of $lBOO a tonne, thus putting it in the hands of buyers at $l4OO a tonne, a price bearing no relation to its production cost or market realities.