Dairy Bd chief tries to calm U.S. fears

Press, 26 November 1981, Page 26

Dairy Bd chief tries to calm U.S. fears

By DAVID BARBER of NZPA Washington The American dairy industry has nothing to fear from imports of casein, the deputy chairman of the New Zealand Dairy Board, Mr R. G. Calvert, has told a hearing in Washington.

“It is not our intention to substantially increase the quantities of casein we export to America,” Mr Calvert told the United States International Trade Commission, which have concluded a twoday public hearing into casein imports. “We have been caught out before,” he said, citing the board’s one-time dependence on the British market for butter. “We have no intention of concentrating one product on the United States market.”

Mr Calvert was moving to quell fears expressed by American dairymen that

casein imports would rise dramatically, cutting back the use of more expensive American-made dairy products in the processed food industry.

He said worldwide casein manufacture was running 10 per cent below last year’s level, imports to the United States were static in the last two years at 68.9 million kilograms, and had fallen 22 per cent in the first eight months of this year. Casein, which provided about one-seventh of the board’s total export earnings, was the only dairy product freely traded throughout the world without trade barriers.

Import restrictions would “seriously damage” the New Zealand dairy industry and violate America’s obligations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, he said.

The hearing was part of Trade Commission investiga-

tion into whether casein imports are materially interfering with the United States Government’s dairy price support programme by displacing American milk products from the processed food industry. American dairymen, who do not make casein, asked the commission to recommend a quota limiting imports to half present levels.

The commission is expected to announce its decision in early January. Five congressmen from dairying states gave evidence at the hearing, supporting demands for import restrictions by the National Milk Producers’ Federation.

Two congressmen attacked the Federal Agriculture Department for failing to recommend import curbs when it gave evidence to the commission.

Representative James Jeffords (Rep., Vermont) told the commission he was “as-

tounded” at the department’s failure in view of the fact that “imported casein is a significant part of our dairy surplus problem.”

The Dairy Board, the Australian Dairy Corporation, and a committee of 43 American food companies which use casein opposed import curbs, saying that foreign casein had no impact on America’s dairy surpluses or the Government’s price support programme. They were joined by expert medical witnesses, who testified to the value of casein in medical nutrition products used to feed the chronically sick. They said there was no alternative to casein for these products.

The Milk Producers’ Federation said in evidence that if import curbs were imposed it would favour a licensing system to allow unrestricted imports for medical use.