Trade-off proposed for N.Z. butter

Press, 8 July 1982, Page 3

Trade-off proposed for N.Z. butter

PA Wellington The European Economic Community Commission has proposed another trade-off on New Zealand butter, reducing the tonnage admitted to Britain but paying a higher price. In spite of reports from Brussels that the. commission would ask the decision-mak-ing Council of Ministers to follow the formula of the last two years and grant access next year to 90,000 tonnes of butter, it became clear yesterday that the proposal was actually for only 89,000 tonnes, accompanied by a price increase. . The size of the increase was not immediately clear but it is designed to give New Zealand producers the same return as if they had been allowed to sell the full 90.000 tonnes in Britain.

The trade-off was put into the package by the full E.E.C. Commission, after the Agriculture Commissioner, Mr Poul Dalsager, proposed a straight 90,000 tonne quota. Details of the commission's proposal, finalised in Strasbourg yesterday, were passed to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Overseas Trade (Mr Cooper) from the New Zealand Embassy in Brussels. Mr Cooper said that the quota was less than had been hoped for. The New Zealand quota has dropped 2000 tonnes a year since the last time tonnage was dropped in exchange for a higher price, two years ago. The quota is believed to have been cut by the commission in an early attempt to meet expected French and Irish objections to continuing New Zealand access. While New Zealand will complain publicly at the 10,000 tonne reduction, France and Ireland are expected to want to make further cuts, and the New Zealand Government is known to feel it will have done well to settle with the commission’s final 89,000 tonne proposal. Mr Cooper said yesterday that he would expect to travel to Europe, probably in early September, ■to bring pressure on Community governments against further reductions.

“I dont think we could easily accept at all any diminution in the tonnage recommended by the commis-. sioners,” he said. Mr Cooper said he recognised that in the final analysis, New Zealand had no choice but to accept whatever the council finally decided. “New Zealanders should understand qiiite clearly that we do not have any choice," he said. "We are out there in a cruel, hard world trying to trade in a commodity that people in the Community are not using as much of as they did.” The chairman of the Dairy Board, Mr J. T. Graham, said the board was “most concerned” about the proposed reduction. "The Community heads of government made a political commitment in 1975 that in setting annual quantities they ‘should not deprive New Zealand of outlets which are essential to it.’ Our access for butter and cheese has been reduced by more than half as a result of Britain’s entry into the E.E.C.

“We have useful co-opera-tion with commission officials concerning international markets, but now we must look for a firm policy commitment,” he said. Danes eye N.Z., page 9