Agriculture ‘should be part of world trading system’

Press, 25 November 1982, Page 3

Agriculture ‘should be part of world trading system’

NZPA staff corresponent Geneva

The New Zealand Foreign Minister, Mr Cooper, yesterday urged G.A.T.T. nations to bring agriculture into ' the world trading system and treat it ■ the same as they treat manufactured goods. All the principal trading nations and some smaller ones, had rules on agricultural trade which they would find totally unacceptable if applied to manufactured products, he said. Mr Cooper was addressing the opening session of the Ministerial meeting of the Genral Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. It is the first Ministerial meeting of the 88-nation body since 1973. Mr Cooper said it was a regrettable fact that more and more goods have become subject to restrictive import policies, subsidies, noncommercial financing arrangements, so-called voluntary restraint agreements, and a “mish-mash of ad hoc, undisciplined beggar-my-neighbour policies.” “These policies have led us to the brink of the greatest economic crisis since the 19305,” he said. “We face both a crisis of confidence and a crisis of direction.” The only choice was a constructive, concerted programme of action to-rebuild the international trading system.

Mr Cooper said G.A.T.T. must make a strong political statement of intent to manage its affairs in conformity with the law —'and spirit of the law — which its agreement embodied. This meant full respect for the .interests of others. G.A.T.T. must be brought up-to-date and come to grips with the unfinished business of. agriculture, subsidies, and safeguards. ' . Subsidies were a particularly serious problem which had not been. adequately dealt with. “The fact that New Zealand, one of the most efficient producers of livestock products in the world, has been forced by the export subsidies and market protection practised by other countries to introduce support measures for its farmers is a reflection of how desperate the international market

situation has become," Mr Cooper said. “For us this can only be a temporary measure. We cannot afford to have our agricultural industry weakened by lack of confidence in the future.”

New Zealand strongly supported proposals on the table in Geneva for the progressive and substantial reduction of existing export subsidies and other export support measures. “In the absence of fuller agreements on a specific programme of action, we urge that all countries exercise the greatest restraint on the management of their agricultural export programmes, seeking to co-oper-ate to avoid damage to the essential interests of others, and working together to find sensible solutions to immediate problems arising from the accumulation of surplus stocks,” Mr Cooper said.

G.A.T.T. ministers must prepare the ground for new negotiations to improve market access for agricultural products, he said. “We propose an evolutionary approach, one which provides for gradual improvements in access and reduction of surpluses,” he told ministers. •

“We'believe that marginal adjustments in production and access policies will provide beneficial. market opportunities for New Zealand and other exporters of temperate agricultural products without putting at risk fundamental interests of domestic producers in those countries.”

Mr Cooper said Ministers must insist that G.A.T.T.’s work programme be actionorientated with a tight timetable for reporting back and for decisions by Ministers.

It was essential that the meeting in Geneva should lead to concerted action in favour of developing countries and that special attention should be devoted to the problems of the least developed countries. “New Zealand does not approach this conference determined to blame any one group or country,” Mr Cooper 'said. “As a small developed nation we are concerned that the economic and trading leaders — the European Economic Community, the

United States and Japan — appear unable to resolve by negotiation the differences which militate against the progressive resumption of liberalised trade.

“They have the population and economic strength to initiate the change which we smaller nations desperately seek and their lead is urgently required in order that we all may see a resumption of growth and employment.” Recalling that New Zealand had been a founding member of G.A.T.T. Mr Cooper told Ministers that “In 1947 we were prepared to join with others in an agreement which we hoped would apply on a universal scale the lessons New Zealand had drawn from its own experience — that economic growth and development would be encouraged by a trading system which respected comparative advantage, each country doing what it could do best and exchanging goods in a free and non-discriminatory way.” • New Zealand wanted this system to cover agricultural goods just as other nations wanted it to cover manufactured goods. “Thirty-five years later this remains our goal,” Mr Cooper said. In a statement issued after the meeting, Sir Shridath Ramphal, the Commonwealth SecretaryGeneral, said that Commonwealth Ministers were united in their determination to do all they could to arrest protectionism and improve market access. They wanted to see the Commonwealth committed to follow-up action after the G.A.T.T. meeting. There should be some mechanism, it was suggested, by which the continued malfunctioning of the international trading system could be monitored and governments and institutions alerted to dangers that might threaten.

Sir Shridath said there was substantial support for the concept of a standstill on protectionist Carriers. “But there was no disguising the doubts about its attainment which the preparatory process has engendered,” he said.

E.E.C. stand, page 9;