Questions raised about milk powder exports

Press, 22 October 1983, Page 19

Questions raised about milk powder exports

PA Wellington The Opposition has asked whether New Zealand was contributing towards the death of infants in the Third World. Speaking in Parliament during the estimates debate, Ms Helen Clark (Mt Albert) asked whether milk powder was exported to developing countries which had not adopted the World Health Organisation code on its use.

Feeding infants with milk powder-based formulas rather than breast milk brought malnutrition and disease to 10 million children, in developing countries each year, said Ms Clark. One million of them died, she said.

Noting that milk powder contributed $13.3 million of the $15.2 million worth of exports to Nigeria last year, Ms Clark asked whether the product dominated New Zealand’s exports to other developing countries. “If it does, is the Government concerned about the j end use to which that milk powder might be put, for example into the infant formula breast milk substitutes which are so dangerous to babies?”

Ms Clark said that if New Zealand exports contributed to the deaths of children “then we should be very deeply concerned about that and impose stricter standards on our marketing of that product in those countries.

“New Zealand itself has gone along with the code on

marketing of those products but we apparently see nothing wrong at present with exporting to countries which don’t accept the W.H.O. standard.” She asked whether the Minister of Overseas Trade, Mr Cooper, was prepared to see New Zealand exporters continue to sell milk products to countries which had not adopted the code. “If he is, how does he feel about accepting the consequences of that to Third World children?”

Speaking later in the debate, Mr Cooper did not answer Ms Clark’s questions on milk powder or refer to the subject. Earlier, Mr D. M. J. Jones (Nat., Helensville) had said the Opposition’s policy on Kampuchea would wreck New Zealand’s trade prospects in Asia. The Labour Party had decided not to recognise Pol Pot, the deposed leader of Kampuchea, Mr Jones said. That view was contrary to the view expressed by the countries making up the Association of South-East Asian Nations. “If we are to do well in South-East Asia and the Pacific we ought to be working in with the A.S.E.A.N. countries.

“The Labour Party’s policy would destroy New Zealand’s opportunity to trade in view of their stance on Cambodia (Kampuchea).” Mr John Banks (Nat., Whangarei) said that the future for New Zealand meat sales in Japan was bright, but exports would

have to be tailored to what the Japanese wanfed.

“We cannot continue to sell them skinny, scruffy sheep wrapped in muslin like we have for the last 100 years,” he said. Mr Banks has recently returned from a trip to Japan and said that, for the first time, Japanese rice growers have been put on production quotas because of the shift from rice to red meat consumption. It might be that -New Zealand would have to grow the type of sheep Japan wanted ' directly for that market.

In Europe the outlook for New Zealand meat sales was bleak, he said. “In Greece, the second biggest buyer of sheepmeat, there are real financial problems. They are on the verge of bankruptcy. “In Europe there is a shift from red meat to white meat. That will radically affect our ability to market our products. We must look at the Pacific Rim countries. That is where our future lies and we must ask what these people want.” Ms Fran Wilde (Lab., Wellington Central) said that it was “insanity” for the Government to reduce the vote for trade services.

That division had a primary responsibility for planning and developing the government’s export promotion policy. It was also the link between local exporters and trade commissions in the field, she said.