Aust. warns against E.E.C. dumping of beef in Pacific

Press, 24 April 1984, Page 28

Aust. warns against E.E.C. dumping of beef in Pacific

NZPA-AAP Canberra If the E.E.C. began dumping beef in the Pacific market the entire Australian meat industry would be devastated and the international beef arket could collapse, the Australian Meat and Livestock Corporation has warned. The corporation has sent a study paper by its economics division on “The Threat of E.E.C. Beef Exports to Pacific Basin Markets” to Australian Government and meat industry leaders, commodity groups, and trading bodies and other beef producing and exporting countries.

The corporation said it was seeking concerted industry and Government action to prevent the E.E.C. dumping highly subsidised beef exports in Pacific markets now supplied by

Australia. “Dumping by the E.E.C. would devastate the entire Australian meat industry and could preface collapse of the international beef market,” the corporation said.

The corporation’s chairman, Mr Geoff Jones, said highly-subsidised E.E.C. beef exports already had caused dramatic distortions in world trade patterns. “The potential for further market loss in the face of expanding E.E.C. beef production is the most serious threat now facing Australia and other producing countries,” he said. “Over the years, Australian exporters have been forced to retreat to a dependence on servicing markets almost entirely within the Pacific region because of E.E.C. dumping in Europe, Africa and the

Middle East. We can retreat no further,” Mr Jones said. In the paper, the corporation said Australia would not be the only supplier affected by the dumping of E.E.C. beef on to Asian markets.

“If E.E.C. beef competed in the hotel-restaurant-supermarket trade, the United States and New Zealand suppliers would also be forced to accept lower prices,” the paper said. “In the case of the United States, exports would be likely to be redirected to the domestic United States market.

“If E.E.C. exports competed in the manufacturingquality beef trade then, to the extent that Latin American suppliers already have a position in the Pacific Basin market, they would also be forced to accept lower prices and redirect their product to other markets.

“Given the general lack of alternative buyers, however, displacement of these traditional supplies could preface a collapse of the international beef market,” the paper said. The corporation suggested

Australia consider: ® Intensifying bilateral consultations and negotiations and through international arrangements such as the International Meat Council and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade general provisions. The sanctions of G.A.T.T. are ultimately available. ® Encourage the E.E.C. to seek alternative means of disposing of beef surpluses. ® Raise awareness of the threat of E.E.C. dumping to such an extent that it would defer action to avoid the risk of widespread Australian disapprobation. The corporation said if Australia considered such action would not be effective it should seek to secure Australia’s markets by long term agreements with Pacific Basin countries and attempt to impose punitive trade restrictions on imports of E.E.C. goods and services. In this case it should also accept the inevitability of E.E.C. penetration and assist the Australian industry to compete in the hope that E.E.C. policies would change sooner and more beneficially than expected.