Butter plan condemned

Press, 24 October 1984, Page 3

Butter plan condemned

NZPA staff correspondent London

Authoritative European commentators have backed New Zealand and roundly condemned European Economic Community bureaucrats for moves to sell cheap butter.

The criticism comes in this week’s edition of “Agra Europe,” the bible for E.E.C. agriculture-watchers. It said that cut-rate sales, destined mainly for the Soviet Union, were “desper-

ate” measures. The publication gave firm support to New Zealand’s argument that the E.E.C.’s move would undermine the world market and breach international commitments to minimum prices. In a report from Brussels, “Agra Europe” said it was inevitable that there would now be sales of E.E.C. butter on the world market at no more than two-thirds of the present G.A.T.T. (General Agreement on

Tariffs and Trade) minimum. ' An official spokesman for the European Commission / last week denied New Zealand’s argument that the plans breached the G.A.T.T. minimum. “Agra Europe’s” criticism of the commission’s plans for dealing with Europe’s 1.2 million-tonne butter surplus included a broadside at the “economically pointless” half-price Christmas butter scheme.