E.E.C. policies cost Aust. $1.38 p.a.

Press, 11 September 1985, Page 23

E.E.C. policies cost Aust. $1.38 p.a.

NZPA staff correspondent Sydney The agricultural policies of the European Economic Community are costing Australia almost sAustl billion ($1.3 billion) a year in lost export earnings, according to a comprehensive studyreleased this week.

It says the only effective means of retaliation is a strategy of “subversion from within” - persuading European consumers and manufacturers who also bear the cost of the Community’s Common Agricultural 'Policy, to push for reform.

The Bureau of Agricultural Economics study, described by the bureau's director, Dr Andrew Stoeckel, as the most comprehensive prepared outside the E.E.C., is the result of four years work by an Australian team. It is the first time the full implications for Australia of Europe’s agricultural policies have been calculated in hard dollar terms, and it will be of interest in New Zealand which has also been suffering on world markets at the hands of the Europeans. The release of the report comes as the Community’s vice-president and Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, Mr Frans Andreissen, is in New Zealand for Ministerial and industry talks, and a week before he crosses the Tasman for fur-

ther talks in Australia. Among the study's key conclusions are: European farmers receive about sAust7 billion ($9.1 billion) a year through price supports and direct subsidies; E.E.C. budgetary spending on the agricultural sector represented only 25 per cent of the assistance given to farmers — the lion's share coming from higher consumer prices: Seventy-five per cent of the assistance goes to only 25 per cent of the farmers; The policy has transformed the Community from the world’s largest importer of non-tropical agricultural products to its second-largest exporter, The surplus production has depressed world agricultural prices by 16 per cent; Although E.E.C. budget pressures were a check on the excesses of the Common Agricultural Policy, reforms were unlikely to alter the policy and attempts to cut spending could result in costing consumers and exporting nations like Australia more.