French told of N.Z. farmers’ troubles

Press, 9 July 1986, Page 7

French told of N.Z. farmers’ troubles

By

PETER O’HARA

NZPA staff corresondent London

The president of Federated Farmers, Mr Peter Elworthy, has told French agriculture leaders of the plight of New Zealand farmers and thinks it means some quarters at least will not be as "antagonistic” on trade as he expected. Mr Elworthy met farm leaders and the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Francois Guillaume, during a 24-hour stay in Paris and outlined the “massive” changes happening to the New Zealand industry.

He told NZPA after the meetings: “My opinion would be that our advocacy as to what is happening in our country as to price pressures and other factors could mean the French, certainly at that level, would not be actively as antagonistic towards us as I would otherwise have suspected.” .

Mr Guillaume showed "no element of animosity or antagonism at all,” he said.

The chairman of the Dairy Board, Mr Jim Graham, said after he visited Paris this year that expected the French to pose problems for New Zealand dairy access to the E.E.C., due to be decided within the next few weeks. The row over the sinking by French agents of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior would be the underlying reason.

Mr Elworthy said he had explained the changes in New Zealand agriculture and low prices compared with those paid to European farmers when he saw the Minister, whom he first met when they headed their countries’ farm organisations.

“Whereas the last time t met him he was on the (.'tensive as far as New Zealand was concerned, by arguing we were subsidised and our fanners were better off than the farmers he represented, this time he could not argue that,” Mr Elworthy said.

Mr Elworthy had his appointment with Mr Guillaume and dined with farm leaders while the head of' his mission to Europe, the Minister of Overseas Trade and Marketing, Mr Moore, was travelling back to New Zealand via Perth. Because Ministerial relations are suspended over the Rainbow Warrior affair, Mr Moore skipped France during a tour aimed at persuading the E.E.C. about New Zealand’s butter access case. The European Commission should make a recommendation on the access level this month.

On general relations between New Zealand and France, Mr Elworthy said, “I have been very pleased talking to embassy people. There may have been some difficulty initially (immediately after the Rainbow Warrior row

broke) but the ambassador and others at the embassy said that had now all disappeared.” He said he gained the impression from others he talked to in his brief stay that “the matter of the Rainbow Warrior is now largely in the past, or forgotten by the French public, and attitudes of the French towards New Zealand on related issues are now unaffected by that”

Mr Elworthy said Mr Guillaume had questioned him closely on the New Zealand dairy Industry’s moves to lower milk production by offering compensation to farmers. He also explained to the Minister the drop in lamb production in New Zealand.

Of moves by New Zealand to dismantle global agricultural protectionism, Mr Guillaume “accepts the reality” of agriculture being included in a round of talks on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, Mr Elworthy said. “But he expressed the view that that would be far too slow to handle the urgencies and current problems faced by the E.E.C. and other farmers.”

Mr Elworthy said Mr Guillaume challenged him to persuade his colleagues in New Zealand to limit production by quotas.

“I said that would be nonsense with the sort of price pressures we have on farmers.”

The French Minister did not discuss the butter access question, probably because of the "great delicacy” of the Issue with a European Commission decision imminent, he said. Among the farm leaders Mr Elworthy met were the chief executive of the French Society for Sheep Production, Mr Claude Metayer, newly elected at the age of 34. Mr Elworthy said Mr Metayer asked him if Nw Zealand would accept a bigger limitation on access to Europe in return for increased prices (a , voluntary agreement with the E.E.C. restricts the imports of New Zealand lamb to 245,000 tonnes a year). Mr Elworthy said he replied that New Zealand was reducing production on a massive scale and Europe should sort out its own internal problems. “With joint promotion of lamb and tailoring of the product for the marketplace, quantitative restrictions would not be required,” he said. “The market would demand what could be produced in Europe and New Zealand.” He said Mr Metayer “may not have accepted that but I felt with the current pressures on us to tailor for the market and process for the market, and the pressures on the (E.E.C.) Common Agriculture Policy not to produce more than the market can absorb, perhaps my argument had some validity.”