THE PRESS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1986. Mr Moore’s trip

Press, 12 September 1986, Page 16

THE PRESS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1986. Mr Moore’s trip

The two most significant visits the Minister of Overseas Trade and Marketing, Mr Moore, will make while he is on his present tour are to Punta Del Este, in Uruguay, and to the Soviet Union. He is making calls on Ministers in both Argentina and in Japan, but he will be in both places for only a day. The direct flight between New Zealand and Argentina that Mr Moore has taken on the way to Punta Del Este puts him in Argentina in any event. He will take the opportunity to discuss both tourism and trade, the possibility of tourism being enhanced by the Argentinians expected to come to New Zealand with the Pumas next year for the rugby World Cup. On trade issues Mr Moore is likely to have further talks on agricultural trade policy with the Argentinian Government. Argentina and New Zealand both have a stake in a satisfactory outcome over agriculture from the new round of trade talks under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Later this year, Mr Moore plans to lead a mission to South America and bilateral trade will be discussed more fully then. The visit to Japan will be made on his way back to New Zealand from the Soviet Union.

The Punta Del Este meeting will decide several matters. The first and most important is whether there will be a new round of multilateral trade negotiations at all. The chances seem strong that there will be. That is just as well because protectionist forces are growing and would start to take hold in the United States and elsewhere unless there is a move to persuade people that there is a chance of freer trade. The second most important matter to be decided at Punta Del Este is what subjects will be covered by the negotiations.

For New Zealand, the most important subject is agriculture. It wants to see agricultural trade treated in the same way as trade in manufactures. The 92 countries that will be represented at Punta Del Este each have their own order of priority; but New Zealand and Australia have attempted to forge a degree of co-operation among the countries to which agricultural trade is of prime concern. The third significant matter to be dealt with will be one of procedure: will the items to be negotiated in the new trade round be discussed in existing forums in G.A.T.T. or will new bodies be established to look at the issues?

Agricultural trade should be given some prominence in the talks. The United States has given considerable emphasis to agriculture and, in fact, accorded it first place in order of importance. The sticking point will be the European Economic Community, which is reluctant to have the Common Agricultural Policy called into question. The developing world is nervous about the questions of intellectual properties and new services. Intellectual properties cover such matters as patents. Services cover such matters as finance, shipping, and insurance. The United States is giving very great weight to both intellectual properties and services. One of the worst outcomes for New Zealand would be if the United States and the E.E.C. struck a deal under which the United States would give less weight to seeing the Common Agricultural Policy chanaged in return for the E.E.C. using ints influence to persuade the developing world to withdraw its opposition to freeing up the markets in intellectual properties and services. No New Zealand Trade Minister has visited the Soviet Union since 1973, so Mr Moore’s visit there has something of an aspect of normalising relations. The long gap came about partly because of the invasion of Afghanistan and the expulsion of the then Soviet Ambassador to New Zealand, Mr Vsevolod Sofinsky, for allegedly passing money to the Socialist Unity Party. Mr Moore will be accompanied to the Soviet Union by Government officials and business leaders. The Soviet Union is New Zealand’s seventh-largest trading partner. The trade runs heavily in New Zealand’s favour: by about 45 to one on the latest figures. The Soviet Union has already expressed some concern about this imbalance.

The business members of the mission doubtless hope to see a more regular Soviet buying pattern established and hope that the Soviet Union will buy something from New Zealand other than agricultural goods. The new Soviet leader, Mr Gorbachev, clearly wants trade with the West to increase as part of an over-all effort to modernise the Soviet economy. It seems unlikely that any huge trade deals will be struck, but the importance to New Zealand of the Soviet Union’s market warrants great attention.