Europe ‘a growth market’ for N.Z. exports

Press, 26 February 1987, Page 2

Europe ‘a growth market’ for N.Z. exports

By

BRENDON BURNS

in Wellington

Europe is a growth market for New Zealand agricultural exports, in spite of dwindling butter quotas, a senior diplomat has advised. Mr Terence O’Brien, who was New Zealand’s Ambassador to the European Community until last year, told Parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee yesterday that New Zealand exporters were doing well in continental Europe. “Europe is not a nongrowth market for us and we must get rid of this ‘butter psychology’ which has dominated our thinking for so long,” Mr O’Brien said.

Horticultural exports such as kiwifruit had helped maintain Europe as the market for about 20 per cent of our output, and West Germany, in particular, still held potential. “For a country which in the late 1960 s was sending some 70 per cent of its exports to Britain, that is a good record to achieve,” he said. Britain itself now took only about 9 per cent of New Zealand’s exports and this was dropping. But there were continuing small percentage gains in continental Europe.

Mr O’Brien declared himself to be an optimist about New Zealand’s continuing to do well in access to the E.E.C.

That was in spite of such hurdles as veterinary

rules which he said were being used to frustrate exporters.

Mr O’Brien outlined to the committee what he termed the “100 grams rule,” which stipulated that any meat imports packaged for sale must be of at least that weight. New Zealand had overcome this by exporting chops, interconnected by sinews, to meet the minimum weight requirement.

New Zealand faced continuing opposition from some countries, notably France, in attempts to secure continuing access to West European markets for dairy, sheepmeat, and horticultural products. “There are signs that the French in particular want to cut back New Zealand sending lamb into Europe,” Mr O’Brien said. To stop the French “punishing” New Zealand in trade negotiations, good political relationships had to be maintained with other countries in Europe. At the end of next year, the agreement on butter exports to the E.E.C. expired and would require renegotiation. There were no promises made by the E.E.C. that it would provide future entry beyond next year.

“Our success in 1988 as it has in the past will depend very much on our own efforts,” Mr O’Brien said.

“The latest evidence is that Britain is prepared to be quite firm with its own farmers on protection ’• — and that can only be to our advantage,” he said.