Substantial butter cut likely

Press, 30 April 1988, Page 8

Substantial butter cut likely

By 1

TONY VERDON,

iri London! ' I '( .1 I

“It is j perfectly plain that there arejsome European interests which are seeking to establish a linkage between , sheepmeat and butler,”l said Mr Lange. I( I I. ) They wanted to change the internal! European Community pricing structure for j shedpmeat, and to use what they ) considered was a ’’concession" on sheepmeat; access as la lever in the butter access negotiations. ! j I ‘ "We do not accept the logic of a linkage and we are certainly) not in the business Jof trading off the

interests of sheepfarmers, for instance, for dairy farmers, and vice versa.” he said. ..(

New Zealand’s sheepmeat access was a “hard won” right which was bound in the General Agreement on I Tariff and Trade, and could not be changed unilaterally by the Commission.

Mr Lange said New Zealand had already paid for t)he sheepmeat access rights by lowering tariffs in other areas.

"It was something that was for and it is something which we do not (regard as being a disposable right," he said.:

( New Zealand did not take up its full 245,000'tonne sheepmeat quota, and it had been sensitive about the European Community’s problems in some places, and with particular producers. I “It w6uld be poor indeed (if our sensitivity was to be met with a reward of cutting it down,” said Mr Lange.

New Zealand j had agreed to take part) in a technical grouping on the sheepmeat pricing question, 1 but Mr Lange said it had not yielded on either the question of New Zealand access or on tonnages. ! The European Commis-

sion would put forward its proposals on the’ butter quota soon, and negotiations would theft begin- ' | At stake is the amount of New Zealand butter the Dairy Board can! (sell on its most lucrative market, Britain. j I) Mr Lange said his present trip had reassured him that Britain) would strongly argue New Zealand’s case. • I I) . "What I am careful to say is that we) have the side lined up, ) the brief prepared, the arguments there and it is in good shape, and I know that it is in better shape than when I left borne," he

said.

) "But when the jury goes out you do not know whether you will have a hung jury, whether you are going to be dropped in it or whether yqu are going to be upheld), and that is the part that I would not presume to predict as a result d>f this visit.” i Other New Zealand sources indicated privately that some form of cut in the butter quota 1 was likely. They pointed out that every time the (butter quota had been renegotiated. the Europearis had forced a reduction in quantities.