Butter cuts ‘headed off

Press, 27 July 1988, Page 5

Butter cuts ‘headed off

By

PETER HALL WRIGHT

of NZPA in London A European Community dairy industry move to cut New Zealand butter imports to less than 40,000 tonnes next year has been headed off, key E.C. officials are reported to have told the Minister of Overseas Trade and Marketing, Mr Moore, during talks last week. The E.C. agriculture commissioner, Mr Frans Andriessen, and the trade commissioner, Mr Willy de Clercq, told Mr Moore the Commission was doing its best to neutralise pressure from Community dairy lobbyists to slash the quota next year and phase it out by 1992, the farm trade weekly “Agra Europe,” said yester-

“The Commissioners gave the strong impression that a move to cut the butter quota from its current 74,500 tonnes to less than 40,000 tonnes next year had been headed off,” “Agra Europe” said. Mr Moore said after the meeting only that

he had left the commissioners with some new ideas and ackowledged the Commission’s “political difficulty” over New Zealand access.

Quoting Commission sources, “Agra Europe” said discussion among the commission’s dairy trade exporters and negotiations between its agricultural and foreign affairs directorates had resolved earlier “wide differences” on the extent of the expected quota cut. Today’s Commission meeting would probably discuss a recommendation that the quota be cut to 50-55,000 tonnes by 1990, the paper said.

But the 17 commissioners were unlikely to agree on the proposal until their next meeting in September, making a decision by the E.C. Council of Agriculture Ministers unlikely before October and more likely in November The commissioners were not forthcoming on the E.C.’s intentions for New Zealand sheepmeat imports when they met Mr Moore.