No more lamb for Iran until debt paid

Press, 25 February 1989, Page 1

No more lamb for Iran until debt paid

PA Wellington New Zealand is refusing to finalise a new lamb contract with Iran until it pays outstanding debts and uplifts products held in store in New Zealand. The New Zealand Meat Marketing Corporation’s chairman, Mr Bruce Bishop, would not say yesterday how much money was outstanding, but said it was in the “millions.” The payments concern the second of three contracts for last year. Mr Bishop said half the outstanding amount was received this week. He said the new contract could not be finalised until the -outstanding problems were resolved. He rejected suggestions that the affair involving the British author, Salman Rushdie, could affect the trade, valued about $lO4 million last year, saying the corporation was in a commercial relationship with an Iranian Government buying agency. "We never consider political implications. They never enter our mind and I am confident we won’t have to,” he said.