MEAT EXPORT RESTRICTIONS

Evening Star, Issue 21819, 7 September 1934, Page 6

MEAT EXPORT RESTRICTIONS

PROGRESS OF NEGOTIATIONS

NO PRESENT BAN ON PORK [Tuoii Don Paui.iaiientahy Heportkr.] WELLINGTON, September 7. No decision regarding quantitative regulation of meat exports from New Zealand to the United Kingdom will be reached until next month, when the High Commissioner for New Zealand and other representatives of the dominion will confer with the British Minister of • Agriculture concerning the allocation of meat exports to Britain. This statement was made to-day by Mr Forbes, who added that important developments concerning the importation of meat to Britain could be expected in October, The conference to be held at that time would deal with the period between December next and .June next, but the Government did not desire to make anv arrangement until the definite policy of Britain concerning restrictions of moat imports was announced, which would probably take place when the British Parliament reassembled in October. When the conference wps held the question would not be one of compulsory quotas, but of voluntary arrangements, said Mr Forbes. New Zealand was particularly concerned with the arrangement for the six months from December, because at that time the New Zealand export season for meat would be in full swing. “ We have already made our arrangements for this season, which is now at hand,” he added. “In the meantime there is no restriction on pork, and any implication in the current cablegram that this will be imposed at once is not correct.” , . Independent inquiries indicate that New Zealand is not altogether satisfied with the progress recorded to date in the exchange of cabled views on the meat restriction issue, and, in more than one instance, it is understood that it has been necessary to secure an interpretation of the tentative proposals from the British end. A reply is still awaited to the Government’s request to Great Britain for permission to publish any, or all, of the cablegrams which have between the two countries on the subject. In order to keep the situation in its proper perspective and enable those vitally interested to understand it thoroughly, the Government is desirous of releasing the terms of the cablegrams for publication, but has made clear to the overseas authorities its willingness to withhold any messages, or sections of messages, which the British Government considers should not be published. There is still a feeling among those intimately associated with the meat industry that one of the British propositions advanced during the present negotiations means that immunity of pork from quota treatment will be at the expense of mutton and Jamb, rather than of beef—a suggestion that the New Zealand Ministers are not likely to accept.