MEAT QUOTA

Wairarapa Daily Times, 20 February 1935, Page 5

MEAT QUOTA

BRITISH PROPOSALS AUSTRALIA AGREES. Press Association Electric Teleerapn—Copyright MELBOURNE, Tuesday. The Federal Cabinet has decided to agree in principle to the British Government’s proposal for control of the importation of meat to the United Kingdom. Dr. Earle Page, Minister of Commerce, said that the main points in the British proposal, to which Cabinet agreed, were:(1) There should be no restriction on the importation of Dominion meat. (2) Continuance of the present restrictions on foreign imports. (3) A preferential duty of a penny a pound on foreign and a halfpenny a pound on Empire supplies. Cabinet still sought modifications of certain British proposals, but agreed to the main plans, as they involved no sacrifice of the Government’s antirestriction policy. The arrangement would operate until the expiration of the Anglo-Argentine agreement in 1936. The Commonwealth Government accepted the British proposals _as a satisfactory alternative to the imposition of a levy on meat imports in conjunction with quotas.

NEW ZEALAND’S ATTITUDE

“NO TRUTH IN STATEMENT.”

“There is no truth in that statement,” said the Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes, last night, when denying a London Press message, which asserted that New Zealand would accept a levy on beef, but not on mutton or lamb.

"The consideration of the meat restriction question has not yet developed beyond the general discussion stage, and is unlikely to do so for some time,” said Mr Forbes. “We have had many discussions regarding the various alternatives, but have not reached a decision. The Meat Board members met the Minister of Finance, Rt. Hon. J. GCoates, and myself, to-day, and will do so again if necessary. It may be necessary for a round-table conference to take place in London before fmality is reached, but it is premature to predict whether the course will be followed, or whether it will be possible to reach an' agreement by an exchange of communications between the two Governments.”