Mr Ormond Against Britain’s Entry Into Common Market

Press, Volume C, Issue 29499, 28 April 1961, Page 14

Mr Ormond Against Britain’s Entry Into Common Market

(New Zealand Press Associatioi

WELLINGTON, April 27. “The trend of thinking in Britain concerning her entry into the European Economic Community poses for New’ Zealand one of the greatest economic problems we have ever had to face—more than that, it is the great political problem facing the Commonwealth,’' said Mr John Ormond, chairman of the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board, speaking at Waipukurau this evening. “I am. therefore, delighted to have received advice that the National Farmers’ Union of England, like ourselves, is now protesting most vigorously against participation in the European Economic Community on the basis of the present agricultural proposals,” Mr Ormond said. “Why is New’ Zealand so drastically affected?” he asked. First, on the trading side, the whole spirit and purpose of the European Common Market agricultural proposals w'ere to build a high wall of protection round European agriculture. It would hit New Zealand harder than any other country in the world. There would be tariffs, and if NewZealand could climb the tariff wall, it would then be “slapped back” by import levies and quotas.

Last Free Market “Britain is the last free market of any size in the world for meat and dairy produce, on which New Zealand’s livelihood depends,” Mr Ormond said. “If Britain is to go in behind the tariff and quota W’alls of the European Common Market, w-e will suffer drastically—and more so than any other country involved. That is why- the producer organisations of New Zealand insist that New' Zealand's standing arrangements with Britain, giving us tariff-free, unrestricted entry. shall be maintained.

“You will hear some Englishmen telling you that New Zealand has nothing to fear, that we will be taken care of, and that by objecting to restrictions against our product we are merely putting our heads in the sand,” said Mr Ormond. “That is a grave misrepresentation. “It is essential to New Zealand’s welfare in the years ahead that we insist that our point of view, as the largest supplier of meat and dairy produce, must be taken into account.

“I want to say emphatically that we do not oppose closer association between Britain and Europe, but there has not yet been any proposal by which Britain could enter the European Common Market

under an agricultural system acceptable to us or to Britain's own producers. “Britain, by joining the European Common Market under the present policies of the European countries, would become no more than a department of Europe. The political consequences would be enormous, and I do not think even the people of Britain have been given fully to understand them. "It would be the end of any real opportunity to negotiate New Zealand's trading future as between two Commonwealth partners,” said Mr Ormond. “We would have to go to Brussels. We would have to talk a foreign language to people with very different ideas about our trade. It would indeed be a severe blow to the very structure of the Commonwealth. “Further, it is quite wrong for people to assume that if we suffered loss of opportunity in Britain, it would be offset by any gain we might negotiate in Europe. There is no adequate compensation in Europe for any serious loss of opportunity in the United Kingdom market.

“There are persons who argue that if Britain does not get into the Common Market as at present established, she will fail to keep the pace in economic development. But there are equally well-in-formed persons who will tell you that this is by no means true.

“Battle For Commonwealth” “It is difficult to understand those persons in Britain who want to abandon the substance of Commonwealth for theoretical gain in Europe. Indeed, this great debate is. to my mind, a battle for the British Commonwealth,” said Mr Ormond.

“That is why I would agree with Mr Harold Woolley, president of the National Farmers' Union. London, who has said: ‘There can be no doubt that the reversal of tariff preferences and other privileges would seriously endanger the cohesion of the Commonwealth. It would be impossible for a responsible statesman to accept the implications for the Commonwealth, and the complete change in the traditional policy of Britain.’ ”