Dearer Butter Proposed

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31081, 9 June 1966, Page 3

Dearer Butter Proposed

(.X Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, June 8. N e w Zealanders were today urged to forgo sixpence a j pound of the consumer ; butter subsidy to ere- I ate a market development fund. Mr J. J Parsons, chairman of the dairy produce section of Federated Farmers, said, at the section’s annual confer- 1 ence that the price increase he proposed would be an investment to enable New Zealand to maintain its living standards. Mr Parsons said an investment fund should be administered by the producer boards in co-operation with the Minister of Overseas Trade. All New Zealanders shared the fruits of the nation’s exports, said Mr Parsons. “Surely it is not too much

to ask everybody to share ini | the project of market develop ! I ment. Failure of Quotas The butter quota system, had failed to give adequate assurances to New Zealand producers of a fair deal oni the United Kingdom market, i Mr Parsons said. “The quota system was sold to us by the United Kingdom as a means of ensuring that her market would be protected against the illegitimate trading practices of foreign j 'countries. We accepted this I .assurance and in return gave iup our right to insist on ] dumping duties. “Now. however, we find that ithe United Kingdom is using quotas to manipulate price levels and to expand her bilateral trading with certain European countries.” Mr Parsons said. “Ruthless Union ” j The European Economic Community was no more than a “ruthless projectionist ! union” and Britain’s deter-

mination to join it was dis turbing, Mr Parsons said. “Low cost producers out side the Community will find themselves increasingly shut out of traditional markets in favour of high-cost domestic production within the Com munity,” he said. The New Zealand Govern ment must, without delay, remind the United Kingdom ol the assurances it had given Commonwealth countries ovei its entry into the E.E.C. in 1963.