German help for N.Z.’s butter access

Press, 30 June 1983, Page 2

German help for N.Z.’s butter access

NZPA staff correspondent

Hong Kong West Germany would again support the New Zealand case in negotiations later this year for access to the European Community for its butter and sheepmeat, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Cooper, from Bangkok yesterday.

Speaking after talks with the West German ViceChancellor, Mr HansDietrich Genscher, whom the Minister had been unable to see during his recently completed European trip, Mr Cooper said he was happy that Mr Genscher “had a picture” of New Zealand’s dependence on the E.E.C.

However, Mr Cooper, who has been attending the Association of South-East Asian Nations annual Ministerial meeting, said that it remained up to the Community’s Agricultural Ministers, through the European Commission, to decide later this year what, if any, butter and sheepmeats quotas would be granted. Mr Cooper said he had “a good round” of talks yesterday, which included long sessions with the Australian Foreign Minister, Mr Bill Hayden, and the United States Secretary of State, Mr George Shultz.

Issues covered included security in the Tasman, as a prelude to upcoming

A.N.Z.U.S. talks in Washington.

“I emphasised our satisfaction with the tripartite aggreeinent,” he said. Talks with Mr Hayden covered Australia’s efforts to create a nuclear-free zone in the Pacific, which New Zealand supported, said Mr Cooper — “although I don’t think they (the Australians) know exactly what their policy is.”

The talks with Mr Shultz also covered the question of the dairy surplus in the United States and the E.E.C., said Mr Cooper. Issues arising from the recent Williamsburg summit on the world economy were also discussed with Mr Shultz, said Mr Cooper. He had talks with a Presidential economic adviser, Mr Allin Wallace, on international economic problems, he said.

Support for the call by New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Mr Muldoon, for a conference on the "international monetary system was growing, said Mr Cooper, “though not particularly” from the United States.

Mr Cooper also had talks yesterday with the Papua New Guinea and Indonesian representatives at the Bangkok meeting.

The dialogue meetings between the six “contact” nations — New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the E.E.C., the United States and Japan — and the A.S.E.A.N. countries ended yesterday. Mr Cooper has now begun a two-day trip into Thailand’s north eastern region. He will look at a SNZI.B million aid project in Chaiyaphum which has been helping develop water resources for impoverished Thai villages. Chaiyaphum is south of Khon., Kaen, the regional capital and centre of considerable New Zealand aid effort. The Minister is also to visit refugee camps on the Thai border at Kaho I Dang and Ban Nong Samet. He told A.S.E.A.N. Foreign Ministers yesterday that New Zealand would give SUS3O,OOO aid to the Prince Sihanouk-led Kampuchean Coalition Government to be used for medical and humanitarian purposes.