Stockinette directive surprises Mr Cooper

Press, 5 July 1983, Page 2

Stockinette directive surprises Mr Cooper

PA Wellington The Minister of Overseas Trade, Mr Cooper, was surprised yesterday to learn of the existence of a 15-month-old Meat Board directive at the heart of the stockinette meat-wrapping issue.

Just back from a threeweek tour which took him to Europe and A.S.E.A.N. countries, Mr Cooper had told a press conference that the question of how New Zealand wrapped its export meat is “no longer a major issue.”

A new understanding communicated from Brussels gives New Zealand three years to move toward a new form of wrapping, Mr Cooper said. This country was previously faced with a veterinary demand that a new form of wrapping start from October and be phased in over seven months.

“They are no longer talking about that timetable,” Mr Cooper said. He was asked by a reporter whether he saw any abuse of the Meat Board directive that all meat going into Continental Europe over the last 15 months should be wrapped in plastic before being covered in the cotton stockinette.

When he expressed some puzzlement about the question, Mr Cooper was assured that the directive actually existed.

“Oh, does it?” he said. He told reporters he was not aware of it.

Mr Cooper said he expects the new Brussels “understanding” to be endorsed by “some official statement.”

“As far as the Community is concerned, provided they see movement at the end of three years they will be satisfied if the wrapping is of the type they require. “That gives the New Zealand freezing industry time toward meeting the type of wrapping required,” he said.