E.E.C. ‘has given assurances’ on trade surplus

Press, 12 February 1986, Page 2

E.E.C. ‘has given assurances’ on trade surplus

PA Wellington European leaders had given assurances that the disposal of huge agricultural surpluses would not cause a world trade war, said the Minister of Overseas Trade and Marketing Minister, Mr Moore.

Avoiding a .trade war would not be easy in an oversupplied market but New Zealand would make strong representations to the European Commission to ensure that the impact on its farmers was as moderate as possible, he said.

Commission proposals to freeze the price of most farm products and dispose of most surplus food stocks during the next three years had an air of “historical inevitability,” he said.

“It has been obvious for a long time that the Community would sooner or later recognise the economic nonsense of continuing to subsidise its farmers into producing huge volumes of food which the Community cannot absorb and which has no place on the world market,” Mr Moore said. The cost of price support programmes placed pressures on the E.E.C.’s budget which were reaching an intolerable level.

Mr Moore said the European Commission’s proposals were a good sign that the tide of farm price subsidisation and surpluses was turning. The proposals had yet to be agreed by member countries and might be modified under pressure from European agricultural lobbies.