Common Agricultural Policy (Hansard, 20 January 1977)

§ 5. Mr. Marten
asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he has any proposals to change the intervention system.

§ 18. Mr. Molloy
asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what modifications to the common agricultural policy have been achieved by Her Majesty's Government.

§ 26. Mr. Ioan Evans
asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what changes in the common agricultural policy have been sought by Her Majesty's Government.

§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Mr. Gavin Strang)
I would refer the hon. Member and my hon. Friends to the regular statements to the House by my right hon. Friend after Council meetings. Also, I would refer to the reply given to the hon. Member for Banbury (Mr. Marten) and my hon. Friend the Member for Aberdare (Mr. Evans) on 9th December 1976.

§ Mr. Marten
As the CAP has been responsible for so much of the justified ridicule about the Common Market as a whole, is there any good reason why the Common Market itself should not continue even if the CAP were abolished and we had our own national policy? Surely the Common Market could still go on with its very important job of harmonising chestnut puree and smoked eel and gas meters without the CAP.

§ Mr. Strang
I agree with the hon. Gentleman that much of the CAP is by no means essential to the philosophy and framework of the European Community. In the meantime, I am sure the hon. Gentleman would agree that in the short term we must continue to press for a change in the situation whereby we have continued the costly over-production of commodities such as milk.

§ Mr. Evans
While agreeing with other hon. Members who applauded the action taken by the Minister in the negotiations, may I ask my hon. Friend to try to end the CAP altogether with regard to this country and revert to our former system of guaranteed prices to the farmers? Under that system the housewives benefited by low food prices. There is now growing discontent about the effect of the CAP on food prices.

§ Mr. Strang
My hon. Friend's point about guaranteed prices has some force. It has to be said, however, that the variable premium that we established for beef in effect represented a return to something near to the older arrangement. It is in practice a deficiency payment or guaranteed price without full-scale intervention. I would certainly accept that we have a long way to go as regards the way in which the central misuse of resources which exists in the Community is a direct consequence of the CAP policy of over-pricing.

§ Mr. Peter Mills
Is not the real problem—it is shown in the White Paper and in the production results last year—that the Government are dithering between a national policy and a European agricultural policy? In the long run that is totally unfair to the producer and the consumer. What is needed is for the Government to make up their mind and then to see that we have full parity within the union within two or three years.

§ Mr. Strang
I cannot accept that. For example, we believe it is absolutely right that our relatively efficient dairy industry should produce a higher proportion of Community milk output while at the same time expensive and excessive production on the Continent should be curtailed.

§ Mr. Spearing
Does my hon. Friend remember the debates that we had on the marketing boards, and does he recall 621 that the entire House supported the marketing board system? Would it not help to solve the problem of European agriculture if the CAP adopted many of these systems? Cannot my hon. Friend press that upon his colleagues in the Council?

§ Mr. Strang
My hon. Friend has raised an important point. I would reassure the House of my right hon. Friend's determination to retain the essential functions of the marketing board for orderly marketing in this country. My hon. Friend may be interested to know that some of our Back Bench colleagues in the European Parliament have been trying to interest their European counterparts in this very issue in order to extend marketing boards to other member States.