HC Deb 06 May 1982 vol 23 cc275-6
14. Mr. Lennox-Boyd

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the European Commission's proposal to differentiate the rate of the co-responsibility levy to the particular benefit of small dairy farmers.

Mr. Peter Walker

As I told the House in the debate on 24 March, this proposal is not acceptable to the United Kingdom and I have strongly resisted it in the Council of Ministers.

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

I thank my right hon. Friend for that reply. Can he give an assurance that he will continue to maintain his fierce opposition to this proposal, bearing in mind that the farming community in Britain feels that the present system of the co-responsibility levy is unsatisfactory and that any modification of it, as proposed, would make matters worse?

Mr. Walker

Yes, Sir. The current state of negotiation is that the Presidency has come forward with proposals, after my right hon. Friend the Minister of State and I had pressed the arguments on this question, that eliminate the differential and reduce the co-responsibility levy by ½ per cent. These proposals will bring £10 million of benefit to British dairy farmers.

Mr. Maclennan

What view does the Minister take of the Dairy Trade Federation proposals for a super levy related to excess of quantum produced by individual nation States?

Mr. Walker

This country has always supported the concept of an effective super levy that would stop the increase in production beyond present levels. I am afraid that, apart from the Commission and this country, the proposal has had no support elsewhere.

Mr. Watson

Will my right hon. Friend confirm that large British dairy farms are among the most efficient in the world and that the longer-term interest of the EEC would not be served by any discrimination against them in favour of their smaller and less efficient counterparts on the mainland of Europe?

Mr. Walker

I wholly agree with my hon. Friend. That is why, as a matter of principle, the United Kingdom, strongly supported by Holland and Denmark, stated that it would be wrong to have any variation in the market mechanisms that discriminate against efficient medium and large-scale dairy farmers in this country.