§ Mr. Bodyasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what arrangements have been made on the payment of the increased EEC butter subsidy on supplies from New Zealand.
§ Mr. Peter WalkerFollowing the representations that I made to the Commission about the delay in reducing the special levy, it has now been agreed that this should be set at 59.4 ECU per 100 kg—345.27 per tonne—as from 11 July. The new rate of levy not only takes account of the butter subsidy but includes certain technical adjustments designed to enable New Zealand butter to sell more competitively than in recent month
I also made arrangements, as I said in my reply of 3 July to the hon. Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner), for those pipeline stocks of New Zealand butter which have already paid the special levy but have not benefited from the earlier subsidy to receive a special Exchequer payment at the new rate. The cost of these arrangements will be about £1.4 million and a Supplementary Estimate will be resented in due course.