§ Mr. Nicholas BennettTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will make a statement on Her Majesty's Government's position regarding New Zealand's lamb imports under the forthcoming general agreement on tariffs and trade talks.
§ Mr. Donald ThompsonIn its proposals for reform of the EC's sheepmeat regime, the Commission has proposed discussions with third countries with a view to stabilising their import quantities of both frozen and chilled products, and of improving prices. The trade is currently controlled by voluntary restraint agreements negotiated between the EC and the main third countries. These set annual import quantities in exchange for a halving of the EC import duty to 10 per cent. When the Commission has developed a draft mandate for these discussions, we shall study it closely.