HC Deb 19 October 1989 vol 158 cc210-1W
Mr. Boswell

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what was the outcome of the Brussels Agriculture Council held on 25 and 26 September.

Mr. Gummer

The Council of Agriculture Ministers met on 25 and 26 September 1989. Together with my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary, the hon. Member for Skipton and Ripon (Mr. Curry), I represented the United Kingdom at this meeting.

The Council adopted the legal text confirming its provisional agreement in July to a revised sheepmeat regime, including arrangements for phasing out variable premium in Great Britain between 1990 and 1992.

The Council also agreed new arrangements for New Zealand butter and lamb imports. Imports of New Zealand butter will be set at 64,500 tonnes in 1989, falling to 55,000 tonnes in 1992, with a substantial reduction in the import levy. With the agreement of the New Zealand Government imports of New Zealand lamb have been set at 205,000 tonnes; this includes a maximum of 6,000 tonnes of chilled meat in 1989 rising to 10,500 tonnes by 1992. The import duty will be reduced from 10 per cent. to 0. These arrangements follow the terms negotiated some months ago between the Commission and New Zealand.

The Council agreed to changes in the system for reimbursement from the Community budget of national expenditure on set-aside. Under these, the Community will fund 60 per cent. of payments up to 300 ecus (£212) and 25 per cent. of payments between 300 and 600 ecus (£424) per hectare. The overall level of set-aside payment in the United Kingdom is not affected.

The Council discussed again the Commission proposal to permit all member states to issue an extra 1 per cent. of national quota to certain categories of producers and to make other changes to the milk quota system, designed to bring down the volume of production in excess of quota. No decisions were reached, and the Council will return to this subject on 23 and 24 October.

The Commission again came under strong pressure to make a determination of the Community cereals harvest so that the definitive level of the additional co-responsibility levy for the current marketing year could be set. The Commission indicated that it intended to make such a determination in the course of October. The Commission presented to the Council a proposal that would permit any inaccurate provisional determination of the Community harvest to be corrected; any error in the rate of the additional co-responsibility levy arising from an inaccurate provisional determination would be corrected in the following year. This proposal will be considered further on 23 and 24 October.