§ Mr. John GreenwayTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the outcome of the Agriculture Council held in Brussels on 24 July.
§ Mr. GummerI represented the United Kingdom at this meeting together with my hon. Friend the Member for Skipton and Ripon (Mr. Curry), the Parliamentary Secretary in my Department.
Discussion concentrated on the GATT negotiations. The Council noted that it had been agreed that the text produced by the chairman of the GATT agriculture negotiating group would be used as a means of intensifying the negotiations. The Council agreed that it was important that CAP mechanisms should be protected during these negotiations, subject to the agreement already reached that support should be reduced substantially, and progressively and taking account also of the need to secure a satisfactory outcome. I made clear the United Kingdom's support for the Community's demand that agricultural subsidies should be assessed fairly and diminished on an equitable basis. I also supported strongly the Commission's insistence that all agricultural products were subject to the negotiations and that there could be no question of excluding products of particular regions of Europe. Discussion is likely to be resumed in the Council in the autumn.
I emphasised the need for the Commission to ensure orderly marketing of soft fruit imported from eastern Europe into the Community. Very low prices do nothing to help eastern European producers while hitting our own.