§ Mr. BellinghamTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the outcome of the Agriculture Council held on 18 and 19 November.
§ Mr. GummerI represented the United Kingdom at this meeting of the Council together with my hon. Friend the Member for Skipton and Ripon (Mr. Curry), Parliamentary Secretary in my Department.
There was a discussion of the significant progress that has been made recently in the discussions towards an agricultural agreement in GATT. I stressed that genuine reform required reductions in support over time whatever form such support took, with only genuine environmental and similar measures being exempted from the process of reduction. I urged the Commissioner to negotiate accordingly. Unfortunately he seems to take the view at present that only direct price support need be subject to reduction and in particular that any compensation for such reductions need not be reduced. We shall continue to press our view.
294WThere were detailed discussions on the arable, tobacco and sheepmeat dossiers included in the proposed reforms of the common agricultural policy. On the arable dossier I stressed that payments on set-aside land must not discriminate against larger producers. On tobacco we urged the need to scale down support significantly consistent with the Community's position on health issues. On sheepmeat, I said that the proposed reductions in headage limits—maximum payments per producer—were unacceptable to the United Kingdom and urged that savings be made instead by price cuts or other means. Discussion will resume at the next meeting on 11–12 December.