,', erPRESS OFFICE TRANSCRIPT ____ JUNE*_ 1978
INTERVIEW4 AT CANBERRA AIRPORT
PAUL DAVEY: Prime Minister, welcome back to Australia. Can
you give us a couple of words as to how you think the trip
went? PRIME MINISTER:-I believe it went very well. Australia's
view is now certainly understood where it has not been
understood before and the main element of what I was involved
in of course, in the Multilateral Trade Negotiations, which are
going to mean a great deal for all Australians whether we move
forward into: a more sensible trading world or whether we go
back to the discriminatory trading practices of older times.
There are mixed views in Europe about what ought to happen.
There are some very disturbing signs because one of the things
that has stood by small countries, middle-ranking countries,
developing countries, over the years has been the most favoured
nation principle. If you make a trade rule or a restriction
) it's got to apply to all comers and that has so far stopped you
picking out a particular country and saying " your exports are
damaging me, we won't have any more of your exports". Well now,
in Europe there is a very strong move to try and do away with
the most favoured nation principle which means treating all
nations alike and establishing the circumstances in which a
country which might be Britain, it might be France or it might
be another country, can say a certain country's exports
are damaging this industry, we are going to stop that country's
exports to this country and this seems to me to be aimed at
the heart of efficient producers and at the heart of the newly
emerging countries, developing countries, as they -get to the
stage of industrial take-off and it's a very dangerous principle
which does give Australia a good deal of cause for concern.
QUESTION: Are you confident, Prime Minister, that Australia's
agricultural products will get into the EEC on a reasonable
trading basis with them?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm confident we've got a better prospect of
that happening than we have ever had. But at the same time
I don't under-estimate the strength of Europe in pursuing its
own interests. The United States has said there will be no
trade agreement unless agriculture is included and that is
precisely our position. Mr. Jenkins, as President of the
Commission, said that he knows quite well in the agriculture
area if the arrangements that are made don't give us a
realistic opportunity of selling beef, for example, into the
European market, then the arrangements are worthless so far
as Australia is concerned and at least that recognition was
an advance over previous attitudes. / 2
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QUESTION: Sir, there has been some speculation back here
in Australia that you might have to use uranium as a lever
to get into the EEC. Is that on, from your point of view?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, there's been a great deal of speculation,
but I don't wantE to add to it.
QUESTION: Prime Minister, if I could just put one final
point. You seem fromyorn Asian leg of your trip to have
had quite considerable amount of success on the trade level
with the Asian countries. Do you think maybe Australia is
pushing too hard to get into the EEC. Is it maybe time that we
should start concentrating on the Asian area rather more?
PRIME MINISTER: We have been concentrating on the Asian theatre
and our trade with Asian countries, obviously with Japan, but
with Korea, with the ASEAN~ countries, both ways , has been growing
very greatly. Now, I've got no doubt at all it will continue
to grow. But what we need to understand is that certain
Australian industries do need access to the highly affluent
markets of Europe for their own well-being. This is the richest,
the most powerful and technologically advanced trade bloc the
world has ever seen about 260 million people and it's in that
market that we're up against non-tariff barriers that have
really denied us the possibility of any sort of reasonable trade.
We haven't been up against barriers in the Asian theatre. After
I became Prime Minister one of the first visits I made was to
Japan, to China, and throughout my political life I've travelled
extensively in Southeast Asia. I've got no doubt I will continue
to do so.
QUESTION: In a nutshell then, the Common Market is a must for
Australia? PRIME MINISTER: If any area is saying to us we are going to
establish arrangements that won't allow your goods to compete,
we've got to take that very seriously. It's not a policy that
was introduced many years ago, it's a continuing one. They are
now talking about a sheep meat regime that would do enormous
damage to New Zealand--really do to New Zealand what they have
done to us in beef. and New Zealand's economy is not so diverse
or flexible as ours. A year ago they bought in a wine regime.
Now this was technically not a tariff barrier, it technically
wasn't a barrier at all, but they established requirements
at their frontiers that have halved Australia' s very useful
wine trade into Europe. If we in our turn, established the same
kind of regime on our borders, Europe would lose upwards of
ten to twelve million dollars worth of wine trade with Australia
each year. We believe that's the wrong sort of way of conducting
trade and trade negotiations, but I'm making the point to show
that their policies march on and what happened with wine is an
additional example and a recent example of the way in which
Australian commodities have been and are being excluded.
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