PM Transcripts

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FOR PRESS 23 MAY 1978
PRIME MINISTER'S VISIT
The Prime Minister will leave Australia in early June for a
visit to New York, London, Paris and Bonn.
While in New York he will'address the United Nations Special
Session on Disarmament.
This will be the first major conference held on disarmament in
years and will provide an opportunity to express the views
of Australia about the urgent need to concentrate the world's
resources on economic and social progress rather than on
building of armaments.
In New York the Prime Minister will also meet with leading
businessmen. Following his visit to New York, he will meet Prime Minister
Callaghan in London on 9 June, Prime Minister Barre in Paris
on 13 June, and Chancellor Schmidt in Bonn on 16 June.
During these meetings he will raise international economic
issues such as the present state of the global economy and
relations between developed and developing countries.
The Prime Minister attaches particular importance to achieving
a substantial liberalisation in global trade.
In the present round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations the
major industrialised countries are not taking sufficient account
of the interests of agricultural producing nations and
developing countries.
Unless there is a satisfactory offer on agriculture, then the MTN
will be a failure. It will not improve the trading prospects
of many of the developing countries and would be of little value
to Australia.
There is a need for the major developed countries to be more
forthcoming in their position on the proposed Common Fund for the
stabilisation of commodity prices.
This is a matter of vital concern to many developing countries.
He will be making this and other related points to European
leaders during his visit. 000---