PM Transcripts

PRIME MINISTER] 2/ 92
PRIME MINISTER MEETS RURAL REPRESENTATIVES
The Prime Minister and minister for Trade, Mr Kerin, met
rural representatives today to discuss the implications for
trade following President Bush's visit to Australia last
week. The PM told the meeting that talks he and the National
Farmers Federation had with the President had ben extremely
successful for Australia and had left the President with a
much greater understanding of the need to reach a successful
outcome to the Uruguay Round.
The meeting resolved to follow up commitments made by
President Bush during his visit, chiefly the undertaking by
the US to examine not extending the ExportEnhancement
Program to new markets which may imp56 adversely on
Australia. Issues arising from the Bush visit will be taken up by
Australian officials when they meet their U. S. counterparts
in washington early next month.
The PM also told the group he had personally written to key
European leaders to seek their support for a successful
conclusion to the Urugay Round.
Letters were sent last night to the German Chancellor Dr
Helmut Kohl and British Prime Minister, Mr John Major as
well as the chairman of the EC Member States, Portuguese
Prime Minister Dr Antonio Cavaco Silva.
In the letters the PM told the European leaders that the
views of the European Community countries would be critical
to any assessment of whether negotiations could be
successfully concluded in the coming months.
He said that during his visit to Australia President Bush
had a displayed a positive attitude to the ' Dunkel package
and that the United States, as well as Australia, believed
the Uruguay Round could not be allowed to fail.
The Prime Minister's letters stressed the importance of a
successful outcome for the Round and said the immediate
economic prospects of the international economy as well as
the longer term strength of the international trading system
would be significantly worsened by a collapse of the
negotiations. January 8 1992