BRITISH FARM MINISTER ATTACKS SUBSIDIES

  Farm subsidies and protectionist
  moves threaten healthy trade on both sides of the Atlantic,
  Michael Jopling, British minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and
  Food, warned.
      "It would not be sensible to provoke another dispute between
  Europe and the United States," Jopling said in remarks prepared
  for an evening speech.
      "But some things are clear and they apply on both sides of
  the Atlantic. We cannot continue to pile up stocks while world
  demand shrinks," he said.
      "Governments must not operate farm policies as if they were
  purely domestic affairs with no impact on others. They also
  have to recognize that they cannot in the long run develop a
  healthy and stable farm sector on the basis of protectionism
  and excessive subisdies.
      "And above all, Europe and the United States have too many
  common interests to make it worthwhile to engage in trade wars
  and competitive export subsidies which end by benefitting no
  one." He added, "It is crucial that the United States and the
  European Community remain friends."
      Jopling, who is a member of the EC agriculture committee,
  was in Indiana to visit several farms prior to talks with U.S.
  officials in Washington later this week.
      Jopling also criticized a recent proposal still under
  consideration by the EC for a tax on vegetable and fish oils.
      He said his government would oppose such a move because "We
  do not think it is correct that a shortage of funds to support
  (EC) farmers should be alleviated by raising money at the
  consumer's expense."
  

