Australian High Commission, London, 25 June 1971
12150. Confidential
I had a further short meeting with Rippon this morning (25th June) when we traversed much the same ground as before without getting any satisfaction. 1 The one thing that became clear was that the British do not propose to take any further action with the Six on our behalf.
2. Rippon took the line that even if the British Government had, during April and May of this year, changed its policy on agricultural transitional arrangements, Australian officials had been informed of this change. He suggested that if we had any complaint we should have raised it at that time.
3. I was unable to refute this at the time with chapter and verse, but subsequent examination shows that we were not told of the change until after the United Kingdom had agreed to the immediate introduction of Community preference and the generalised safeguard clause for third countries at the 13th May meeting.2
4. Rippon claims that the generalised safeguard clause does represent an achievement by the British delegation on Australia’s behalf. He asserts that what we are seeking was not negotiable and in any case a generalised safeguard clause is a better result from our point of view. I have registered my disagreement quite firmly on these points.
5. I have repeated my request that the British Government take action to satisfy our position particularly in relation to butter and sugar.
1 Document 288.
2 Document 278.
[NAA: A 1838, 727/4/2 PART 17]