{"story":["New Zealand's first successful shipment of frozen meat to Britain, in 1882, paved the way for the trade in frozen meat and dairy products that became the cornerstone of the country's 20th-century economy. From 1944 Britain committed itself to buying New Zealand's exportable surplus of meat, butter and cheese, and these bulk-purchase agreements ran until 1954, when they ended a year early as British production recovered. The economic historian John Singleton summed up the relationship after the Second World War: 'New Zealand had a trading relationship in which butter and lamb were effectively swapped for Vickers Viscounts and Leyland buses.' In the late 1930s Britain took more than 80 per cent of New Zealand's exports, and in 1960 it still took 53 per cent. New Zealand did look for other markets, developing a meat trade with the United States and signing a trade deal with Japan in 1958.","In 1961 Britain announced that it was seeking to join the European Economic Community (EEC). Wikipedia dates Britain's first application to July 1961 and says France vetoed it in 1963; NZHistory instead gives 1963 as the year Britain first applied. The news was greeted with dismay in New Zealand. The EEC's founding members had agreed on a common agricultural policy that effectively excluded outside producers from the European market. If Britain joined, it would have to sign up to the policy, and that would mean an end to New Zealand being able to export agricultural products to Britain. In mid-1961 the British government agreed that it would not enter the EEC unless New Zealand's 'vital interests' were protected, though what those interests were was yet to be agreed. To win Britain's support, New Zealand played on its wartime contribution, the strong cultural ties between the two countries, and the likely rise in British food prices if low-cost New Zealand produce was shut out. Negotiations started and stopped throughout the 1960s, and Britain's third application was submitted in 1969. In 1970 Britain still took more than 90 per cent of New Zealand's butter exports and 75 per cent of its cheese exports.","Agreement with the EEC was reached in 1971, but only after Britain had secured a special arrangement, the Luxembourg agreement, for New Zealand's butter, cheese and lamb. Britain joined the community on 1 January 1973, alongside Denmark and Ireland. The Luxembourg deal was for a limited period and had to be revisited regularly, but it gave New Zealand time to diversify. It cut the butter quota by roughly 17 per cent and the cheese quota by roughly 68 per cent over five years, and quantities were reduced further after 1977 to about half the 1973 levels. By the time Britain joined, NZHistory notes, exports to the 'Mother Country' had already fallen below 30 per cent of New Zealand's total. Entry also meant that all bilateral agreements between New Zealand and Britain had to be terminated, and preferential treatment of British imports into New Zealand ended in 1977.","In 1973 export prices fell, and in late 1973 the price of oil rose fivefold, plunging New Zealand's balance of payments into massive deficit; the Labour government chose borrowing rather than deflation or devaluation. Through its common agricultural policy the EEC came to dictate world prices for livestock products, and its subsidies left unsubsidised exporters such as New Zealand facing depressed prices. Trade diversification became a major preoccupation. Oil was bartered for sheep meat with Iran, markets were developed in other oil-producing states, agreements were signed with state trading organisations in the Soviet Union and China, and sales to Japan grew, particularly of aluminium, fish, wool and kiwifruit. By 1980 no single market took more than 20 per cent of New Zealand's exports. Robert Muldoon's National government backed the major investment projects known as 'Think Big', designed to make the country more self-reliant in energy, even though Treasury cautioned against projects whose long-term profitability was debatable.","Te Ara's historians of trade policy, Chris Nixon and John Yeabsley, call the decade of negotiation that followed Britain's 1961 announcement a trade policy coup, in which a country of less than 3 million people won access quotas from a group of countries with more than 200 million. NZHistory notes that within 20 years of British entry, exports to Britain would be below 10 per cent of the total. Britain's share of New Zealand's exports fell from 53 per cent in 1960 to 36 per cent in 1970 and 5 per cent in 2007, and its share of New Zealand's imports fell from 43 per cent in 1960 to 14.5 per cent in 1980. The Labour government elected in 1984 ended government assistance to farmers and set a timetable for ending import licensing and reducing tariffs, aiming to encourage free trade and remove protection from uneconomic industries."],"sources":[{"title":"1973 – key events","url":"https://nzhistory.govt.nz/page/1973-key-events","publisher":"NZHistory, Manatū Taonga"},{"title":"First frozen meat shipment leaves New Zealand","url":"https://nzhistory.govt.nz/first-shipment-of-frozen-meat-leaves-nz","publisher":"NZHistory, Manatū Taonga"},{"title":"Overseas trade policy – The post-war economy","url":"https://teara.govt.nz/en/overseas-trade-policy/page-3","publisher":"Te Ara — the Encyclopedia of New Zealand"},{"title":"Overseas trade policy – New Zealand, Britain and the EEC","url":"https://teara.govt.nz/en/overseas-trade-policy/page-4","publisher":"Te Ara — the Encyclopedia of New Zealand"},{"title":"Overseas trade policy – Difficult times – the 1970s and early 1980s","url":"https://teara.govt.nz/en/overseas-trade-policy/page-5","publisher":"Te Ara — the Encyclopedia of New Zealand"},{"title":"Overseas trade policy – Trade liberalisation – 1980s and early 1990s","url":"https://teara.govt.nz/en/overseas-trade-policy/page-6","publisher":"Te Ara — the Encyclopedia of New Zealand"},{"title":"Treasury – Treasury and the welfare state, 1935–1980","url":"https://teara.govt.nz/en/treasury/page-2","publisher":"Te Ara — the Encyclopedia of New Zealand"},{"title":"1973 enlargement of the European Communities","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_enlargement_of_the_European_Communities","publisher":"Wikipedia"}]}