Israel Minister Returns from Europe Pessimistic on Citrus Issue

Minister of Commerce and Industry Haim Zadok returned todya from a trip to Europe, where he had gone to try to persuade the Council of Ministers of the European Economic Community to negate a new ruling on oranges.

That ruling, imposing “reference prices” on oranges shipped by non-Euromart exporters to countries belonging to the EEC, would increase the price of Israeli oranges for the ultimate European consumer by about 20 percent, and could reduce Israel’s cash income from the sale of oranges considerably.

Reporting that he had discussed the issue with the top representatives of the Euro-mart at the EEC headquarters in Brussels, Mr. Zadok said that reversal of the newly-created rule on “reference prices” was unlikely in view of the fact that France, one of the six members of the EEC, is now boycoting the EEC’s Council of Ministers.

The new ruling had been proposed by Italy, another of the EEC members, and is scheduled to go into effect Wednesday, December 1, unless reversed by the Council. The only step that could hold back implementation of the “reference prices” is a negative vote by the EEC’s Council of Ministers, which is scheduled to convene at the Brussels headquarters today.

Aharon Becker, secretary general of the Histadrut, Israel’s labor federation, appealed today to the heads of trade unions in the member countries of the European Economic Community to intervene on Israel’s behalf in this country’s struggle to maintain its competitive position in the export of citrus fruit to Common Market countries.

In messages cabled today to union leaders in France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg, Mr. Becker asked them to intervene with their governments to prevent the introduction of the minimum prices which would threaten the employment of thousands of workers in the citrus industry and allied jobs. He stressed the urgent need for immediate action in view of the approaching citrus harvest.