New Zealand's big butter battle

摘要

Rugby Union's tri-nations cup is not the only international battle that New Zealand has been fighting recently, writes New Zealand correspondent, Birger Nordmark. A German dairy trader, Egenberger GmbH, challenged the European Union's regulations governing the import quota for butter from New Zealand. On 11 July the European Court of Justice ruled in its favour. On July 14 the European Commission (EC) immediately suspended all NZ butter imports to Europe. That action was the most serious jolt to strike the NZ dairy industry for a long time. An annual market segment of 77,400 tonnes of butter, 28% of the total, was at stake.