CAIRNS GROUP SAID INFLUENTIAL IN TRADE TALKS
  Australian Minister for Trade
  Negotiations Michael Duffy said his country and Third World
  commodity producers have formed an effective lobby group
  against farm export subsidies and market access restrictions.
      Duffy told a press conference the Cairns Group of 14 major
  agricultural producers, to which Australia and Thailand belong,
  has emerged as an important third force in any multilateral
  trade talks. "There's no doubt that the Cairns Group is being
  seen as a third force to be reckoned with both inside the
  General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and in other
  international trade negotiations," he said.
      Duffy, here on a three-day visit after talks in the United
  States, The European Community (EC) and Latin America, said
  considerable progress has been made by the group towards
  fighting costly protectionist policies pursued by developed
  countries.
      The minister said the EC Commission's new farm trade paper
  will recognise the heavy financial burdens imposed by its
  Common Agricultural Policy and its future expansion.
      He said the Reagan Administration has also displayed a
  determination to resist the currently strong protectionist
  sentiment in the U.S. Congress.