OF WHOLE TURKEYS FROM FRANCE SHOWED A STEEP RISE AS COMPARED WITH THOSE IN 1979 .
23 IT IS ALSO AGREED THAT BY MID-1981 THE UNITED KINGDOM GOVERNMENT AND BRITISH PRODUCERS WERE GRAVELY CONCERNED BY THE CONTINUING INCREASE IN THE IMPORTATION OF TURKEYS FROM FRANCE , AND THAT BRITISH POULTRY PRODUCERS MADE IT KNOWN THAT THEY WERE TROUBLED ABOUT GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES WHICH , THEY ASSERTED , HAD BEEN MADE AVAILABLE TO FRENCH PRODUCERS . IN THESE CIRCUMSTANCES , A CERTAIN PRESSURE WAS PUT ON THE UNITED KINGDOM GOVERNMENT , BY ARTICLES IN THE PRESS AND IN OTHER WAYS , TO TAKE ACTION IN ORDER TO REDUCE IMPORTS OF POULTRY PRODUCTS FROM FRANCE .
24 SECONDLY , THE UNITED KINGDOM DOES NOT DENY THAT THE DATE CHOSEN FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF THE 1981 MEASURES WAS SUCH AS TO PREVENT IMPORTS OF CHRISTMAS TURKEYS FROM FRANCE INTO GREAT BRITAIN FOR THE 1981 SEASON , AND THAT THESE IMPORTS HAD CONSTITUTED A VERY SUBSTANTIAL PART OF THE TOTAL IMPORTS OF TURKEYS IN THE PRECEDING YEARS .
25 IT IS ALSO AN ESTABLISHED FACT THAT FRANCE TRIED TO RETAIN ITS POULTRY OUTLETS ON THE BRITISH MARKET BY INTRODUCING , IN SEPTEMBER 1981 , A POLICY ON NEWCASTLE DISEASE WHICH WAS BROADLY SIMILAR TO THE ONE RECENTLY ADOPTED BY THE UNITED KINGDOM . AS FROM 16 SEPTEMBER 1981 , IT PROHIBITED THE USE OF VACCINE AND INSTITUTED A POLICY OF COMPULSORY SLAUGHTER IN THE EVENT OF AN OUTBREAK OF DISEASE . THE BRITISH AUTHORITIES REFUSED , HOWEVER , TO ADMIT FRENCH POULTRY PRODUCTS TO THEIR TERRITORY ON THE GROUND THAT FRANCE HAD NOT RESTRICTED POULTRY IMPORTS FROM NON-MEMBER COUNTRIES , NOTABLY FROM SPAIN AND FROM SOME EAST EUROPEAN COUNTRIES , WHERE VACCINE WAS STILL IN USE . THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT MAINTAINS THAT IT HAD PREVIOUSLY BEEN ABLE TO COME TO ARRANGEMENTS WITH SWITZERLAND WHEN OUTBREAKS OF THE DISEASE OCCURRED IN FRANCE BUT NOT IN SWITZERLAND , IN SUCH A WAY THAT FRENCH IMPORTS INTO THAT COUNTRY COULD CONTINUE , ALTHOUGH HEALTH CONTROLS AT THE FRONTIER WERE SUBSTANTIALLY REINFORCED .
26 IT APPEARS FROM INFORMATION GIVEN BY THE COMMISSION THAT DENMARK , ALTHOUGH APPLYING SINCE 1978 A POLICY OF NON-VACCINATION AND COMPULSORY SLAUGHTER , ALLOWS IMPORTS OF FRESH POULTRYMEAT FROM OTHER MEMBER STATES , BUT THAT IT IMPOSES RELATIVELY STRICT HEALTH CONTROLS AT THE FRONTIER IF THE IMPORTS COME FROM MEMBER STATES WHERE NEWCASTLE DISEASE HAS BEEN RECORDED WITHIN THE PAST 12 MONTHS OR WHERE VACCINATION AGAINST THAT DISEASE TAKES PLACE .
27 ACCORDING TO STATISTICS PREPARED BY THE INTERNATIONAL OFFICE OF EPIZOOTICS , THE ONLY MEMBER STATES IN WHICH SOME OUTBREAKS OF NEWCASTLE DISEASE IN 1981 WERE RECORDED WERE ITALY AND GREECE ; IN 1980 THE DISEASE WAS FOUND TO EXIST IN BELGIUM , GERMANY , ITALY AND GREECE . THE LATEST RECORDED OUTBREAK WAS IN 1978 FOR GREAT BRITAIN , IN 1976 FOR FRANCE AND IN 1973 FOR NORTHERN IRELAND . THE COMMISSION STRESSES THAT THESE FIGURES SHOW A STEADY REDUCTION IN MANIFESTATIONS OF