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Story: International economic relations

Jack the giant-killer

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Jack the giant-killer

Britain’s negotiations to enter the European Economic Community (now the European Union) posed a threat to New Zealand’s butter, cheese and sheep-meat trade with the UK. In this cartoon, Overseas Trade Minister Jack Marshall hopes to avert the danger, but he faced many obstacles. In the end a deal was negotiated which entitled New Zealand to sell defined quantities of butter and cheese in the UK for a transitional five-year period.

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Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: C-132-017

by Eric Heath

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Malcolm McKinnon, International economic relations – Britain, New Zealand and Europe after 1940, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/cartoon/24804/jack-the-giant-killer (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Malcolm McKinnon, published 2 March 2010.