MOTOR VEHICLE IMPORTS

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24983, 18 September 1946, Page 5

MOTOR VEHICLE IMPORTS

EXISTING LICENCES increased

50 PER CENT. OF 1938 VALUE

(From Our Parliamentary Reporter) United w at J? etween 13 000 and U,OOO annn 1 Kl . r ‘gdm cars and more than S pariad'an and United States cars X} 1 be ,, lm P°rted in 1947 if available. 3000 commercial vehicles may also be imported. These fieures rZTt 6 ”. 1 • ab ?S, t . lo 000 fewer “arsthan imported in 1938, and about 1300 fewer commercial vehicles. f„J^oJ? rev i'l u L il I lport 'icence position for 1947, with that now obtaining given Smhi re d thesis ’,^ : Unite d Kingdom: asaembled cars, 100 per cent, of the value of 1938 importations <l3O per cent.); unassembled cars, 110 per cent. (160 per cent.); commercial vehicles, 150 per Tteif’ P er eent.). Canada and the united States: assembled cars, 25 per cent, of the value of 1938 importations 45 per cent.); unassembled, 35 per i per ce nt.); commercial vehicles, 50 per cent. (100 per cent.). Licences are based on values, and S«r.uP ri S es to-day are approximately double those of 1938. The increases in terms of vehicles will have this effect: united Kingdom cars from about 9500 to approximately 13,700; commercial vehicles, from approximately- 1100 to than 1400; Canadian cars from 1400 to more than 3000; commercial vehicles from 600 to 1200; United States cars from just over 400 to 1100; commercial vehicles from about 300 to 600. - the increase was announced the 1947 import schedule allowed for the importation from Canada and the United States of one passenger vehicle for every six imported in 1938, and one commercial' vehicle for four imported in 1938. The increase now makes the ratio one for two and a half in respect of passenger vehicles, and one for two commercial vehicles. In respect of the United Kingdom the ratio is increased from three for five passenger vehicles to nearly four for five, and from four for five commercial vehicles to one for one. The New Zealand representative of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, London, Mr A. W. Hamilton Brown, interviewed this evening, said the increase would be greatly appreciated by the motor industry in the United Kingdom. The-increase would mean that more than an additional £1,000,000 worth of vehicles could be exported from the United Kingdom The increase was not sufficient to cover the quantity of vehicles which the United Kingdom could manufacture for New Zealand, but it was a gesture on the part of the New Zealand Government which British manufacturers would welcome. The industry in the United States was rapidly getting into its stride, and he was hopeful that the increase granted by the New Zealand Government would be absorbed before the expiration of the licences, when the position might again be reviewed.