TRADING WITH JAPAN

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25246, 26 July 1947, Page 2

TRADING WITH JAPAN

GOODS AVAILABLE FOR EXPORT

N.Z. BUSINESSMEN’S INTEREST

Although Japan will have a wide variety of goods to offer for export when private trading is reopened next month, the New Zealand Government is not expected to grant import licences for all tne commodities listed by the beadquarters of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers. At present the Department of Industries and Commerce, which is sponsoring visits to Japan by New Zealand business men, regards textiles and timber of greater importance than other goods. Of the 400 business men who will be permitted to enter Japan after August 15, a quota of six has been allotted to New Zealand. This is a circulating quota, and the Government is now determining the order in which business men will go to Japan. Nominees of trade organisations are being considered first, and after they have had their opportunity, applications from private firms will be dealt with in order of receipt. Consideration will be given to such factors as whether the commodities in which the applicants are interested are available from Japan, whether import licences would be granted, and the nature and extent of the pre-war trade with Japan done by the firm or organisation which the business men will represent. . Any trade representative or private interests going to Japan will have to arrange finance on their own account or from the group they represent.

Japanese products or merchandise in good production, of which export shipments in commercial quantities can be made are listed in a circular issued by the Department of Industries and Commerce. They are not available in the quantities to which traders were accustomed before the war, and present prices, which are negotiated between the purchaser and the headquarters of the Supreme Commander, zre understood to be high. How Japan has restored her industrial production since the war ended is indicated by the wide range of goods offered for export on a private basis. They include silk, woollen, and rayon piece goods, finished rayon and woollen goods, silk fabrics and clothing, cosmetics, electrical material, leather goods, linen piece goods, bicycles, paper and paper products, pearls and furs, sporting goods, sheet glass, mirrors, surgical instruments, sewing machines, electric light bulbs, farm imlements. drugs, and health supplies. Products in limited production will still be handled on a Government to Government basis. They include timber, textile machinery, and mining, communications, and power plant equipment. Tea, cotton textiles, and raw silk are also available for export only on a Government basis