REDUCTION IN DUTIES

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25554, 23 July 1948, Page 6

REDUCTION IN DUTIES

GENERAL AGREEMENT ON TARIFFS APPLICATION BY N.Z. GAZETTED (P.A.) WELLINGTON, July 22. Loss of revenue because of New Zealand’s adherence to the general agreement on tariffs and trade may exceed £1,000,000 a yeaF, according to a statement made this evening by the Minister of Customs (Mr W. Nash), A proclamation was gazetted to-day notifying that the agreement was being applied provisionally by New Zealand as from July .26. The Minister said the protocol of provisional application, which was signed on behalf of New Zealand on June 30, requires provisional application to be made effective within 30 days of the signature. The proclamation lists the following foreign countries whose products will be entitled to entry at most favoured nation rates: Argentina, Belgium (including overseas territories), Brazil, Chile, China, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, France (including overseas territories), Greece, Lebanon, Luxemburg, the Netherlands (including overseas territories), Norway, Spain, Sweden, Syria, and the United States. In terms of the trade agreement made in 1938 between New Zealand and Switzerland most favoured treatment is also extended to certain Swiss products. This is provided for by a separate Order-in-Council. Separate Orders-in-Council also provide for consequential amendments to existing trade agreements with Canada and Australia as well as for certain exemptions from primage duty and surtax as provided for in the general agreement. All such concessions and adjustments in rates of duty are shown, together with existing rates, in a publication recently made available through the Customs Department. “The' reductions in duty being macle under the agreement will involve ’ a considerable amount of revenue,” said Mr Nash. “Reductions in duty will also in certain cases be reflected in reduced amounts of sales tax paid on the goods. It is difficult to make any precise estimate of the total revenue involved but, based on imports in 1947. it will exceed £1,000,000. Some of the more important items affected are raisins, oranges, preserved fish, tobacco leaf, cigarettes, surgical and dental instruments, medicinal preparations, coir mats and matting, sewing cottons, lace, nets, braids and bindings, woollen textiles, table china, glassware, clocks, adding and accounting machines, • typewriters, tools, measuring appliances, electric units for domestic refrigerators, industrial machinery, motor vehicles, and timber. In certain cases the reduction in duty represents the removal of primage or surtax only. In others there is also a .reduction in the rate of duty.