LIFTING OF EXCHANGE CONTROL

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27442, 31 August 1954, Page 7

LIFTING OF EXCHANGE

CONTROL

WARNING TO AUCKLAND MANUFACTURERS

(New Zealand Press Association) . AUCKLAND, August 30. The Auckland Manufacturers' Association has warned its members that the release of exchange control in 1955 may cause a heavy depletion of overseas reserves and adversely affect the manufacturing industry and the general economy of the country. It suggests that all importers, whether manufacturers or not, exercise sound business acumen and restraint. This is said in the report of the association, presented to the annual meeting tonight. It says the change will be welcomed as a means of obtaining raw material, plant, and equipment. However, it adds, there are inherent dangers in the release of exchange control under present conditions.

The report also supports a policy of import selection under sound administration as being in the best interests of the country and its development. “We have only to look at Australia today,” it says, “to learn the lesson that tariffs cannot in themselves afford the necessary protection to the local industry against the over-production of the- more highly industrialised or lower standard of living countries in the world—a world where over-pro-duction is becoming evident.”