N.Z. TRADE WITH JAPAN

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27498, 4 November 1954, Page 12

N.Z. TRADE WITH JAPAN

MINISTER DENIES AGREEMENT

REPLY TO LABOUR PARTY SUGGESTIONS “In suggesting that there is some secret trade agreement with Japan and that there are a large number of Japanese goods on sale in Auckland, Mr Macfarlane is indulging in the type of dreams that Mr Nash is so fond of,” said the Minister of Industries and Commerce (Mr J. T. Watts) yesterday. He was commenting on remarks made by Mr R. M. Macfarlane. Labour Party candidate far Christchurch Central, at an election meeting. “I have denied so often Labour Party statements that some trade agreement has been made with Japan, that I am surprised .a man of Mr Macfarlane’s position should persist in talking about it,” the Minister said. “We have had talks bn trade with Japan, and the progress of them has been publicly reported on from time to time, but no conclusions have been made.”

The Prime Minister (Mr Holland) had given the Manufacturers’ Federation conference a categorical statement that goods of the type made in New Zealand were not being imported from Japan, and Mr Watts had said the same thing on many occasions. In Parliament, two Opposition members, Messrs W. W. Freer and P. G. Connolly, had wanted the Government to set up trade officers in Singapore to work up trade with the East, and Mr C. L. Carr ' (Opposition, Timaru) wanted the Government to have more trade with Communist China, said Mr Watts.

“It is curious to me that Labour candidates only see something wrong with trade with the East when it is

with Japan,” said Mr Watts, “but do not see anything wrong when it is with other Asiatic countries, including Communist China. In this, they are following the well-known Communist line. “Even before the war, when the Labour Party was in office, trade with Japan was a substantial item, and as late'as 1940, £BOO,OOO worth of gdods were imported from that country,” said Mr Watts.