MOVE TO BLOCK RING TENDERS

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27639, 21 April 1955, Page 12

MOVE TO BLOCK RING TENDERS

Action Promised To Deputation UNDERTAKINGS BY MR HOLLAND (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, April 20. The Government has agreed to facilitate the issue of import licences to overseas tenderers who obtain New Zealand orders, and is also to examine the possibility of making representations to the British Government to have certain British export prices investigated by the Export Markets Commission sitting in that country. These undertakings were given by the Prime Minister (Mr Holland) to a Wellington City Council deputation which waited bn him today to discuss ring tendering. The Prime Minister had with him the Minister of Works (Mr W. S. Goosman) and the Minister of Industries and Commerce (Mr D. J. Eyre). The City Council deputation consisted of the Mayor (Mr R. L. Macalister), Cr. Barton Ginger, and the Town Clerk (Mr B. O. Peterson). Mr Macalister said that the City Council wished to bring to the notice of the Government the situation

created by ring tendering, an arrangement among overseas manufacturing groups by which individual manufacturers tendered the same price for a given quantity and quality of goods, thus denying to the council the advantages of competitive tendering. He also asked the Government to make representations to the British Government to have the position investigated by the commission of inquiry on the British export market. Cr. Ginger said that some manufacturers had advised the council that they were unable to tender for goods sought by the council because of the difficulty in obtaining the necessary import permits. Mr Goosman suggested that this difficulty could be met if the Government undertook to overcome import permit difficulties in cases where an overseas tenderer obtained orders.

Mr Eyre agreed to facilitate the issue of Import permits in such cases, but said that it was the policy of the Government to protect New Zealand industries that could supply at reasonable prices goods of a quality comparable to those available from overseas. The deputation undertook to supply the Prime Minister with evidence of specific cases where it had been impossible for successful tenderers to obtain import permits.