NEW CUSTOMS TARIFFS

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29263, 22 July 1960, Page 14

NEW CUSTOMS TARIFFS

113 Changes Of Duty (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 21. The House of Representatives tonight passed resolutions reducing duty on petrol and tobacco and fixing the new customs tariffs. Major features of the tariff proposals announced in the House are: (1) Provision for greater protection of New Zealand’s rubber goods industry. (2) Protection for the plastic goods industry. (3) Expansion of the electrical goods section to provide protection of local production. (4) Changes in existing tariff procedure. The Minister of Customs (Mr Boord) said he would probably make a full statement explaining these changes tomorrow. Mr Boord said that present rates of duty were abolished in 50 of the existing 449 tariff items. These 50 items cover 259 sub-items, and changes of duty are made in 113 of them. Among items on which duties are increased are chinaware, earthenware, and porcelain, gramophones and some other electrical goods, cardboard, rubber goods and tyres, and plastic goods. Answering Mr J. T. Watts (Opposition, Fendalton), who said there had been no announcement that a major tariff alteration had been under contemplation this year, Mr Boord said that when the Minister of Finance (Mr Nordmeyer) was in Dunedin two months ago he said there would be a tariff review and that certain items would be reviewed this year. The statement had received publicity in the newspapers. Basis Of Changes

The basis of the changes was the Board of Trade report of 1957. The previous Government had had ah inquiry before it had gone out of office. One of the difficulties in implementing the report was that the Board of Trade had produced the tariff without the new nomenclature. Mr Watts said that it was always difficult to judge between local manufacturers and traditional suppliers. The manufacturing industries had to be kept competitive, and he hoped that this would be considered in making tariff adjustments. “We sell 98 per cent, of our lamb in England, and if the English working man is not working he won’t buy our lamb,” he said. The New Zealand economy was on a tightrope, he said. “We have to keep people in other countries prosperous so that we can be prosperous in New Zealand.” be said.

The changes put a considerable amount of power in the Minister’s hands and placed him under considerable pressure. Mr Boord said he did not see how the rates could be substantially lower than the Australian figures. The British people were no worse off and were still in the same relative position with their comoetitors as they were before.

The Leader of the Opposition (Mr Holyoake) said that the Board of Trade report was presented to the Government after the 1957 election and before it left office, and it was felt that the then Government should not be attending to anything that would become the responsibility of another government. The report had been gathering dust for two years. Mr Eyre’s Questions A former Minister of Industries and Commerce, Mr D. J. Eyre (Opposition, North Shore), asked whether the items which were to be subject to increased customs duty were to be freed of import control. “Has G.A.T.T. had something to do with the change of policy?” he asked. “I thought that the Government didn’t believe in tariffs as a means of protecting local industries.”

He said that the rate on peanut butter had been increased from 3 per cent, to 25 per cent China and crockery had previously been free, and was now to be charged at the rate of 7Jd per lb. Mr Boord said that no items would be freed from import control immediately, but that would be considered in next year’s schedule.

The cost of the duty on china and crockery would depend on the level of imports. Japan was a substantial supplier in the trade, and the duty would not be enough to keep imports out.

Body In Harbour.-—The body of John Henderson, aged 86, a pensioner, of Home street, Te Aro, Wellington was found in Wellington Harbour yesterday morning. Mr Henderson was last seen on Wednesday morning. It is believed he fell accidentally from a wharf.—(PA..)