Scheme Condemned As “Abject Failure”

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29766, 8 March 1962, Page 14

Scheme Condemned As “Abject Failure”

(New Zealand Press Association)

QUEENSTOWN, Mar. 7. What he termed the “abject failure” of import licensing to correct the balance-of-payment difficulties justified a closer look at alternative methods of limiting overseas expenditure, such as exchange control, Mr A. L. George (Wellington), chairman of the import committee, told the Retailers’ Federation conference at Queenstown today. Mr George contended that financial control could prove no worse economically than selective commodity control, and “would inject some flexibility into what has become a most rigid system of

priorities, full of anomalies, and hampering the most efficient utilisation of our sterling funds. “Trading conditions change and licences are still held by importers who no longer deal in the commodity for which they have a licence entitlement,” he said. “A review of our income from exports over the last few years reveals surprisingly little fluctuation, yet, during this period, importers have been subject to violent changes in the pattern of importing. “We may well ask ourselves why this has happened, when, since 1958, we have had the inconveniences, the frustrations, and the colossal waste of time and money resulting from blanket import controls, which, we are told, are to correct our propensity to over-import,” said Mr George. Control, instead of being a temporary economic weapon, had become, instead, "another arrow in the election quiver,” Mr George said.

One of the greatest evils of selective import control was the inevitability of excess stocks of one commodity and a shortage of another.

“This cannot be corrected under our present system of licensing, and does not appear to be the most efficient method of making the most effective use of what funds we do spend on imports.” he said.

Exchange control was a system which permitted individual importers to meet rapidly the changing demands of consumer preferences. It would also avoid the importation of commodities only because an import licence was available for them. The introduction of the new Custom tariff next July would be a most appropriate time “to throw off the restrictive shackles of an outmoded and unsuccessful system,” said Mr George.