Politics ‘Great Problem’ In Overseas Trading

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29820, 12 May 1962, Page 5

Politics ‘Great Problem’ In Overseas Trading

In international trade at present there was the “great problem” of politics as much as marketing, and this was one of the things New Zealand had to face, Mr R. H. Bevin, executive officer of the Meat and Wool Boards’ Economic Service, said to the annual conference of the meat and wool section of Mid-Canterbury Federated Farmers in Ashburton yesterday. “What we have to fight is the political component in trade, and this will bring us to bilateral trade. We may have to have bilateral trade with Japan. However, this type of trade is dangerous and puts you in a very vulnerable position, if there is suddenly no market. We are in a pretty tough economic position, and we have to be very careful,” Mr Bevin said.

One of the ways to get around the political trading barrier was to make bilateral trade agreements. "I think reciprocal trade will grow as the political fences are put up in countries,” Mr Bevin said.

This was one of the problems posed by the E.E.C., and New Zealand had very little

with which to fight the community. New Zealand would have to establish a more dynamic form of marketing, Mr Bevin said. This, he thought, was beginning to show results. The use of the country’s resources in a few more years would become vital, he said. Overseas borrowing was a quite legitimate way of developing a country, but it was self-evident that any borrowing policy had its limitations. In New Zealand there would always be balance-of-payment difficulties, because there was little doubt that the imports would press the exports to the limit. It would remain this way as long as the standard of living in the country was maintained, Mr Bevin said. It must be considered essential to hold exports at the highest possible level, and to this end farming must be regarded as the premier concern of the economy.

Mr Bevin said care would have to be exercised to make sure that capital which should be put into farming was not diverted. “If you raise farm costs, you are harming the only industry that matters two hoots in this country,” he said.