Import Controls

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30074, 7 March 1963, Page 14

Import Controls

In his address to the New Zealand Retailers* Federation, the president (Mr B. E. Woodhams) made a reasonable plea for more flexibility in the Dominion’s import control system. Many will support his criticism of official preoccupation with irksome administrative details. As Mr Woodhams pointed out, the Government’s introduction of the new tariff a year ago appeared a welcome step towards easing the burdens of importers and assisting businessmen generally. For many years rigid quantitative import controls tended to stultify New Zealand commercial enterprise; and the resultant inexperience of normal importing conditions

contributed probably more than anything else to the serious difficulties caused by over-importing once these controls could be lifted. Mr Woodhams could well be correct in supposing that “ our balance-of-pay-“ments problem is not “going to be solved easily, “and may be with us for “a very long time”. The Dominion should therefore try to give as much freedom as practicable to the judgment and skills of individual importers. Mr Woodhams’s call for a reduction of “ red “tape”, the encouragement of administrative economies, and improved relationships with New Zealand’s potential customers overseas will be echoed by innumerable businessmen.