FREE TRADE AREA

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30156, 13 June 1963, Page 8

FREE TRADE AREA

N.Z. Included In Proposal

New Zealand was mentioned as a potential partner in a free trade market com-, prising the United States, Canada, and possibly Australia and Britain by an American forest industry leader recently. Free trade was a virtual necessity to growth. The great technological and other developments of the twentieth century had, in effect, rendered obsolete the period of tariff protection and limited commerce, said Mr Robert B. Pamplin, president of the Georgia-Pacific Corporation, at the Pacific North-west Trade Association conference held in Washington last April.

“I feel that if we were to have a free market between Canada, the United States, and include New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom, we could and would be the leaders of the world for years to come. “Particularly is this true if we, as countries and in turn our industrial and labour leaders would work together as a team, recognising each other’s problems and taking advantage of our know-how, mass markets and vast natural resources,” said Mr Pamplin. He said he realised that such a proposal would have to be implemented gradually and suggested present tariffs should be decreased over a five or 10-year period to permit an orderly adjustment. He conceded that even under such conditions some disruption would result, but this could be also stimulating, he said.