Against Increase In Wool Duty

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30393, 18 March 1964, Page 7

Against Increase In Wool Duty

The New Zealand Wool Board considers there is no justification or necessity for an increase in current rates of protective duty on woollen goods. The board said this in submissions made yesterday in Wellington to the Tariff and Development Board.

In a summary of submissions, the board says the local industry has demonstrated in the past that it can command one-third of the market under current rates of duty. Should the tariff board find that the present levels of duty could be reduced, the Wool Board would be pleased, it says. “It is in the national Interest that the disabilities placed on wool products be eliminated so that wool may compete on equal terms with other fibres,” the board says. “Wool fabrics of types and qualities not produced in volume by New Zealand industry should be exempt from tariff and licensing policies designed to protect the industry.” The Wool Board also requests the licence allocation for piecegoods containing wool be increased by one million square yards in 1964-65, 1965-66 and 1966-67, allowing imports to rise progressively to six million square yards. Discontinued At the end of this threeyear period the use of import licensing for protective purposes should be discontinued, says the Wool Board. The board says there is, for example, a lack of capacity in the local industry to produce light-weight wool fabrics. It therefore requests that light-weight piecegoods containing wool and weighing less than six ounces a square yard should pay the same duty as similar non-wool piecegoods: free if British preferential, and 15 per cent if general.

Other fabrics of wool not produced on any scale in New Zealand should receive similar treatment.

Where this is done, the board says such wool piecegoods should be added to the tariff items for which code 65.14 licences were available in the 1963-64 period. This is the largest code item, and includes cotton. More Choice

“The inclusion in this item of wool piecegoods not competitive with New Zealand production would enable licence holders to exercise more freedom of choice between wool and other fibres. This is at present limited by restrictions on transfer of licences between categories,” the board says.

In the meantime provision should be made in the import licensing procedure to afford any textile trader, manufacturer or distributor the opportunity to buy or use wool fabric. “At present, licences held by other than manufacturers are based on import performance in 1954, and this should be reviewed.

“The board suggests a modified system for allocating extra licences in 1964-65, so that wool importers are not at a complete disadvantage with their non-wool competitors.”