Import Restrictions Worry Launderers

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30602, 19 November 1964, Page 15

Import Restrictions Worry Launderers

(From Our Own Reporter)

HANMER SPRINGS, Nov. 18. "It is unfortunate that we have got to the stage that once a protective duty is imposed to favour local manufacture, it is then impossible to effect importation —even assuming one is prepared to pay the additional customs duty—because of the use of quantitative controls,” the president of the New Zealand Federation of Launderers Drycleaners and Dyers (Mr J. H. Taylor) said in his report to the annual meeting of the federation at Hanmer Springs. The federation had been active throughout the year in ensuring that import allocations for both plant and raw materials were adequate to meet the industry’s requirements, he said. It was the Government’s policy to control through import licensing the importation of machinery and materials where it was considered the equivalent was available from local sources. In his report, Mr Taylor referred to New Zealand made plant, especially the locallymade washer-extractors. “This manufacturer is now fully protected and we have found it impossible to convince the authorities that the local extractor is not an exact equivalent of those offering from overseas,” he said. One of the major functions of the federation was to protect members’ interests on the question of customs duty rates and the classification of plant and raw materials. “The year has been marked by complete review of duty concessions on plant and in spite of our best endeavours, a wider range of presses, spotting machines and one or two other items have been made subject to penal rates of duty as a means of protecting the local factories. “Concessions have been extended for such diverse items as ironing machines, sheet spreaders, flexible forms, irons, conditioning machines and some presses of a type not made locally. These were the direct result of federation representatives in collabora-I

tion with traditional importers.

“Prompt action was taken to safeguard the interests of drycleaners when it was heard that detergent soaps were likely to be made in New Zealand and we were successful in having the duty concession continued and the import licensing allocation raised. “No further moves have been made by local interests to pursue the manufacture of detergent soaps and I am pleased that for the current year the import allocation will be restored upon application by individual companies to a level similar to that of last year,” Mr Taylor said. Mr J. H. Taylor, of Wellington, was re-elected president. The two vice-presidents are Messrs D. Hoggans, of Invercargill, and R. J. Pryor, of Auckland.