Import Licensing Found Too Rigid

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30973, 1 February 1966, Page 18

Import Licensing Found Too Rigid

(New Zealand Press AssoctationJ

WELLINGTON, January 31.

The leader of a 15-man Birmingham trade mission to New Zealand, Mr H. Baskerville, today questioned whether the New Zealand import licensing system “needed to be quite so rigid.” “Do the shutters have to be put up immediately an overseas product is produced here?” he asked.

Mr Baskerville was speaking at a Wellington Rotary Club luncheon. He suggested that if 5 per cent of a New Zealand produced article was imported New Zealanders would have a clear monitor on what world quality and prices were.

This would stimulate New Zealand manufacturers to making sure their methods were the best and that labour was used to the best advantage.

Mr Baskerville said there was nothing wrong with the New Zealand article. But he said that without such a monitor New Zealanders must find it difficult to know what world quality and prices were. Mr Baskerville said he would like to see New Zealand's industry developed, "but please don’t spoil your beautiful islands doing it." The trade mission, which Mr Baskerville said represented the Midlands of Britain rather than just the city of Birmingham, is in New Zealand for two weeks. E.E.C. Entry The prospect of entry to the common market was something that could not be

ignored by British industry, but there could be no question of Britain going in without accepting all its responsibilities and feelings towards the Commonwealth, said Mr Baskerville at a press conference.

He said he felt this was a “pretty generally held view” among British manufacturers. The Common Market countries had not up till now been a very large market for Brit-

ain which had always taken a more outward-looking attitude to exports, instanced by its trade links with New Zealand, 12,000 miles away. Another member of the mission, Mr P. A. Molland, said there was a precedent for the protection of the Commonwealth in Britain’s entry to the E.E.C. France had covered its dependencies when it became a member. Mr Molland, sales director for a Midlands steel works, said the Common Market had to be kept in perspective. His company was not a particularly large one by British steel company standards but it exported to 91 countries of which only six were in the E.E.C.

His company’s products were faced with an 18 per cent tariff barrier in selling to the Common Market and 30 per cent of all their exports were to Australia and New Zealand. Not Neglected “We shan’t be neglecting a third of our total export market whatever happens,” he said.

The 13-man trade mission was selected for the fortnight’s visit from the ranks of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Thirteen members are here to sell: there is one banker and a secretary. Only two of the group have previously visited New Zealand. Mr Baskerville said New

Zealanders individually were the largest customers outside Britain for the goods British factories made.

“We cannot afford in Britain to overlook the market in New Zealand, and this concerted approach by Birmingham manufacturers demonstrates the importance we attach to our sales here.

“We hope both to increase our sales and to get to know our buyers better, because we firmly believe that business and friendship go hand in hand.”

Every firm represented by the members of the trade mission was subject to import licences in exporting to New Zealand, but Mr Baskerville said that, although our licensing system was lething of an irritant to the British businessman, he did not hold any animosity towards New Zealand, its people or its Government, because of it. Warmth To N.Z. “There is terriffic warmth towards New Zealand in Britain, not only in business, but in private life,” Mr Baskerville said.

This view was supported by Mr A. H. Watts, a fellow mission member, who said he was certain that, especially among the older companies, there was a close affinity with New Zealand, and this country was still regarded as a very good market. Today the visitors began an intensive investigation and selling programme in Wellington, with an estimated 300 appointments in the capital alone. Tomorrow Mr Baskerville will meet the Deputy-Prime Minister and Minister of Industries and Commerce (Mr Marshall), and in the next 12 days will travel to Christchurch, Dunedin and .Auckland.