DEARER CARS

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31276, 24 January 1967, Page 1

DEARER CARS

Shipping Costs (N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) SYDNEY, January 24. Australian-made cars could rise sharply in price in New Zealand as a result of the increases in Tasman shipping freight rates announced at the week-end. A spokesman for Genera! Motors-Holden, in Melbourne, said today the higher charges would be paid by General Motors (New Zealand), Ltd., which imports its vehicles. He thought it likely that the New Zealand company would pass on the charges to the customer. “The freight increases will cause rises in insurance in transit and sales tax in New Zealand,” he said, “so the customer may end up paying a lot more than just the increase in freight.” Australian importers and exporters who trade with New Zealand are anxiously awaiting full details of commodity rates to assess the effect of the increasing freight charges. But they warned that the increases would lead to higher prices for Australianmade goods sold in New Zealand, and that New Zealand could find it harder to sell her goods on the highly competitive Australian market. Shippers and importers generally regard the increases as “unfortunate, but a fact of life.” One prominent export official told the N.Z.P.A. today: “We don’t like the increases of course, but we feel they are probably justified in view of rising costs.”