No Barter Trading

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31366, 11 May 1967, Page 1

No Barter Trading

(From Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON, May 10.

Barter deals would dislocate the free flow of New Zealand trade, the Minister of Overseas Trade (Mr Marshall) said in Parliament today.

He was replying to an urgent question by Mr W. W. Freer (Lab., Mt Albert), who asked if, in view of the large quantities of wool in the hands of the Wool Commission, the Government would agree to reported offers made by two countries to buy wool provided goods were purchased in return.

Mr Marshall said proposals for barter arrangements where sales of wool or butter would be tied to the granting of import licences for imports from a specified country had been made from time to time. Several such proposals were made recently. “The acceptance of such proposals would involve a reversal of New Zealand’s long established trading policies of multilateral trading which enable us to buy and sell throughout the world on the best competitive markets available,” he said. Traders could import goods from any country up to the amount of their licences, and without limit where the goods were exempt.

Adoption of barter deals would require the Government to issue extra licences, or to direct some traders holding licences to buy goods they would not otherwise purchase from the source. “This the Government is not prepared to do,” Mr Marshall said. “It would dislocate the free flow of trade.

“It would be discrimination in trade, which is contrary to our commitments in G.A.T.T. It could lead to retaliation by other countries.” In the present circumstances it would lead to a compulsory direction of some trade from New Zealand’s main trading partners, such as Britain, to other countries which had not been able to attract trade.