AUST. TRADE SURPLUS CUT

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31740, 25 July 1968, Page 1

AUST. TRADE SURPLUS CUT

(Neto Zealand Press Association)

SYDNEY, July 24.

Official figures released in Canberra today show that New Zealand has substantially reduced its trade imbalance with Australia.

The figures show that the imbalance, which | was 4.4 to one in Australia’s favour at the end of March, 1967, has been reduced to about 2.5 to one. Helped by devaluation of the New Zealand dollar last November, Increased efforts by New Zealand exporters

and useful additions to the trans-Tasman Free Trade Agreement, New Zealand increased its exports to Australia by sl4m in the year ended June 30.

In the same period, Australian exports to New Zealand fell s2lm to their lowest figure since 1965.

Australia’s trade surplus with New Zealand, which reached a peak of sl3om in 1966-67, fell to s94.4m—the same figure as in the year ended June, 1983. Australia imported $61.6m of goods from New Zealand in the last financial year, s3sm of this since devaluation.

Australia’s exports across the Tasman totalled sls6m. The biggest increase is thought to have been in New Zealand exports of timber. The Australian Prime Minister (Mr Gorton) announced when he visited New Zealand in March that all import duties on sawn and undressed timber would be withdrawn immediately. Some estimates of New Zealand’s increased timber exports to Australia are as high as s7m—half New Zealand’s total gain in the year. Exports of carpets and of many other items rose during the year as New Zealand exporters took advantage of the benefits of devaluation. The New Zealand credit squeeze, together with the higher cost of imported goods after devaluation, is thought to have accounted for the drop in New Zealand’s imports of Australian-made goods.