N.Z. Miscast In Trade Power Game

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31986, 13 May 1969, Page 1

N.Z. Miscast In Trade Power Game

“I sometimes have the uncomfortable feeling that in matters of international trade we must look like the cast of ‘Coronation Street’ unwittingly blundering into an episode of the ‘Power Game’,” said Professor W. K. Jackson yesterday.

Professor Jackson, who is professor of political science at the University of Canterbury, was delivering a paper on “New Zealand and the Pacific” at the annual convention of the Institute of Public Administration.

He said his comparison was unfair because obviously New Zealand could hold its own—“but not in the top-heavy committee-spawning way that we have gone about it in the past,” he said. Rigorous analysis, integration of information sources, aggressive salesmanship wherever people were prepared to buy New Zealand goods, and a readiness to modify traditional methods when necessary to promote trade were all essential if New Zealand was to prosper. Professor Jackson said New Zealand had to undertake a clear-eyed, if hypo- >•

thetical, analysis of its chances of an independent economic existence.

It was all very well for New Zealand to oppose suggestions for regional freetrade schemes because they might not suit New Zealand, but this would not necessarily stop them from developing—any more than Britain’s decision not to join the E.E.C. in 1957 prevented that.

Professor Jackson said New Zealand had still not adjusted itself to the concept of the Pacific as a meaningful world region in its own right. The Pacific area had greater potential in terms of population, national resources and capital awaiting development than the already highly developed European countries. The extent of the change which had so far taken place in the traditional structure of trade could be gauged from what had already taken place in Australia, whose trading ties were now predominantly within the Pacific. Since 1967 Japan had displaced the United Kingdom as Australia’s largest export market, and the United States had replaced the United Kingdom as Australia’s major import supplier. This shift was largely brought about in the first instance by Government trading agreements, said Professor Jackson.

He said that the trading pattern was continuing to change,- and Japan had taken the initiative in discussing wider regional arrangements of the type which might be necessary if Pacific nations were to hold their own against cohesive groupings such as the E.E.C. Just as Britain sought to enter the E.E.C. to ensure a stable, wider market, Japan would be increasingly subject to the same pressures, and the search for some form of Pacific regional arrangement —which might or might not be immediately favourable to New Zealand—was certain to continue.

Professor Jackson said that unless New Zealand was aware of changes in the whole structure of world trade, and of their significance it would be ill-adapted to meet the problems of the future. “In this sense I must say,” he said, “that I believe we are still poorly served by our news media. Frankly, ! sometimes wonder whether as a nation we are well enough informed about what is going on in the Pacific, in Japan in particular, and even in Australia. Moreover, even where factual information is available, there is a paucity of well-informed material analysing the significance of the facts presented from New Zealand's point of view.” Professor Jackson said that

New Zealand’s dependence on the United Kingdom market was declining and trade with Japan was increasing. “But we are still in a very exposed position if and when the United Kingdom finally does enter the E.E.C.," he said, “and the real problem is one of whether we are increasing fast enough. “The danger is that we are changing our attitudes and policies too little and too late. We. may hope that Britain will look after our interests in any rearrangements in Europe, but there is no-one to defend our interests in any major future trade rearrangements in the Pacific,” he said. Professor Jackson said the United Kingdom had suffered badly by not undertaking proper appraisals of economic change early enough. “Do we still have to go where Britain went?” he asked.