"Dumping" Of Czech Goods In N.Z.

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32099, 22 September 1969, Page 1

"Dumping" Of Czech Goods In N.Z.

An Englishman complained in Christchurch last evening of his firm’s products having to compete with goods dumped on the New Zealand market by Czechoslovakia.

He is Mr G. M. Lawson, export director of Helix International, Ltd, which manufactures mathematical drawing sets for school use, and instrumental drawing sets.

Mr Lawson said his firm was doing good business with mathematical sets in New Zealand, but nobody could compete against the landed price of instrumental drawing sets from Czechoslovakia. No-one could buy the raw materials, pay labour and other processing costs, and sell profitably at the Czechoslovakian price, he said. Even if labour were eliminated by complete automation, the cost of tooling would still make the price unrealistic. “One can’t beat this. It’s pure dumping,” said Mr Lawson. “At that price we’d be out of business in five minutes.” The goods were removed from import licensing control on July 1, but large quantities had been imported before then. Importers he had spoken to, said Mr Lawson, could not understand how the licences

bad been obtained for the quantity that was brought in. “Something ought to be done about this dumping,” said Mr Lawson. “It should be investigated as a breach of G.A.T.T.”