Price cutting by N.Z. firms alleged

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32406, 19 September 1970, Page 2

Price cutting by N.Z. firms alleged

(N.Z. Press Assn.— i Copyright) CANBERRA, Sept. 18. New Zealand clothing manufacturers are allegedly undercutting Australians on the Australian market, according to a communique issued today by the seventh annual joint meeting between representatives of the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation and the Australian Associated Chambers of Manufactures.

The meeting was held under the auspices of the New

Zealand and Australia Free Trade Agreement. The joint communique said the Australian industry had expressed concern at the growth of clothing imports from New Zealand.

As a result of discussions the framework had been laid which could lead to the future establishment of a formal industry panel if found necessary.

Industry sources revealed that while the volume of trade was relatively small—about sl.2m a year—the percentage increase was dramatic.

Some sources believe the Australian resentment at New Zealand pricing has arisen from the failure of

New Zealanders to do sufficient market research before quoting. This has resulted in their quoting lower prices than the market can stand. SPECIAL MEASURES The communique said that New Zealand manufacturers believed more liberal use of N.A.F.T.A. Article 3 (7) arrangements could attain desirable rationalisation in related areas of manufacturing on both sides of the Tasman. The article provides for special measures in trading in goods outside the agreement which would benefit the trade and development of each countiy. The president of the New Zealand federation (Mr J. S, Osborne) told reporters that rationalisation had never yet been defined, although it had always been envisaged by the agreement. It could mean rationalisation between related companies or it could be between companies producing similar articles on both sides of the Tasman. In the past the article had tended to mean knobs for motor cars. Now it could mean more important things, such as radiators. Or it could mean that if competing companies were now producing related goods on both sides of the Tasman, under rationalisation some products might be made for the whole of Australasia in one country and the balance in the other. The meeting noted a “satisfactory” increase in total trans-Tasman trade to a record value of almost s29om in 1969-70. Both' delegations affirmed support for the establishment of industry panels to bring manufacturers of the two countries together. “ECONOMIC SENSE” The Australian Minister for Trade (Mr McEwen) told delegates there was plain economic sense in New Zealand and Australia getting closer together. “There was sense in 1965, when the New Zealand-Aust-ralia Free Trade Agreement was signed, and there is even more sense now,” he said at a lunch given by the associated chambers for New Zealand delegates. Australia had always fully appreciated that New Zealand deserved special consideration if Britain entered the Common Market, he said.