Pacific efforts defended

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32539, 24 February 1971, Page 3

Pacific efforts defended

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, February 23. The president of the Federation of Labour (Mr T. E. Skinner) was taken to task tonight for his remarks that New Zealand’s future lay in the Pacific and that unless New Zealand moved quickly it would be too late. .

Mr A. R. Sim, president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce, said in a supplied statement that Mr Skinner must be aware that commerce

and industry had been actively exploring and selling in the Pacific and South-East Asia for many years, and at an accelerating pace. He described Mr Skinner’s remarks as the most irresponsible statement by an industrial leader this year. Mr Sim said Chambers of Commerce and similar organisations had led the way at considerable expense by means of trade missions sponsored by the Government, in-

dependent trade tours, and commercial travellers from individual firms. “Surely Mr Skinner knows that the Government itself, through the Trade Promotion Council and the trade commissioner services of this country, has done and is doing a sterling job in the area which he picks on. “The only frustrating element preventing an even faster diversification of our exports and development of our Pacific basin trade lies in practices which undermine our industrial continuity, and I say this regardless of where the blame may lie,” said Mr Sim.