‘Uncertainty’ on surcharge

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32701, 2 September 1971, Page 3

‘Uncertainty’ on surcharge

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter —Copyright) WASHINGTON, August 31. Glorious uncertainty prevailed in Washington over the duration of the 10 per cent import surcharge, the president of the Labour Party (Mr W. E. Rowling, M.P.) found during a twoday visit.

He said this afternoon before leaving to attend an Inter-Parliamentary Union conference in Paris that Administration officials with whom he had talked had no firm idea how long it would remain in force.

“People in senior positions related it to the 90-day wage and price freeze, but they were not sure if it would be lifted within that period or would be extended beyond it. Nor were they sure whether it would bring about major currency realignments or trade retaliation,” he said. Mr Rowling said he believed that if the surcharge were imposed for only a brief period it would not seriously affect New Zealand. But if it remained indefinitely harm would be done in trading areas in which New Zealand was achieving higher sales. Although only 10 per cent of New Zealand’s exports to the United States were covered by the surcharge, the products to which it applied

were the ones not subject to I import curbs. “As far as lamb is concerned, no-one seems able to determine whether the surcharge of 4c per lb will be paid by the producer, absorbed by the exporter, or passed on to the consumer by way of higher prices,” he said.

Mr Rowling said that most Americans with whom he talked had not found New Zealand’s promotion of both its agricultural and manufactured goods to be very effective. “They suggested we may have been scared by the very size of the market,” he said.