Meeting with trade commissioners

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32778, 1 December 1971, Page 16

Meeting with trade commissioners

Members of the export division of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association spent yesterday morning discussing future markets and problems affecting trade with three New Zealand trade commissioners who will soon be representing New Zealand overseas.

The commissioners are Mr J. L. Fenaughty, who has been appointed senior trade commissioner in Canberra; Mr R. J. Turnbull, who has been appointed trade commissioner to the West Indies; and Mr L. M. Noble, who has been appointed trade commissioner in Brussels. Mr Fenaughty joined the Department of Industries and Commerce in 1939, and has served in London, San Francisco, New York and Tokyo. He was commissioner-general for Expo 70, in Osaka. “KICK-OFF PLACE” He said for manufacturers wishing to export, Australia was a logical place to “kickoff,” because it had a common bond with New Zealand, both in language and customs. New Zealand exports to Australia had risen from s2sm a year in 1960 to about s9om a year. Although this was a healthy increase, a large trade imbalance still

existed between the two countries.

Mr Fenaughty said Australia always had been known as a hard bargainer, but New Zealand must prove how important its market was, and show Australia what it had to offer.

Mr Fenaughty’s work will be primarily involved with policy and the New ZealandAustralia Free Trade Agreement

Mr Turnbull has served as trade commissioner in Hong Kong, and since his return to New Zealand, he has been executive officer in export

services in Wellington. His post in the West Indies will cover all island territories in the Caribbean, and some smaller areas in Central and South America. IMPORTANT MARKET The West Indies was an important market for New Zealand’s primary products, but saw little of New Zealand’s manufactured goods, although the West Indian market for them had increased tremendously in the last seven or eight years, said Mr Turnbull. He told the manufacturers

there was a need for them to visit the area. Mr Noble was assistant trade commissioner in London between 1964 and 1967. From 1968, until earlier this year, he held an executive position in the commission responsible for New Zealand's participation at Expo 70. His new post covers Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and seven languages are used in the area.

About 20 per cent of New Zealand’s hide and skin ex-

ports go to these European countries as well as a large proportion of wool exports. Mr Noble said Britain’s entry to the Common Market obviously would affect the pattern of trade in the area, but he said it was too early to say how. The photograph shows, from left, Mr Noble, Mr Turnbull, Mr J. R. Maddren (chairman of the export division), Mr Fenaughty, and Mr I. D. Howell (director of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association), at the meeting yesterday.