Manufacturers urge import protection

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32861, 9 March 1972, Page 16

Manufacturers urge import protection

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, March 8.

The National Development Conference today passed a resolution “noting manufacturers’ concern” about import licensing.

The president of the Manufacturers’ Federation (Mr H. H. Saunders) said they had serious reservations about attaining their targets.

It was their view that: The proposed change from quantitative protection to tariff protection had created a climate of insecurity in manufacturing industries which was

inimical to the objective of industrial development Some restructuring of the manufacturing industry was recognised and there was a need for resources to be encouraged towards the development of efficient industry with a high degree of growth and export prospects. These objectives would not be achieved merely by a

change from import licensing to tariff protection, but the assurance of a domestic market was essential to the attainment of appropriate growth rates and full employment.

The immediate past president of the federation (Mr L. H. Stevens) said import licensing could be compared with a farmer’s fertiliser—“if he doesn’t apply it, when the time comes there’ll be no harvest.” FARMERS’ VIEW The president of Federated Farmers (Mr A. C. Begg) said the original clause that the manufacturers were now objecting to was the result of “considerable concessions by a number of interests.” Agricultural receipts between 1961 and 1970 had increased from $559m to $lOl Im, Mr Begg said. In that time farmers’ net income had increased only slm. “I could present a very good argument to have farming protected from other industries,” he said.

The industrialist, Sir Woolf Fisher, said he totally disagreed with the viewpoint that “import licensing” was a dirty word. Licensing had been responsible for more expansion in New Zealand than any other factor. There was real competition in most fields of manufacturing. As an example, Sir Woolf Fisher said that refrigerator prices had come down because competition had made increased productivity necessary.