Exports to Pacific Basin “urgent”

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33044, 11 October 1972, Page 10

Exports to Pacific Basin “urgent”

There was an ugent need for New Zealand to increase its exports to the Pacific Basin countries (Australia, the Pacific Islands, Japan, North and South America, and South-East Asia), for it had a relatively small proportion of that vast market, the director of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association (Mr I. D. Howell) said in an address to the Christchurch Rotary Club yesterday.

“With the reality of Britain’s membership of the E.E.C. thrust on us by the decisions at Luxemburg, our future as a Pacific-based nation has to move from a vision into an area of hard economic and political reality,” Mr Howell said. He was speaking of all exports, not just manufactured goods, he said. Already the shift of New Zealand’s trade to the Pacific Basin was proceeding with speed. In the last five years, exports to that area had in-

creased 145 per cent, and more than half of New Zealand’s total increase in imports had gone there. During the five years, the proportion of Ntw Zealand’s exports sold in the Pacific Basin had increased from 26.4 per cent to 44.3 per cent. In the same period, New Zealand’s traditional exports to Britain had increased only marginally in money terms, but had dropped sharply as a proportion of total exports, from 51.4 per cent to 36.3 per cent. Mr Howell said that, nevertheless, New Zealand’s share of the Pacific Basin countries was still only marginal. Figures of New Zealand’s share clearly indicated the potential of the trade available to this country “Our exports to Australia are now close to sloom a year. This amounts to 8.5 per cent of our trade exports, but less than 2.5 per cent of Australia’s imports. “Our exports to Japan are approximately sllom a year; about 10 per cent of" our total exports, but less than 1 per cent of Japan’s total imports. “Our sales to North America total s2lom a year, nearly 20 per cent of total exports, but less than 0.5 per cent of North American imports.” In contrast, Mr Howell said, Australia supplied 21 per cent of New Zealand’s total imports. If one took into account the relative size of economies, a not unreasonable aim for New Zealand would be to secure at least 5 per cent of Australia’s imports. “An increased share of the Japanese and North American imports by only 1 or 2 per cent would bring about an export bonanza of untold proportions,’’ Mr Howell said.