Agreement on meat shipments to Japan

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33092, 6 December 1972, Page 20

Agreement on meat shipments to Japan

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, December 5. A new shipping agreement covering the New ZealandJapan meat trade was signed in Wellington today.

To apply from January 5, 1973, the agreement was signed by the chairman of the .Meat Board shipping committee (Mr A. C. Wright) and officials of the China Navigation Company, Ltd, Crusader Snipping Company, Ltd, Japan Lines, Mitsui O.S.K. Line, and J. Lauritzen.

Expressing satisfaction with the agreement’s terms, Mr Wright recalled that last year, when it could not reach agreement with the New Zealand Eastern Shiplng Committee, the board had intro-

duced the Lauritzen Line on a lower freight rate to provide competition on the Japan trade. The committee had retaliated by offering a system of rebates and by entering into agreements which virtually prevented Japanese importers from using Lauritzen vessels.

“This was clearly not in the interests of any party, especially the New Zealand exporter who, in effect, ended up paying most of the re-

bates but who was not able to nominate the vessel he shipped on,” said Mr Wright. The new agreement would introduce much-needed stability to this important trade, he said, and allow for its future orderly conduct and development. To these ends the carriers had agreed to adopt a common net tariff and not to offer fidelity or other rebates to shippers either in New Zealand or Japan. Mr Wright said that the stabilised freight tariff was generally lower than the existing New Zealand Eastern Shipping Committee’s tariff, ana the new agreement should save New Zealand more than $500,000 a year.

The shipping lines in the New Zealand-Japan meat trade welcomed the new agreement and acknowledged the board’s initiative in establishing an atmosphere for trading stability, the chairman of the New Zealand Eastern Shipping Committee (Mr K. M. Forsyth) said to-