Reductions in duty on Australian goods

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33413, 20 December 1973, Page 14

Reductions in duty on Australian goods

(New Zealand Press Association!

WELLINGTON, December 19.

Reductions in Customs duty on a wide range of goods imported from Australia were announced today by the Minister of Customs (Mr Connelly). The Government, he said, was taking steps to see that the reductions were passed on to consumers and end-users.

The reductions come in three categories. The first covers such goods as alarm clocks, beeswax, billiard tables, flashlights, torches, hair nets of human hair, infant foods prepared from

lactose or dextrose, pasteurisers and dairy coolers, shotguns, smoking pipes, and split peas imported in bulk. These reductions relate to goods listed in schedule A of the New Zealand Australia Free Trade Agreement, and will apply from January 1. The second category includes certain printing inks, cutlpry, textile and plastic goods, and air-conditioning machines.

Mr Connelly said that under N.A.F.T.A.. New Zealand had undertaken to equate duty charged on Australian goods with the lowest-rate application to goods imported from any other country. In accordance with this, a total of 74 reductions had been made. In the third category are wooden picture frames and the like, and certain bandsaw blades and petrol-dis-pensing nozzles, which will be exempt from customs duty on January 1.