No aid for strike-hit exporters

Press, 29 November 1976, Page 4

No aid for strike-hit exporters

The Government would not underwrite any group involved in an industrial dispute, the Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Taiboys) said in Christchurch.

Mr Taiboys, who combines the portfolios of Minister of Overseas Trade, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Minister of National Development, addressed a combined meeting of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association and the Canterbury division of the Export Institute.

He had been asked why the Government could not “come to the rescue” of exporters whose production had been affected by industrial action.

The questioner, Mr R. J. Winters, had said that exporters were concerned about disruptions caused by regular stoppages and strikes, which had caused export orders to be delayed.

As exporters* normal cash flow had been upset, they wondered why the Government could not come to their rescue by making bridging finance available at low rates of interest, Mr Winters said. He suggested this would

help avoid future collapses of promising exporting manufacturers.

Mr Taiboys said that although he had sympathy with the exporters’ viewpoint, he could not see the Government’s underwriting parties involved in that situation.

‘‘What we are trying to do is to establish a body of law which will help to overcome these industrial disputes,” he said. During his address, Mr Taiboys had emphasised the “critical importance” of exports to New Zealand’s economic future.

The principal determinant of New Zealand’s well-being was the strength of the balance-of-payments position, he said.

“Any reduction in our overseas earnings and any weakening of dur balance# of-payments inevitably limits the freedom of choice for the country as a whole, and for every individual,” Mr Taiboys said.

“We must either aim for expanded economic growth, which will mean changes in the shape of the New Zealand economy, or accept a reduction in

our living standards. “Those are the alternatives. I do not think anyone will be in any doubt as to which we must choose,” Mr Taiboys said. New Zealand had had the fourth-highest standard of living in the world a few years ago, he said. Now it was sixteenth — and still falling.

If this trend were to be reversed, a sustained pattern of economic growth, based on an expanded volume of exports, must be achieved during the next 10 years, Mr Taiboys said. Agriculture would continue to be the basis of growth, and would serve as the principal earner of foreign exchange for many years to come, he said. However, the profitability of agriculture was declining. The most significant increases in economic growth in developed countries had been through manufactured goods.

“We must use the special skills that we have developed, and become the manufacturer and supplier of goods and services which the larger industrialised economies need,” Mr Taiboys said.