'N.Z. relying on Pacific’

Press, 29 October 1977, Page 16

'N.Z. relying on Pacific’

PA Nelson New Zealand relies on the support of South Pacific States in its trade negotiations with Japan. This was made clear in a portion of the Prime Minister’s opening address to the fourth Japan-New Zealand businessmen’s conference in Nelson. Massey University’s head of the Japanese department, Mr T. S. Knight, said on Monday that attempts to demand a better trade deal in exchange for fishing rights in New Zealand waters would fail. "We think that access to our fishing ground is significant, but since it accounts for only about 2 per cent of their catch we really have no bargaining power at ail,” he had said. However, Mr Muldoon said the South Pacific Forum of the independent states of the South Pacific had agreed to declare 200-mile economic zones during the next few months. “A map of the Pacific with these 200-mile circles drawn around all the islands shoe’s

very little free water indeed,” he said. “When we have established our South Pacific Fishing Agency, it is our intention to work together for the exploitation, licensing, and surveillance of these waters so that no single nation can be put at a disadvantage in the bargaining process by any offshore fishing nation.” While the new resource was important to the New Zealand economy, it was vital in the economies of the island states, many of which had a very low standard of living by even the standards of the developing world. “New Zealand has pledged itself to assist these states in this new endeavour,” Mr Muldoon said. “We were unanimous at the recent meeting of the South Pacific Forum in Port Moresby that we would work in concert and in co-operation. “This does not mean that any of the states will be antagonistic towards the offshore fishing nations. It simply means that we will work together, in our own best interests, and give each other mutual' support.”