Mr Taiboys vexed by newsprint plans

Press, 16 March 1978, Page 6

Mr Taiboys vexed by newsprint plans

PA Canberra i Plans to establish a newsprint mill at Albury, near ! the Victoria-New South j Wales border, were in coni diet with the spirit of a [memorandum of understanding between the New Zealand and Australian Governments, said the Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Talbovs) in I Canberra last evening. I He viewed very seriously! the proposal and had raised the subject yesterday in talks with the Australian 1 Minister for Primary Indus-: tries (Mr Sinclair) and other! Ministers, he said. The New South Wales Government has offered S3M in incentive, for Australian [ Newsprint Mills, Ltd, to! build the ,SISQM plant. The! company is expected to make' a decision soon. If the mill went ahead it would represent a real threat to the potential market for the Tasman Pulp and Paper Company, Ltd, which had installed its third newsprint machine on the basis [ of a 1969 memorandum be-j tween the two Governments to make the most! economical use of national: resources in the region, said i Mr Taiboys.

He said both countries were going through their worst economic recession since the 1930 s and increased unemployment had generated more demands for greater protection of domestic industries.

“Protectionist pressures !are already begining to affect the trading relationships hei tween our two countries,” he said. “They could affect it more yet — much more, if the recession goes on for long.” Mr Taiboys said new opportunities were opening up and the way out of the economic difficulties lay in looking outward and exploiting them to get the economies growing again. “The question is, do we tackle the job together, or do we tackle it alone?” he asked.

The possibility of some closer, formal arrangement linking Australia and New Zealand was moote 4 by Mr Taiboys yesterday at a luncheon given by the Australian Foreign Minister (Mr Peacock). He said that neither total integration nor total separation was within the realm of the possible. No solution, he said, would be practicable unless is was a compromise. In an undelivered portion

of his prepared address, Mr Taiboys suggested that a customs union deserved serious study. He later said that although his remarks were not given at the luncheon, his notes could be published.

He said at a press conference that the possibility of a customs union had been raised by several persons over the years. “I have seen papers given at seminars which have mentioned it as a possibility.” he said. He had decided to cut his address short after looking “at the time and at my audience.”

Mr Taiboys said an investigation into a customs union could produce some alternatives that would assist the trading relationship between the two countries. “I can think of all sorts of reasons why a common tariff would not be acceptable in New Zealand,” he said.

Although Mr Taiboys felt that a customs union deserved serious study, he asked how agreement could be reached when the two countries could not even decide which items were to be placed under Schedule A of the New Zealand/Australia Free Trade agreement. Schedule A items are free of duty.