Tasman ties to fore

Press, 11 July 1980, Page 18

Tasman ties to fore

NZPA Sydney Australia-New Zealand relations will be under scrutiny in Canberra next month. The Australian National University has organised a public conference on economic issues for the 1980 s between the two countries while Government Ministers and officials will hold the annual round of talks on the New Zealand Australia Free Trade Agreement. The A.N.U. conference, co-sponsored by the Australian New Zealand Foundation, has attracted prominent New Zealand speakers, including Sir Frank Holmes, head of the Planning Council, Mr A. F.

Wright, president of Federated Farmers, Professor B. Ross, of Lincoln College, Mr K. G. Douglas, secretary of the Federation of Labour, Mr D. Morgan, of. the Seamen’s Union, and manufacturers and industrialists. The conference will be held at the university from August . 12 to 14 and will cover such issues as energy, agriculture and forest products, sea transport, and the emergence of a common labour market. The N.A.F.T.A. talks during the same week are expected to be attended by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Talboys, and the Minister of Trade and

Industry, Mr AdamsSchneider. The talks have added significance' this year because progress on doser economic links between the two countries is expected to be discussed. Officials have been working on the concept using guidelines developed at a meeting . between the Prime Minister,' Mr Muldoon, and his Australian counterpart, Mr Fraser, in .Wellington in March. In his recent Budget Mr Muldoon warned that certain problems had been identified and that if these could not be surmounted the co-operative exercise would have to be abandoned.