THE PRESS MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1980. N.Z. hopes for Japanese trade

Press, 10 November 1980, Page 18

THE PRESS MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1980. N.Z. hopes for Japanese trade

Two articles in “The Press” by Bruce Roscoe reporting from Tokyo on New Zealand’s trade, tourism, and commercial relations with Japan were timely reminders of the importance to New Zealand of dealings with Japan. At a time when New Zealand is fighting a continual battle against protectionism in Europe, when trans-Tasman trade appears to have reached a plateau and the Presidential campaign in the United States has stalled any worth-while negotiations in that country, the Japan-New Zealand Businessmen’s Council has staged a major conference in Japan.

No new developments in business opportunities between the two countries were reported from the conference; nor were any expected. The Businessmen’s Council, composed of senior businessmen from both countries, is too well versed in the politics and the ways of the bureaucracies in Japan and New Zealand to expect anv spectacular, immediate advances. The most that could be expected from the conference would be a better appreciation by the exporters, importers, investors, and potential business partners of the current problems and the long-term prospects for Japan and New Zealand. Although New Zealand has usually run a large balance-of-payments surplus with Japan, New Zealand has excellent prospects of increasing export sales to Japan in both the medium and long term. Japan is also potentially an important source of tourists and investment for New Zealand. New Zealand’s energy development plan, still in its infancy, will require an investment of at least $3 billion during the 1980 s; Japan’s financial sector has the resources, and its advanced technological industries have much of the expertise needed for the development of sources of energy. Tourism in New Zealand will require considerable investment in hotels and other amenities before the jumbo jets bring the numbers of tourists that the New Zealand tourist industry is hoping for.

There are minor difficulties in the way of increased-industrial investment in New Zealand by Japanese financial interests, just as'there are some hitches in the expansion of the tourist business. These difficulties will have been thoroughly examined at last month’s conference; it is not too much to expect that something concrete on these fronts will have been achieved at that meeting.

On the broader issues of trade between the two countries, however, no businessmen’s council, however influential in the two countries the membership may be, can expect to alter national attitudes entrenched for decades, or to overcome current political obstacles overnight. Long before the meeting it would have been obvious to Japanese businessmen that their motor vehicles and colour television sets, to mention only two commodities of a wide range of goods manufactured in huge production runs, could undercut all opposition in New Zealand- if only they were allowed to compete on equal terms with all. suppliers to this market. Equally obvious to the New Zealand producer boards and exporters of primary produce is New Zealand’s advantage in the cost of supplying dairy and other agricultural products to the Japanese market. Neither side is free to make the most of its advantages.

The political obstacles in the way of increased sales of Japanese-assembled cars or television sets to New Zealand, paid for by increased exports of New Zealand dairy products and meat to Japan, are immense: consumers in both countries can only hope that their influential countrymen who took part in last month’s conference will not miss an onportunity to remind the politicians of the trade advantages to be won, when the time is ripe, in return for dismantling trade restrictions which protect the livelihoods of a minority of producers at the expense of all consumers. The time will not be ripe while unemployment runs at an unacceptably high level in New Zealand. Although everyone should benefit by the exchange of the most efficiently produced goods, the effects of suddenly dismantling fairly large industries in response to the importing of cheaper products and to transfer people into more productive fields are effects that neither the electorate nor any Government could bear. Such changes have to be made as painlessly as possible, and therefore slowly. They must also be seen to be mutually acceptable; a onesided change would be damaging, more especially to the smaller country. To enjoy the benefits of the imported efficiency of Japanese manufacturing—or of any specialist and efficient manufacturer abroad—New Zealand must also have the opportunity to enlarge the industries in which it is efficient. This means that New Zealand must have the chance to sell in Japan.