Buoyant start to Tasman ties talks

Press, 12 May 1981, Page 1

Buoyant start to Tasman ties talks

Talks between the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) and the Australian Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Doug Anthony) on closer Tasman economic relationships began on a buoyant note at Wellington yesterday.

In less than 90 minutes, the two men got. through a long list of subjects which were due for confirmation, and Mr Mui* doon said afterwards that all those items were' “now tidy or near enough to tidy-” ...

Mr Muldoon . declined to uive details of what he and’ Mr Anthony had agreed or, but the long list was made up of items agreed on by the officials of the two countries and approved by the Cabinet earlier

Nevertheless, the progress made was considerable, and it was achieved in a shorter time ■than most observers had expected. Today th’e talks will centre on a short list of more difficult points which have not yet been agreed, on, and it now appears that the talks will fin?;'h this evening instead of carrying over into tomorrow as had been arranged. “We have had a meeting of minds on quite a wide range of topics and the meeting is going well,” Mr Muldoon said ' after '■ the talks broke up. “It has been a very co-operative atmosphere. Mr Anthony is very keen for this thing to work.”

Mr Muldoon said that the groundwork done by officials had simplified the first stage of the talks yesterday. Today the sides will square uo on the touchier questions which will ultimately rely on decisions by Mr Muldoon 1 and the Australian Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser).

Mr Muldoon was not prepared to specify these — “We want to put the whole thing in a final form before giving details of the talks” — but they

will certainly centre on primary production, particularly dairy products, wine, and horticultural produce common, to the two countries.

Also at issue is likely to be the question of intermediate goods, or componentry imported from outside the two countries wl _h goes into completed goods traded across the Tasman. An example would be cheaper Taiwanese being bu : :t into New Zealandmade refrigerators which are then sold in Australia, where manufacturers are compelled to use Austra-lian-made compressors.

Sticking points might arise during today’s talks, but at least they will have been clearly defined, and Mr Anthony will be able to go back to the Australian Cabinet with concrete proposals. Before the talks began, however, Mr Muldoon cautioned that the results might not go as far as some people wanted. “It may not be total free trade across the Tasman,” he said.

. “It may be that there are some things Where, we say,'‘Sorry; it wo'ntft go,’ a’nd there may be' some ■things where the Australians say, ‘Sorry, it won’t gO -’ “For example, one of issues which has not surfaced in public to any great extent is that we buy sugar from ’the Australians, but the Australians pay less for their sugar inside Australia than we do buying it from Australia,” said Mr Muldoon.

This would give Australian manufacturers who used sugar, such as fruit cannefs, an in-built advan-

tage over their New Zealand competitors. “If you’re going to f t a complete free trade across the Tasman, there wo be a built-in advantage even though we are using the same product, the same sugar. They (the Australians) might not be keen to c '>nge that," he said.

Another problem was that of ■ cigarettes, because New Zealand’s biggest manufacturer, ( Rothmans, was unable to sell to' Australia because of ,the terms of its franchise, whereas Australian manufacturers would be able to sell into New Zealand. “The Australians have one or two similar ; roblems, and so it goes .on. We may end up at the end of the day without achieving absolute parity in a free trade arrangement across the Tas...nn,. but I think, we will get most of it pretty- light,”.he said.. .Federated Farmers; has told Mr Anthony that it supported u closer economic relationship in agri-

cultural trade with Australia, Reports the.- . Press Association. . ■ . , ' . ■ Mr, A. F. Wright, Dominion president' of Federated 1 Farmers, had talks with Mr Anthony yesterday. He said afterwards that he had told Mr Anthony that the Tasman dairy trade was not a ■ fundamental obstacle to closer ties in agricultural * '•de. Many “red herrings” had been removed by close consultations between the two industries i.i recent months, he said.

Mr Wright said that he reaffirmed his organisation’s commitment to cooperate with Australian farmers, and there were no outstanding difficulties in the way of closer .ties.