Tasman deal on clothing exports agreed on

Press, 14 May 1981, Page 1

Tasman deal on clothing exports agreed on

PA Auckland New Zealand and Australia have reached agreement on clothing exports.

The Australian Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Doug Anthony) said in Auckland yesterday that agreement had been reached during his talks this week with the New Zealand Government on closer Tasman economic relations.

The agreement should protect New Zealand’s $2O million garment market in Australia in the wake of the breakdown of the apparel provisions of the New Zealand Australia Free Trade Agreement. Mr Anthony said he hoped that agreement would also be reached soon on the footwear and textile trade. Substantial progress had been made this week on the footwear and textiles question and an announcement about this and the clothing agreement was likely within the next two weeks.

Mr Anthony did not give, details of the clothing agreement but it is believed to relate to an equalisation of duties between the two countries.

New Zealand will get a big margin of preference over the 50 per cent duty Australia plans to impose on imported clothing from January, 1982. Without such an arrangement, New Zealand clothing exporters

would face exclusion from the Australian market from 1982.

New Zealand now has a margin of preference of 15 per cent and its apparel faces Australian duty ranging from nil to 15 per cent. Australian clothing coming into New Zealand faces a duty of 25 per cent. Mr Anthony told the Auckland Chamber of

Commerce before returning to Canberra that a freetrading arrangement between Australia and New Zealand was probably some distance off.

He said, “What we are talking about now is a much more far-reaching thing than N.A.F.T.A. We are engaged in a very complex exercise directed towards the long term. It is something that is to form the basis of our trade and economic relationship for many years to come.” Mr Anthony said that the Australian Government’s aim was to see if it was possible to liberalise trade across the Tasman in ah goods produced in either country. New Zealand had to move faster on the issue of a closer relationship. The impetus in the continuing negotiations had to come from New Zealand. The pace and direction of Australia’s economy meant that the longer the negotiations took the greater would be the adjustments New Zealand would face. The New Zealand Government had shown that it was prepared to come to grips with the issue and now industry and the community had to follow.