Bans on Chile ‘may not’ be lifted

Press, 14 November 1981, Page 2

Bans on Chile ‘may not’ be lifted

: PA Masterton ; Trade bans against Chile ■ would not necessarily be ; lifted by a Labour governi ment, said the Deputy | Leader (Mr Lange) in 1 Masterton yesterday. ; Reports quoting Mr Lange s as saying the bans would be I lifted in the first six months j of a Labour government, ' were an extraordinary and ; misleading encapsulation of ‘ what was actually said. Mr > Lange said. i Unlike the present Govern- ■ ment. Labour would take i charge of foreign policy and ' study the Chilean situation j with the Federation of _ Labour to see if a ban was ‘ still warranted. “The Chilean regime murdered its way in to power and brutalised all dissenters and trade unionists,” said Mr Lange. However, regimes changed and the conditions of the Chilean people might have improved. Investigations and discus- ; sions with the Federation, of ; Labour could take as long as six months, be believed. J Mr Lange said the poten-

tial for trade with Chile was very small, probably about $lB million, $7 million of which was already getting through despite the ban.

He doubted the validity of the National Party and other claims that trade could be between $6O million and $l5O million, when foreign affairs officials saw the potential as only $35 million, peaking in three years. The president of the F.O.L. Mr W. J. Knox, said the F.O.L. would make no deals with any political party to lift the trade ban. He accused the Labour Leader (Mr Rowling) and Mr Lange of “jumping on the bandwaggon” by saying a Labour government would try to persuade the F.O.L. to lift the ban. “The Chilean trade ban has now became a political football, but being a year of politics of course we should expect this,” Mr Knox said. “Now of course our people have been ringing me since David Lange made his statement and Bill Rowling got on the same bandwaggon, creating a feeling that the Labour Party perhaps wants to run the policy of the Federation of Labour.”

“My message to them is that 1 nobody runs the policy of the Federation of Labour apart from the federation itself,” Mr Knox said.