No assurance for printers

Press, 17 April 1982, Page 6

No assurance for printers

No assurance' cou Id be given that 50per cent of the licences 'issued under C.E.R. would be reserved for New Zealand manufacturers, the Minister of Tourism (Mr Tai-, bot). told the annual conference of. the 'Printing Industries Federation last evening. Mr Talbot was speaking in. response to . proposals put forward by ttie : federation for an industry-tOrindustry agreement with the Printing and Allied ' Trades Employers’ Federation of Australia- in advance of C.E.R. “I can give no assurance at this stage on your proposal that 50 per cent of licences issued under C.E.R. will be. reserved for New Zealand manufacturers, though this proposal is being given serious consideration in assessing allocation of licences under C.E.R.,” he said. The printing industry had expressed a number of-Con-cerns about C.E.R;, including the question of access to raw materials and the tariff rates to be applied against third countries,-;Mr.;Talbot' said.'.5, “Neither New Zealand nor

> Australia would see itself as : being advantaged by such a specific, approach as your request' for a 25 per cent contractual margin of pre- •; ference . against third countries with a definite minimum contractual margin of 15 per cent,” Mr Talbot told the federation. .“Australia has been most ’■>. accommodating in agreeing ". in principle to our approach, ; under C.E.R., that existing ■ margins should be main- • • tained on a ‘best endeavours’ basis, thus preserving the s existing agreement on mar- - gins of preference,” he said, f “I would reiterate that, in • practice, margins of preferr ence.in many instances will. , increase where rates are J being phased out under 1 C.E.R.” f Mr Talbot congratulated - the federation on its initiative in getting together with 1 its Australian counterparts - and in negotiating an in.dus-J-J try-to-industry agreement. C, ; However, any agreement s. . would need to be considered 1 by both the Australian and rlNlew.’-Zealand Governments, r he said.