Ending a silly trade ban

Press, 9 August 1982, Page 12

Ending a silly trade ban

The decision by the Federation of Labour to lift the ban on trade between New Zealand and Chile must be welcomed by members of the federation’s constituent unions, and by all New Zealanders. This country needs urgently to expand export markets if. jobs are to be created and prosperity preserved. Not that an end to the ban is any reason to congratulate the federation or its president, Mr W. J. Knox. However well intentioned, the ban was a lonely and futile exercise in selective morality. Among the countries with whom New Zealand trades, the Government of Chile is no worse in its treatment of trade unionists (and perhaps no better) than' a score of others from Iran to Poland.

The . ban gave an unfortunate impression that the F.0.L., as a powerful pressure group,, could : dictate New Zealand’s foreign policy against the wishes of successive governments, and against the wishes of a majority of New Zealanders. Once the ban was imposed the federation found it hard to reverse the decision. The excuse is given now that the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, which originally asked for the ban by members, including New Zealand, has said members are free to decide whether to lift the ban. This will hardly stand examination. The ban has not been mandatory. Nowhere, except in New Zealand, did trade unions

make the ban even mildly effective. Most other countries, including Australia, have long ago abandoned any pretence to a ban. •

The ban may have hurt some Chileans, especially those who are least well off, who may be presumed to be the people on whose behalf the ban was applied. New Zealand’s exports to Chile are generally of products that would help Chileans to produce more food, or to eat better now — milk products, seeds, agricultural machinery, and breeding livestock. In eight years much ground has been lost to trade rivals, including East European countries who showed little hesitation about trading with what was supposed to be an outcast regime on the far Right. Some New Zealand exporters have kept up token shipments to Chile' through devious and expensive routes, but trade between the two countries in the last eight years has been measured in only hundreds of thousands of dollars.

. That might be changed quickly once the way is clear for open exports to Chile. Sales there should be worth millions of dollars a year. One recent estimate put the total possible as high as $2OO million a year. New Zealand needs to send a trade mission to Chile as soon as possible to restore relations with a relatively close country in the Pacific basin.