Australia ‘will not change draft’

Press, 9 December 1982, Page 3

Australia ‘will not change draft’

PA Auckland Visiting Australian industrialists say they will not try to change the final draft of the Closer Economic Relations agreement, although there are still points in dispute. The director of trade and tariffs of the Confederation of Australian Industry. Australia’s national manufacturing body, Mr Harris Boulton, said on Tuesday that New Zealand’s export incentives would give its manufacturers an advantage in the first few years of C.E.R. until they were phased out in 1987, Although this was a disputed point, it was the price that had to be paid for the interests of longer-term trade between the two countries. Last month, some Australian manufacturers tried to have countervailing levies imposed on certain New Zealand exports said to be subsidised by New Zealand per-formance-based incentives. Mr Boulton said that he could give no assurance that individual companies would not take this sort of action again. However, as far as the confederation was concerned “we deplore the use of these measures except as a last resort and after full consultation with both sides.” The final decision about countervailing measures would always rest with the Government. Mr Boulton and his threeman delegation met New Zealand manufacturers in Auckland on Tuesday to discuss countervailing dumping duties and the treatment of intermediate goods — raw materials and components used in industry — under C.E.R. Mr Boulton said. "We also examined ways in which we can initially set up a method of consultation to smooth out transactions once they are under way.”