Beyond export incentives

Press, 19 February 1983, Page 19

Beyond export incentives

Other measures existed which could replace export incentives, said the president of the Export Institute. Mr Graham Boult, of Auckland, in Christchurch , this week. For the Australian market, export incentives will be phased out from 1985 to 1987. “We’ve been in a number of discussions with the Government, and the incentives

can be replaced with ‘up front' money — such as cheaper finance," he said. One of the things wrong with export incentives was that New Zealand had developed a "squeaky clean" approach to them, said Mr Boult, They had been necessary because New Zealand had had to diversify its exports so rapidly.

In some ways they might have been too successful. "We were to open with them. We have told everyone what our incentives are. We published great booklets on them. Our competitors overseas, and the people who say we are contravening G.A.T.T., etc, are able to go to those publications and

know exactly what we are doing.”

In many cases these competitors had far greater incentives than New Zealand. "But they are not as visible, and that's our major problem."

New Zealand’s incentive in future must be not nearly so easily seen as the present export incentives. Mr Boult said.

One less visible incentive would be a two-tier exchange rate. Under this, exports with a higher New Zealand content would qualify for a higher exchange rate. The best thing about such a system, said the national director of the institute, Mr Bruce Renshaw of Auckland, was that this would give the exporter the financial benefit at the time of the sale, instead of a long wait, as sometimes occurs with the present incentives.