Hope for settlement of timber dispute

Press, 19 February 1983, Page 20

Hope for settlement of timber dispute

PA Auckland Moves have been made on two fronts to settle the longrunning dispute between Australian and New Zealand softwood timber industries over Australia’s dumping and countervailing duty actions.

Australian Customs authorities have completed a dumping investigation and have set minimum landing prices in Australia for New Zealand building timber exporters which will allow trade to continue without hindrance for the time being.

On another front, the two timber industries are meetinng in Auckland to consider a compromise settlement on the more complex issue of countervailing duties levied against the export incentives received by New Zealand timber exporters. Although there is hope that the twin moves will remove the threat of Australian penalities without damaging New’ Zealand's timber trade, it appears neither of the possible solutions is yet acceptable to all New Zealand timber exporters. The breakthrough on the

dumping question results from investigations by Australian Custom officials in New Zealand, which included a detailed report by NewZealand's Forest Research Institute in Rotoura and the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organisation.

The managing director of NZ Forest Products. Mr D. O. Walker, said that the New Zealand timber exporters had now received confidential advice setting out a scale of “normal values" for free on board selling prices in Australia. He said that if these were adhered to there could be no Australian dumping action. A Tasman Pulp and Paper Company spokesman said that the values established that New Zealand timber exporters were not dumping in Australia.

The complex scale for fadiata and Douglas fir timber was decided on the basis that certain timber ratings in New Zealand are not directly comparable with the rating system used in Australia.

For pricing purposes, the

Australian customs formula provides a weighted average of 65 per cent high-grade Fl framing timber and 35 per cent of the lower grade F2 timber to be valued under the Australian F 5 timber rating. But some sections of the New Zealand industry say the new sales values are set too high because an even lower grade. F 3. was left out of the calculation, although being included in the technical recommendations of the two scientific organisations. One industry source said that, although the scale allowed continued trading at existing sales prices, a further drift in the relative value of the New Zealand dollar could see exporters prices fall below the new normal values and invite further dumping charges. The settlement, however, represents the first compromise reached on the issue since the signing of the closer economic relations agreement with Australia. “It means the structural timber industry now has guidelines," Mr Walker said.