Agreement to sign C.E.R.

Press, 18 March 1983, Page 16

Agreement to sign C.E.R.

The intention of the new Australian Government to go ahead with the trade agreement, Closer Economic Relations, between New Zealand and Australia augurs well for the relationship between the Labour Government in Australia and the National Government in New Zealand. So, too, does the promptness with which the Australian Government has given its approval. Although the details of the agreement were not signed at the beginning of this year, the agreement came into force on the basis of the Heads of Agreement signed late last year. The processes of reducing tariffs and import licensing has begun. It would have been possible to stall, but the momentum would have been lost and might have taken a long time to recover. The risk that the working of the agreement might be called into question has been avoided by the Australian Government’s decision.

The final signing had been planned for the week before the Australian General Election. Mr Lionel Bowen, deputy leader of the Australian Labour Party, and now deputy Prime Minister, argued on constitutional grounds that it should not be signed so close to an election. The Government of Mr Malcolm Fraser agreed to postpone the signing until after the election. Mr Bowen may have been on sound constitutional grounds; it was not a point on which Mr Fraser’s Government wanted to get into an argument.

The new Australian Government led by Mr Bob Hawke has apparently examined the treaty and found it satisfactory. Mr Bowen, having occasioned the delay, has now approved the signing. The Minister for Primary Industry, Mr John Kerin, is apparently satisfied that the agreement does not conflict with Australia’s other international trade agreements. The delay, and the scrutiny of the agreement, were sensible and responsible. The advantage in the delay has been that the new Government, which

had no hand in what was negotiated, has put its own mark of approval on the agreement and will feel committed to it.

The Hawke Government has fearsome domestic problems ahead. Satisfaction may be gained from, the early attention that Mr Hawke has given to C.E.R. It would not have been surprising had C.E.R. not been given early attention. Mr Hawke’s personal call to Mr Muldoon to say that the signing would go ahead was a gesture that demonstrated an effort to establish good relations. The suggestion that the two should meet soon is also welcome. The leader of the New Zealand Labour Party, Mr Lange, has met Mr Hawke since he became Prime Minister, but Mr Lange said, quite properly, before he went to Australia that he would not discuss C.E.R. since it was a Government-to-Government matter.

Mr Muldoon considers that there are issues which still need to be settled. He mentioned orange juice, some details of plant quarantine, and the place of financial institutions. If the New Zealand-Australian relationship can survive the recent years of haggling about peas and beans, it can probably survive a discussion about the small amount of orange juice New Zealand has to export. New Zealand and Australia are both agricultural countries and quarantine measures are a way of life. No doubt, from time to time, some aspect of plant quarantine will assume the role of a non-tariff barrier to trade. Mr Muldoon has been making periodic statements about financial institutions, some of which have been very obscure indeed. Issues such as these will continue to surface. Whether it needs the time or energies of the Prime Ministers of New Zealand and Australia to resolve them is doubtful. The New ZealandAustralia Free Trade Agreement, which the C.E.R. has replaced, became overweighted with trivia. Care should be taken that the broad concept of the new agreement is preserved.