Trade promotion an investment

Press, 6 March 1984, Page 8

Trade promotion an investment

Parliamentary reporter Money spent on trade would be an investment rather than an expenditure, the Labour Party’s spokesman on trade, Mr M. K. Moore said when asked where the money would come from for the new trade policy. The Trade and Industry Department would be restructed into coping with the demands made of it by a Minister of Overseas Trade and Marketing, he said.

That Minister would be backed by the department in his responsibility for coordinating New Zealand marketing groups. The Minister would work clbsely with the exporting and marketing sectors, and would set up the new board, but there would be no extra cost in the department itself.

The new board would need investment capital, but the plan was for it to implement a policy that would create, not need, money.

“I can promise you that new posts will only be opened in potential markets when market research has shown the need for that post,” Mr Moore said.

Asked if it was Labour

policy to do away with export incentives, he said that would be dealt with when Labour announced its economic policy later in the year.

Mr Lange said that through export incentives, entrepreneurs and producers had been maneouvred into dependence on the State.

That could not be permitted to continue as there should be no need for such dependence. Mr Moore gave details of what the market development board would do. It was intended to be an elite body which attracted “the brightest and the best.”

The board would comprise representatives of the primary producer boards, manufacturing exporters, the Manufacturers’ Federation, the Export Institute, tourist interests, and the Federation of Labour.

Asked if exporters and entrepreneurs might not prefer to go their own way, rather than work with their competitors through a board, he promised there would be no coercion but that hopefully all would see if in their interest to participate.

“Overseas experience has

shown that the majority of jobs in the future will be created in small companies adding value to local produce before exporting them,” Mr Moore said.

“What we have to aim for is to be for wool what Toyota is for cars, and to be for meat what 1.8. M. is for high technology.

“We have to ask ourselves what three million Singaporeans or Israelis would do with our resources, and go from there,” he said. Exporters would welcome moves for more long-term strategic planning in international marketing, according to the Export Institute. However, the institute’s president, Mr Brian Service, said yesterday that a lot more needed to be known about the Labour Party’s new trade and marketing policy. “One can’t disagree with many of the motives and intentions expressed in the announcement by Mr Lange. It is the putting into effect of such policies which determines whether they succeed or fail." Mr Service said that he hoped that the Labour Party and other political organisations would consult with exporters before making any changes.