Plastics talks continue

Press, 11 April 1984, Page 36

Plastics talks continue

A deputation from the Australian plastics industry will be in New Zealand later this month for a second round of talks on developing country tariff preferences. Last month representatives of the Plastics Institute of New Zealand had talks in Canberra. The institute's executive director. Mr Bruce Dunlop, said they had had a "good hearing" from the Australian Departments of Trade and of Industries and Commerce. “Industries and Commerce clearly have sympathy for the manufacturers’ view, whilst the Department of Trade was concerned with the broader political and international trade implications of the review of the DC Preference Scheme," he said. The deputation had argued that if the preferences continued for plastics, then transTasman trade in plastics products would probably diminish in the long term as import licensing was phased out. “The original basis for the preferences was to assist certain countries to be competitive on export markets with products from developed nations,” said Mr Dunlop. “In terms of plastics products however, several of the countries concerned including Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Philippines no longer need the preferences to compete on the Australian and New Zealand markets. “Experience in Australia has shown that imports of plastics products from those countries are sufficiently competitive to seriously damage local manufacturers, even if the normal tariffs were applied. “The same will happen in New Zealand as import licensing is removed,” Mr Dunlop said. Even without the preferences, those countries would still be highly competitive on the Australian and New Zealand markets, he said. Mr Dunlop said the institute believed that the developing country preferences on plastics products were now an anomaly with some countries, given the industrial development which has taken place in recent years.