U.S. trade sanctions ‘unlikely’

Press, 25 October 1984, Page 1

U.S. trade sanctions ‘unlikely’

PA Auckland The United States is unlikely to impose trade sanctions against New Zealand for its views on nuclear weapons, says Mrs Paula Unruh, a senior American trade official.

Mrs Unruh, deputy assistant secretary of the United States and Foreign Commercial Service, which helps small and mediumsized businesses, said in Auckland yesterday, “It is my understanding that our countries have been friends for too long for anyone even to consider economic sanctions.” She is in Auckland for the first meeting in New Zealand of the Asia-Pacific council of the American Chamber of Commerce, which will be addressed today by the Prime Minister, Mr Lange. Other United States officials who will attend the meeting said, however, that New Zealand could not expect to get the benefits in Intelligence and logistics of the A.N.Z.U.S. alliance if it

excluded American nuclearpropelled warships. Mrs Unruh said she had seen no indication of any American traders “turning sour on New Zealand.”

The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr O'Flynn, said last evening that New Zealand was firmly committed to the Western alliance and in particular the A.N.Z.U.S. relationship. Speaking at a United Nations Day celebration in Wellington, Mr O’Flynn said New Zealand had not suddenly become anti-Western or anti-American. It valued and respected its Western partnerships and wished to continue them. A.N.Z.U.S. involved an undertaking that New Zealand’s military forces would be equipped and maintained to contribute effectively to collective security and selfdefence in the Pacific region, said Mr O’Flynn. Neither New Zealand’s economic nor political interests would be well served by its standing alone.