Getting acquainted

Press, 7 February 1985, Page 20

Getting acquainted

The visit of Mr John Dawkins, the Australian Minister of Trade, to New Zealand yesterday and today is intended to allow Mr Dawkins to get to know his New Zealand counterparts. Mr Dawkins is new to the portfolio he now holds. In the previous Hawke Ministry, Mr Dawkins was Minister for Finance and Minister assisting the Prime Minister for Public Service Matters. In the Australian Cabinet, the economy is in the charge of the Treasurer. The Minister for Finance deals mainly with Government accounting. Mr Dawkins is making a trip to New Zealand in much the same way as the New Zealand Minister for Trade and Marketing, Mr Moore, made a quick trip to Australia soon after he had taken over his own portfolio. The other portfolio that Mr Dawkins now holds is that of Minister assisting the Prime Minister for Youth Affairs. His New Zealand visit is not connected with this responsibility.

v Mr Moore is Mr Dawkins’s direct counterpart in the New Zealand Cabinet. Mr Caygill, the Minister of Trade and Industry, will also be associated with the visitor. The Department of Trade and Industry in New Zealand services both the Minister of Overseas Trade and Marketing and the Minister of Trade and Industry. Both Mr Caygill and Mr Moore are engaged in dealing with Closer Economic Relations between New Zealand and Australia and with other aspects of trade with Australia. Mr Dawkins is also calling on Mr Douglas, the Minister of Finance, and is making the customary courtesy call on Mr McLay, the Leader of the Opposition. Mr Dawkins will not call on Mr Lange, the Prime Minister, but attended a Waitangi Day reception at which Mr and Mrs Lange were the hosts. No substantial negotiations are likely to be conducted between the New Zealand Government and Mr Dawkins during this visit. Because of the way in which the economies of New Zealand and Australia are moving together, there is every reason for the Ministers who are dealing with trade to know one another personally and reasonably well. The question of investment finance will be tackled by the two Governments later this year. The New Zealand Government is likely to raise with Mr Dawkins the action taken by the Premier of Queensland, Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen, over the temporary ban on New Zealand chocolates and lager beer. Sir Johannes linked the ban to the New Zealand Government’s action over banning

visits by nuclear ships; but that was a diversion. What Queensland law requires is that all foodstuffs coming into Queensland from other countries are labelled with the name and address of the importer. No other state in Australia requires this of New Zealand. The requirement is for health reasons. The New Zealand Government has given the Australian Government an undertaking that any exporter of foodstuffs can be traced rapidly if the need arises. The New Zealand Government is arguing that the Queensland requirement is in breach of the intention of C.E.R. As it turned out, the ban on the chocolates and the lager proved to be splendid publicity for the makers. Another time, the idiosyncratic actions of the Premier of Queensland may have a less happy outcome. Whether Mr Dawkins or the whole Australian Cabinet will be able to find a way to deal with Sir Johannes is difficult to predict. Various Australian Governments, both of the Labour Party and the Liberal-National Party, have tried. Sir Johannes has been repressed only temporarily. The talks in Wellington touch on such matters as labelling and embracing New Zealand in the preferential arrangements for State purchasing in Australia. Here, too, is an opportunity to discuss, with a senior member of the Australian Government, what New Zealand might do to promote Mr Hawke’s proposals for a round of talks within the South-East Asian region to consolidate principles espoused within the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Australia and New Zealand, perhaps with other smaller countries within the Pacific and Asian region which perceive common advantages in less protectives measures, may be able to achieve more on this front than can be managed by the largest of the countries in the region, countries whose dominance in trade must make their motives suspect or make their advocacy appear oppressive. Mr Dawkins’s less-protectionist view of trade should suit New Zealand well. He already has a good relationship with the New Zealand Minister of Trade and was among the few Australian politicians who paid much attention to C.E.R. in the period of constructing the agreement under previous Governments. All this should augur well for these further meetings that are needed to dispose of some of the complications and irritations arising from C.E.R. and to consider where the agreement is leading.