Clothing union anger at import plans

Press, 2 April 1985, Page 9

Clothing union anger at import plans

The Canterbury Clothing Workers’ Union has told the Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Caygill, that it is not prepared to sit back and see the clothing industry destroyed by cheap imports. The union said that the interim report of the Industries Development Commission on the review of the textile development plan, if adopted by the Government, would inevitably lead to an end to the industry as it was known today. The eventual goal of the I.D.C. for the clothing industry was to eliminate import licensing controls and introduce low tariffs, said the

union. “Whether this goal is achieved sooner or later matters little, as the effect on the industry and workers would be the same,” said the union. New Zealand could not compete with the low wages of South-East Asian countries. Other countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development had removed import controls and the textile industry in those countries had been ruined by imports from cheap labour countries taking up half or more of the market, said the union. The union said that the

philosophy of the I.D.C. seemed to echo that of both the previous National Government and the Labour Government. “The philosophy referred to is that of the need to remove import controls. It would seem that import controls, which, in the past, have so successfully assisted the balancing of the New Zealand economy and ensured the development of many industries essential to the New Zealand economy are being looked upon as some type of leprosy which must be eradicated from the New Zealand economic structure,” the union said.