Govt shift on A.S.E.A.N.

Press, 1 July 1985, Page 8

Govt shift on A.S.E.A.N.

PA Wellington Representations from A.S.E.A.N. countries have led the Government to alter a new policy that removed trade preferences from better-off developing nations. Two of the A.S.E.A.N. countries in particular, Singapore and Brunei, had been angered as they would no longer qualify under the changes to the Generalised System of Preferences scheme. However, after represen-

tations they and others who would have been barred from preference will be able to apply for preferential treatment for some individual products. The Prime Minister, Mr Lange, said the changes would still come into effect today as planned but, after listening to the representations, an adjustment would be made that would be “helpful to our A.S.E.A.N. neighbours.” “The Government has agreed it will consider requests from A.S.E.A.N. or from any country affected by the gradation policy for the reinstatement of the developing country rate for individually nominated tariff items,” Mr Lange said.

The Government had announced in December that, as part of its import restructuring policy, countries achieving 70 per cent of New Zealand’s gross national product would lose their tariff preferences under the G.S.P. scheme which allows poor nations to have access to markets of richer nations. The six-member Association of South-East Asian Nations had expressed concern about the changes and a delegation of A.S.E.A.N. officials visited Wellington last week to appeal for

continued G.S.P. benefits. A.S.E.A.N. said yesterday that the agreement to consider reinstating individual tariff items was reached “in recognition of the special circumstances and adjustment problems.” The chairman of the A.S.E.A.N. Committee in Wellington, Mr Pacifico Evangelista, said A.S.E.A.N. countries had viewed the earlier action with grave disappointment. They had considered it inequitable to use the per capita G.N.P. as the sole criterion to determine a country's level of development and hence its G.S.P. beneficiary status, he said. They had also been critical that .the decision was taken unilaterally without consultations.

Mr Evangelista, also the Philippines Ambassador to New Zealand, said A.S.E.A.N. had submitted a list of items for approval by New Zealand and had been told the Government was urgently considering it.

“A.S.E.A.N. looks forward to an expeditious and satisfactory outcome of these consultations with New Zealand in the spirit of friendship and co-operation,” he said. ‘/f

A.S.E.A.N. is a regional grouping comprising Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Brunei.