‘User pays’ policy extended?

Press, 18 December 1985, Page 52

‘User pays’ policy extended?

MARTIN FREETH

By

in Wellington arters may soon be iting to the costs of running New Zealand trade posts overseas. The Trade and Industry Department is looking at ways of extending the Government’s “user pays” policy to the services it provides for exporters. These include the running of 41 overseas trade posts,

staffed by about 70 trade commissioners who help develop markets, provide information for exporters and arrange participation in trade fairs overseas. The Under-Secretary of Trade and Industry, Mr Neilson, -said that the Government wanted to encourage exports but did not want to pour resources unfairly into one sector of the economy.

“Assisting exporters but not domestic producers would be inequitable and the Government therefore proposes to investigate charging exporters for the services it provides,” Mr Neilson said. . The president of the Export Institute, Mr John Lister, said he had discussed this with the department and felt exporters would agree with the user pays

principle. However, he said there were big problems in determining who should pay for what activities by the department’s trade services section. Mr Lister said exporters would get better value if the department was reorganised to ensure that the expertise gathered by trade officials was retained and used better.