Fosters dumping duty lifted

Press, 22 April 1986, Page 3

Fosters dumping duty lifted

PA Wellington The Minister of Customs, Mrs Shields, has reversed a decision to impose dumping duty on Fosters beer. The beer’s Australian exporter, Carlton and United Breweries, was due to ask for a judicial review of the imposition of the duty in a case beginning in the High Court at Wellington yesterday. But counsel for the Minister, Mr Peter Jenkin, told the Chief Justice, Sir Ronald Davison, yester-

day that there had been deficiencies in the steps taken to impose the dumping duty and in the material on which the Minister based her decision. Mrs Shields was satisfied the dumping duty should not have been imposed, Mr Jenkin said. Counsel for the Brewers’ Association, Mr David Williams, said it was a serious matter for the New Zealand brewing industry, and for New Zealand industry as a whole. “The association con-

siders that, even under New Zealand dumping legislation — which is now shown to be much less effective than the comparative Australian provisions — it presented in its original complaint a strong case of illegal dumping against Carlton,” Mr Williams said. It was of concern that the Customs Department had been shown to lack the resources and experience to process the dumping complaint properly. Later, Mrs Shields said the department was already designing new

training for customs officers during complex anti-dumping inquiries. She had asked the Comptroller of Customs to report on the department’s internal anti-dump-ing procedures and to study legal reqirements to ensure the ability to respond quickly and decisively to dumping allegations. Anti-dumping was action against unfair price discrimination where that caused material injury, but it was not designed to protect New Zealand from low-cost imports, she said.