Counting cost of measures

Press, 6 January 1987, Page 3

Counting cost of measures

NZPA staff correspondent TOM BRIDGMAN Washington New Zealand coarse wool imports into the United States would be subject to an average 6 per cent duty because the product’s duty-free status has not been continued, a New Zealand trade official said. Provisional estimates show that new American measures would add a penalty of about SUSI.S million ($2.88M) to the cost of the SUS2SM worth of New Zealand wool exports affected. The wool is mainly used for carpet making. "It’s about a 6 per cent average duty over all,” the official said. “Some of

the duty is about 2 cents a pound, some about 10 or 11 cents,” he said. The law granting dutyfree status to the raw wpol imports and a whole range of other imported items, from fresh melons to stuffed animals, braille publications and stereo receivers, was not extended as usual at the time the ninety-nineth Congress finished its sitting before the November elections.

A miscellaneous tariff bill, which would have extended the duty-free status was not passed. The same bill would have added a tariff to casein, another important New Zealand export to the United States.