Manufacturing

Press, 27 July 1987, Page 12

Manufacturing

Sir,—With reference to the manufacturing manifesto of the president of the Manufacturers’ Federation, Mr Don Rowlands, I ask if manufacturing in NewZealand deserves to survive, let alone exist at all in the first place? Of the “six requirements for manufacturing to be healthy,” three were direct tariffs, one an indirect tariff on the taxpayer through State agencies, quotas, and a quango to advise tariff levels. Manufacturing that can only be healthy under such a regime must be a sick patient, no doubt as a result of a long-term diet of import restrictions, tariffs, etc. A cool breath of international competition may send some to a merciful death, but invigorate others. Why should manufacturing operate in a protected environment, dumping duties exempt, passing on over-inflating costs to those in non-protected areas, 1.e., tourism and agriculture? Surely it is not unreasonable to expect manufac-turing-to operate under the same rules as the rest of the economy.—Yours, etc., A. J. LOCHHEAD. Rakaia, July 20, 1987.