Origin of goods law wanted

Press, 26 July 1989, Page 3

Origin of goods law wanted

The best thing the Government could do for the Buy New Zealand campaign was to bring back country-of-origin laws, the director of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association, Mr lan Howell, said. The campaign, which was supported by the association, was being frustrated by their absence, because consumers often had no way of knowing whether the products they bought were made in New Zealand “or New Delhi.” He. welcomed comments by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bolger, that the market could not function properly if it did not know where a product was made. “With the Labour Government’s replacing of the Merchandise Marks Act with the Fair Trading Act, there is no longer a requirement for goods’ labelling to indicate where goods are made,”

Mr Howell said. “As a result the public can be misled into purchasing shoddy products which sometimes have vague labelling such as ‘Styled in New Zealand’.” Imported goods may also be confused. “Sophisticated” goods priced similarly to high-quality European imports, might actually be low-quality imports from a Third World country.

Mr Howell said manufacturers had been unsuccessful in their calls to the Government for compulsory country-of-origin labelling, even though this was an acceptable requirement in many other countries. The Government had decided point of origin labels were no longer necessary, but the best support it could give to the Buy New Zealand campaign and job creation was to reinstate them, Mr Howell said.