IMPORT CONTROL

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 66, 10 December 1938, Page 12

IMPORT CONTROL

Difficulties Become Evident THE TIME FACTOR Problems Facing Business Men? Dominion Special Service. AUCKLAND, December 9. “The whole system appears to have been produced by someone aware of the Government’s requirements, but with no understanding or knowledge of business methods and business requirements, said, a well-known Auckland importer wno deals in foodstuffs coming from many parts of the world, when commenting on the Governments scheme for licensing imports. “It seems,” he said, “that the system contains some of the ™st a U Air Savage inis stated the Go) era moot would make and rectify ate '\ In his own case, he said, his office <daf£ faced months of work preparnie the necessary information for the Go - tncnuu ]v a considerable amount of Confusion had resulted in bis trading from the restrictions unnoted His chief source of complaint, ho snid was that the scheme took no account of the narrowness of the time Jnar “hi in which many importers had to work when dealing with oilers from overseas. / "Buyers Will Default.” •■The Government,” lie continued, “j s withholding permits with the lesnlt that New Zealand buyers will nf.inlt in their contracted payments bought for cash in exchange for documents at the port of shipment. This applies particular!) tJ shipments this month, but the Government’s future intentions aie also "'“Take’um case of an m-iv owe an overseas agent £aoo foi goods already shipped. He S« GS *° JJ" bauk to arrange P a ? ine . nt that' the matter cannot be mian.eci •is it has been in the past. ' This importer said he sent merchadisc to all 13 ports in New Zeahimb The system of requiring application fm nermits at every port was far to ° ™ wieldy and necessitated enormous wo for importers, whose total for New Zealand requirements were known but whose destinations varied. Instead of making it necessary to ffppi) for a permit at every port, total 1 Zealand requirements should be handled in Wellington or at the port where t.ie importer resided. Neglect of the time factor was sus pemling business very seriously. An importer wouldy receive a cab,e from ■m a-ent in China saying that he had an option over 10 tons of walnuts for 48 hours. The importer, in the normal course of events, telegraphed Ins cli-eiits’throughout-New Zealand and asked them to let him know the same day H they wanted part of the shipmen . 'The telegrams came back before o p.m. the same day and the Chinese agent was raided an order, but now, said the ini porter, the necessary permit to import the shipment could not possibly be ob tained in the time provided by the agent. As a result he sold them elsewhere. Tile same thing was happening in other branches of the importing business. An agent for a New Zealand millinery firm might see a good line of women’s hats in London which he could buy cheaply. He would normally cable New Zealand immediately and offer a firm -the hats, but how could an order be placed when it was impossiole to 00tain the necessary permit in the time for which the agent held tlie option. Such business had to be done within a matter of hours, not of days. . New Zealand was not the only importing country on the map, and overseas sellers were not going to wait New Zealand’s convenience. They could sell the’ goods without any trouble to other countries. Will Be Kept Till Last. "The result of this is easy to see, he «aid “New Zealand is going to be classed as difficult. As soon as it gets that name it will mean that every other importing country 7 will be offered goods before we are. We will just have to take our chances. “What it will mean is this:, that we will have to conduct our business not on the speculation that we can sell the commodities we import but on the speculation that we will be able to obtain permits to import them. This will be the only way we can work in the time allowed by "the manner in which we conduct our business. We will be offered a shipment of hats or walnuts or raisins or whatever it may be and we will say we will take them in speculation that we will be able to obtain . a licence to import them. If a licence is refused what are we going to do then.

"Another aspect of the licensing system has already cropped up, and it is one for which it is extremely difficult to find a ready answer. Cables arc arriving from various parts of the world asking New Zealand importers to guarantee Jiayment of shipments whether licences to import them are issued or not. What can wc do? The whole foundation of our business is being destroyed."

EFFECT ON TRADE WITH BRITAIN

More Rather Than Less

The effect of the regulations dealing with the control of imports on New Zealand's trade with Great Britain was referred to by the Minister of Customs, Mr. Nash, in an interview last evening.

"I hope that more trade will go to Britain, but I am not talking about taking trade away from anyone else,” said Mr. Nash, when asked if any action were contemplated to divert trade from foreign countries to the United Kingdom with a view to making up any reduction that might possibly occur in British exports to the Dominion. "I hope that the new procedure will result in more trade for Great Britain rather than less.” When the regulations were issued earlier in the week Mr. Nash stated that New Zealand’s trade with the United Kingdom should under the proposed arrangement he extended, as every possibly facility would be provided for preference in the purchase of capital equipment and raw material for the extension of manufacture within the Dominion anil the import

of commodities not provided by New Zealand manufacturers. The question of trade with Britain was dealt with more fully by the Prime Minister, Mr. Savage, in his broadcast address on the day following the issue of the regulations. He said New Zealand would buy from those who bought from the Dominion, with first preference to the Motherland. On the other hand there were countries which did not take much in the way of New Zealand goods, but yet this country bought a great, deal from them. .In some eases these were goods Britain could well supply. There must be some readjustments with these countries.