IMPORT LICENSING

Evening Star, Issue 25422, 1 March 1945, Page 3

IMPORT LICENSING

ASSOCIATED CHAMBERS ASSAIL MINISTER "SERIOUSLY MISLEADING" STATEMENT (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Feb. 28. "If the Minister of Finance (the Hon. W. Nasli) is correctly reported in his statement yesterday to the New Zealand Retailers' Federation conference, then he has given an entirely erroneous explanation of the irksome and restrictive import control system and a seriously misleading impression that it must be continued," says a statement issued to-day by the Associated Chambers of Commerce of New Zealand. "Mr Nash, affirming that the Government does not propose to abandon' its policy of import selection, said that this policy was introduced to ensure that sterling moneys necessary to me;>t our commitments overseas were available on the due date," the statement continued. "This is entirely incorrect. The present system of import control is made up of two parts —(a) exchange control, and (b) what the Government euphoniously calls import selection. NOT NECESSARY. "It is correct that the Government was forced to introduce exchange control to arrest the serious decline of New Zealand's sterling funds, due U> the Government's own inflationary policy, and to ensure, that the country's overseas debt was met. That part of the sytsem known as import selection is a hybrid addition to exchange control, which gives the Government complete determination of the nature of the gopds which may be imported into New Zealand out of such sterling funds as the Government makes available to importers. Provided that the Government earmarked sufficient funds from the proceeds of our exports to meet the National Debt service overseas, New Zealand's ability to meet its commitments would be in no way adversely/affected through the abandonment by the Government of import selection.

" Mr Nash says that import control ■was introduced! ' exclusively for the purpose of ensuring that our debts were met when they became due, and it will so continue.' This is obviously an attempt to frighten the people of New Zealand into thinking that if any departure is made from the Government's cumbersome and restrictive method of determining what our imports are to be, the inevitable result will be failure by the Dominion, to honour its overseas obligations. New Zealand encountered similar overseas exchange difficulties in 1931, when the control of the situation was placed by the Government o£ the day very wisely in the hands of the trading banks. Th* | hanks earmarked such exchange as was needed to service New Zealand's debt, and the balance was made available by rationing to importers and others for them to utilise in the ordinary way. The position in 1931 was satisfactorily cleared up by the banks in a very short time, and the position was restored without anybody even hearing the term ' import selection ' mentioned. STATE MONOPOLY. " Exchange is a commodity just like tea or machinery or raw materials, and when free of Government controls it has historically been bought and sold. What Mr Nash means, without saying it is that his Government thinks fit to assume a complete monopoly over tho commodity exchange, to parcel it out for the importation of only such goods as the Government thinks untrained public servants are in a better position to judge that the country needs than are merchants whose life-time work and training it has been to import what tho public wants. The effect of import selection which,,it is to be remembered, is not a war measure, but was introduced by the Government before tho war, has been completely to frustrate the normal course of commerce, and it cannot be argued that this is the price of meeting New Zealand's debt commitments.

" Let the case for and against the system of import selection be fought on fair ground, and let it not be contended that New Zealand's honouring of its debt depends upon this system. The recovery of New Zealand's sterling position, for which purpose exchange control was introduced before the war, has long ago been achieved, but the Minister of Finance now says that import selection is to continue indefinitely. He may as well declare honestly that the Government is deliberately utilising—and has been all along —the emergency situation that arose in the country's finances for the advancement of objectives which have nothing to do with the honouring by New Zealand of its debt obligations. New Zealand can rid itself of the onerous effects of import selection without imperilling in any way its ability to repay its borrowings."