IMPORT CONTROL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20623, 26 November 1941, Page 9

IMPORT CONTROL

RELAXATION URGED DISCRETION OF TRADERS (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. The opinion that the import regulations should have been relaxed at the outset of the war and importers allowed to use their own discretion as to what goods they brought into the country, was expressed by Mr. G. H. Guthrie, in his presidential remarks at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Importers’ Federation. He ,said that importers could reasonably have been allowed a certain amount of latitude as the majority, having had experience of trade during the Great War, were well aware of the class of goods they were likely to have difficulty in obtaining. “When man-power is so reduced for the defence forces, both overseas and in New Zealand, why persist in forcing the issue in regard to secondary industries, particularly when they are definitely uneconomic.” Where an industry was worth, while, as so many of them were, it should be supported whole-heartedly, but not to the extent of total prohibition of overseas trade.