N.Z. ADHERES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22510, 13 December 1947, Page 6

N.Z. ADHERES

U.K. PREFERENCE CABINET’S POLICY MINISTER’S ASSURANCE (PA.) WELLINGTON, Dec. 12. The New Zealand Government’s policy was to maintain British preference and not to subscribe to any agreements or arrangements which involved its abandonment, stated the ActingMinister of Customs, Mr. A. H. Nordmeyer, in referring last nght to remarks attributed to the Minister of Finance. Mr W. Nash, in the course of his address to the United Nations conference on trade and employment at Havana. Mr. Nordmeyer said that the Government’s policy on the tariff preferences accorded to Britain and the rest of the Commonwealth had been stated in the most unequivocal terms on many occasions. Still the Government’s Policy That 'policy was to maintain British preference and not to subscribe to any agreements or arrangements which involve its abandonment. That was the policy on which we based our negotiations' at Geneva and it was still the policy of the Government. No member of the British Commonwealth of Nations had been more emphatic on this point than had New Zealand, and no Commonwealth statesman had opposed any suggestion that preferences should be abandoned more vigorously than had Mr. Nash. Mr. Haskell Anderson, president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce, who referred, in the course of an address at Masterton, to New Zealand's abandonment of preference, knew perfectly well that there was not the slightest suggestion of any such intention said the Minister. Elis organisation was supplied, on November 19, with a full and detailed statement of all the tariff modifications which were negotiated at Geneva and which they proposed to apply if they accepted the general agreement on tariffs and trade and he would find no sign there of any abandonment of preference. The cabled report of Mr. Nash’s address at Havana was quite obviously a very condensed and disconnected account, and the Governmet was at present awaiting the full text, said Mr. Nordmeyer, but in the meantime he had not the slightest hesitation in stating tinea again that “we strongly adhere to British tariff preference and we were not going to abandon it. Mr. Anderson’s Reply “The assurance given by Mr. Nordmeyer. of the Government’s strong adherence to British tariff preference is very welcome and we thank him for it,” said Mr. Haskell Anderson, president. of Associated Chambers of Commerce of New Zealand, today. “In view of the firm attitude of the Government on the matter it is extraordinary that it did not cable an inquiry' to Mr. Nash immediately the report of the latter’s remarks appeared.” Mr Anderson said that the Assorted Chambers of Commerce, through the courtesy of the Government, had received a detailed statement of the tariff modificaions negotiated at the Geneva conference and that there was no sign of any abandonment of preference. However, article 17 of the draft of the world trade charter provided for negotiations among members for the elimination of preferences and, particularly in view of Mr Nash s alarming cabled statement, they had had no assurance that further . negotiations were not afoot, nor that iniperial pre r ference remain unimperilled. “The fact that Mr. Nordmeyer is awaiting the full text of Mr. Nashs statement for study seems to indicate puzzlement as great as our own, added Mr. Anderson.