THE TARIFFS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20360, 18 July 1934, Page 11

THE TARIFFS.

Incentive to Import Cara “ Broken Down.”

An effect of the new tariffs on motorvehicles will be to increase the importation of cars in a dismantled state. Although this, on the surface, appears to be a good thing for the New Zealander, actually it will not mean a cheapening of cars to an>' great extent. To receive the benefit of the revised duty, it will be necessary fbr the body, as well as the chassis, to be imported “ broken down.” This means, in effect, that to handle the work, car importers will have to establish a proper assemblv plant with the apparatus capable of putting the bodies together, and that they will have to employ the requisite tradesmen. Importers with whom it has always been the practice to assemble cars* in this way will benefit immediately, but less fortunate importers will be forced to erect these plants or carry the burden of the duty themselves. It is only where a large volume of sales is being put through that the maintaining of an assembly plant is justified. To cope with the new order of things it may be found necessary t 6 approach the factories in England with a view to securing their co-operation in establishing assembly plants here. The practice, which js popular among car agents in New Zealand, of having territorial agencies, each carrying out its own orders with the factory, makes the establishment of an assembly plant rather more difficult than in the case of a firm holding an agency for a car for the entire country and retailing through branches. Body-Builders.

It has been stated that body-builders, although they have been deprived of the protective tariff which they have enjoyed for some time, would reap a certain amount of benefit from, the new schedule, inasmuch as a firm not doing the volume of business warranting the establishment of an assembly plant, would put their work through them. It is not thought by those competent to judge that such will be the case. The cost would probably be all against such an idea, since the importer would find that it was costing more to import a car unassembled and finished here than it would to bring it in complete and pay the duty. The body-builders are naturally disappointed to find that they have been deprived of their protective duty, but it seems as if this was generally, expected. The position to-day is that on account of the new trend of streamlining and the increased difficulty 6f building a .body by hand, they were losing a great deal of business, and it may be that by lifting the tariff the Government has only forestalled what would have been inevitable.