IMPORT TRADE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 305, 24 December 1937, Page 5

IMPORT TRADE

REGULATION WANTED MANUFACTURERS’ CASE. NO MONOPOLISTIC CONTROL. AUCKLAND, Dec. 22. “We welcome the gradual change in tone in criticism by the Bureau of Importers,” states the Auckland Manufacturers’ Association in a reply to statements by the bureau. “Some days ago it confidently suggested that the aim of the Manufacturers' Association was to shut out completely all British goods. Now the bureau is making polite inquiries about the intentions of the association respecting imports approximating to one-half of the total imports from Great Britain.

"In time we may expect that the importers will accept our challenge and submit the problem of exchange costs to an impartial authority. We hope then to be able to show that the 65 per cent, claimed to exist as a protection should be reduced to something nearer an average of 20 per cent. The answer to the latest question by the bureau is that the manufacturers are concerned with building up industrial life and not with destroying it.

'As shown previously New Zealand industries have built up their total pro production to over £90,000,000 in the last 25 years and in the same years the imports have increased fourfold. New Zealand manufacturers carry the responsibility for the employment of over 100,000 people in this country and a disbursement of over £14,000,000 per annum in wages. In protecting the livelihood of their workers, manufacturers have called upon the Government to assist them by regulating the overseas import trade, but any fears of monopolistic control are groundless.

"Having answered this question for the bureau we now suggest that it should devote some attention to our previous queries. Firstly, is it willing to allow the public to know the names of its members? The names of the members of the association are available to anyone interested. Secondly, will it give the reason why it is un-' willing to submit the question of costs to an impartial authority? We can only conclude that the Bureau of importers has no firm belief in the accuracy of its own figures and it is not prepared to take the risk of being obliged to acknowledge itself in the wrong.”