PREPARING DATA ON IMPORTS

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23975, 16 June 1943, Page 5

PREPARING DATA ON IMPORTS

POINT OF DIFFICULTY CLARIFIED A point of doubt about what was required of importers under the recently announced "production-programm-ing" scheme was clarified yesterday by the secretary of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce (Mr J. Roy Smith). He also said that he would again impress on importers the importance of supplying by Monday information on imports requested by the Ministry of Supply, though doubtless, he said, the business community was already fully. engaged on making out the "logical interpretations” and “intelligent estimates” required. •Many inquiries about making out ihe requirement forms which had been issued were still being received, he said, and he had taken the matter up with the Ministry of Supply. One point which had caused some difficulty was clarified by an instruction. on the scope of the programme, on the back of the requirement form, he said. If an item was included in the list of grouped commodities, a requirement form had to be prepared to cover it. This applied whether the goods wore imports from the United States of America or not. The Ministry of Supply was collecting the information, so that the United States authorities might know New Zealand’s total requirements in the commodities listed. The United States, before being prepared to provide the commodities asked for, required to know how much of those particular goods was being provided for New Zealand from the United Kingdom, Canada, and other countries. Therefore. the importer who had always imported his goods from the United Kingdom (and expected to continue doing so) still had to fill in a form if the goods were on the Ministry's list, so that the Dominion’s total supplies might be adjusted.