Consumer Controls Held Protective

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31004, 9 March 1966, Page 3

Consumer Controls Held Protective

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, March 8. The ineffectiveness of the import licensing system made it clear that controls over consumer goods, which represented a small fraction of total imports, were largely for protective purposes rather than to conserve overseas exchange, the New Zealand Retailers’ Federation import committee said today.

“It would be idle to ignore the fact that the Government is faced with very real difficulties in balancing its overseas transactions, but the answer to these difficulties does not lie in tinkering with relatively tiny allocations for consumer good.” said the committee in a reply to the federation’s annual conference.

“A very broad look at transport equipment (including motor cars), plant and machinery, and some manufacturers’ raw materials is necessary, if any effective savings are to be made.

“This report does not need to analyse in detail areas where imports continue to rise steeply, as these details are published regularly, but as many of the commodity groups showing the greatest increase in imports are ostensibly controlled by import licensing. it would seem that the system is defective, and that political considerations govern the increasing allocations for these items. “It is recognised that demand, stemming from an expanding population, and bouyant internal conditions, creates pressures which can only seem to be met by increased imports of some goods, but the same pressures on consumer goods go unrecognised or are ignored so far as import licences are concerned. 1 “It is difficult to understand i why the same ruthless poli-j cies as are applied to consumer goods, cannot be and are not applied to other licensed goods, and why it is assumed by the Government that an increased population requires less and less in the way of consumer goods.

“Not only is the treatment afforded consumer goods quite inequitable, but it is an unreasonable imposition on the public generally.”

i The committee said a large! deputation had informed the! Prime Minister and the Min-1 'ister of Customs and Industries and Commerce that im- - j port allocations for consum- I ier goods had reached “a 1 i dangerously low level,” and 1

|in many cases were inadequI ate to meet reasonable demand. : “The federation is well 1 aware of the demands on our overseas resources but believes the consumer is entitled to reasonable consideration,” the report said.