Export Incentives Criticised

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31092, 22 June 1966, Page 18

Export Incentives Criticised

“I think there must be many who are considering, as I am, transferring their manufacturing to another country where export incentives are more realistic,” said Mr T. L. Uren, at a meeting of the council of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association.

Mr Uren, as a member of the recent Manufacturers’ Federation trade mission to South-east Asia, obtained orders equal to those received by all the other 18 members of the mission. Referring to the Budget, Mr Uren said that the consideration the Government was giving to manufacturers, as exporters, would indicate that loyalty did not pay. Mr Uren said he was dis-

appointed by the new arrangement the Government had made, and the reaction of manufacturing exporters. "I am not so sure that the new arrangement is not really a backhander incentive,” said Mr Uren. "I think very few of us really understand how the new incentives to us are going to work. “I think many of us are going to be a whole sight worse off under the new formula than we were under the old one.”

On the one hand, he said, the Government wanted New Zealand exporters to work hard to earn overseas funds. But on the other hand it wanted export manufacturers to provide a major proportion of the taxation which was necessary for the Welfare State. The council decided to ask the Government for a system of export tax incentives which would “cover the manufacturers, who under the present new system will receive less than previously, especially those already committed with forward orders.”