Protectionism slated

Press, 12 May 1979, Page 25

Protectionism slated

NZPA-Reuter Manila New Zealand yesterday called for more regional cooperation and said that the Association of South-East Asian Nations (A.S.E.A.N.) was a prime example of how worth-while cohesion could be achieved. It also joined developing countries in expressing dissatisfaction with the Multilateral Trade Negotiations (M.T.N.) and in calling for an end to protectionism that closed off markets in the industrialised world. It also supported poor countries in their moves for strong commodity agreements. The Deputy Minister of Finance (Mr Templeton) was speaking on the third day of the fifth United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, where the European Economic Community has tried to show that it is liberalising access to its markets. On A.S.E.A.N., which groups the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. Mr Templeton said New Zealand was looking at ways to broaden and deepen its over-all friendly relationship with the economic and social grouping. “Might I suggest that A.S.E.A.N.’s demonstrated success as a stablising and cohesive regional entity is an example of co-operation for this wider and vitally important assembly to follow,” Mr Templeton said. Noting that economic growth w’as not an end in itself, but was meant to nourish the whole of man-i kind, Mr Templeton described 1

as distressingly familiar and oppressing to New Zealand as a primary producer, growing trends towards protectionism in the industrialised world.

Using similar language to that already used by several developing countries, Mr Templeton said: “We must here register our disappointment at the outcome of the

Tokyo round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations, despite some help with dairy and meat exports.” He also warned that the survival of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (G.A.T.T.), which regularises world trade, depended on its capacity to accommodate the aspirations of all countries.