EARLY CHANGE UNLIKELY

Chronicle (Levin), 2 April 1948, Page 5

EARLY CHANGE UNLIKELY

Press Association )

Mr. Nash Speaks on Import Restrictions

(Per

WELLINGTON, April 2. • "I cannot see any likelihood- Of any early change in oiir import selection policy i'n New Zealand as i result of the trade charter drawn up at Hayana," said the Minister of Finance, Mr. Nash, at a Press conference today. "It could not be done without, at the sajne time, doing a frightful lot of harm to the country, and we don't contemplate that." Mr. Nash said the charter gave the right to New Zealand to continue its .present import selection policy if the abandonment of that policy was likely to create an imminent threat to our ' balances overseas. "We say there woul'd be that threat if we returned to the conditionS which obtained here in 1937," said Mr. Nash. "Our policy of full employment might tend under eertain conditions — although not at present — to exert perpetual preSsure on imports because of the high purchasing power. distributed through employment and by other means. We ease that pressure by our import licensing system. and nothing in the charter prevents us from continuing that policy." The quantitative restriction of 4mports, as practised by New Zealand, could be continued if it were related to the full employment policy, to reconstruction or to the development of the couritry concerned, the Minister said. If the mstrictions were swept away there would be, despite our present healthy overseas funds, a flood of imports which would exhaust our balances. New Zealand's demand for capital equipment alone would, 'f it could be satisfied immediately, jeopardise our funds overseas. "It will be a long time, as far as I can see, before we ' can grant "iomplete freedom of imports into "he Dominion." Mr. Nash declared that the "lause of the charter which met New Zealand's needs in the direcMon of continuing import restricL4ons was known at Havana as "the New Zealand clause." Some of the delegates were "a bit sore" about it "t first, but later considered it satisfactory.