TRADE CONTROL

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20730, 14 February 1939, Page 9

TRADE CONTROL

MORE QUESTIONS ASKED IMPORTERS’ COMPLAINTS LACK OF FRANKNESS On some points the Minister of Customs has expressed a willingness to receive suggestions as to facilitating administration, even if on others : he has given unsatisfactory replies or j left the questions unanswered, state j the Importers' National Committee, j For all that has been gained in this j way the importers are grateful, and where assistance can be given to the authorities it will be readily given. But on the major issues that are raised by the regulations they are as much in the dark as they were before. They still do not know, for instance: (1 Whether import selection is to i continue for one, three, five years, or 1 even longer: (2) what the basis of : allocation is on which import licenses , are being granted: 3 the total value ; bv which the Government expects to reduce importations in the current j year, so that importers may know | what sum will be available for the | issue of licenses to import, etc. | To illustrate the difficulties of im- ! porters it is only necessary to take the statement made by the Minister of I Customs that “importers will know ) from their licenses the extent to j which goods in which they are interested are affected at present.” That is pertinent enough as far as it goes, except, that there is a lack of consist- ' enev in the decisions on those licenses, which, although it may be due to clerical errors that will be righted on appeal, nevertheless points to the fact that complex considerations have entered info the compilation of the formula that the Government has applied to applications for licenses. In a | matter so vital to the operations of business it is wrong that such a formula should be cut up into a jig-saw puzzle of thousands of pieces, to be pieced together by those affected, waiting for their turn in a state of chaos, suspension and continuing expense—with a further period of uncertainty following on while decisions are awaited on the appeals that have been sent in and have still not been dealt with. Basis of Allocations All that the business man asks is that he be told exactly where he stands and what he has .to shoulder — whether it he a tariff, a tax, an increasing exchange rate, or whatever else it is that is going to affect his business; then he is able to shape his : course accordingly. The Minister agrees that the basis of allocations is : given out in some other countries, : but he says it is "not practicable” to j give it now in New Zealand. We j cannot see that it is at all impractic- ; able or that Ihe withholding of it is iu 1 any way justified. I Business cannot be planned for only : six months ahead, but the Government decided that licenses to import j should in the meantime be issued for i only the first six months of 1939. If ! the" importing community is kept in ignorance of the amount by which the , Government aimed to reduce total imports in this first period they cannot even guess what is likely to develop in the mind of the Government as to the degree of relief, or further restriction, to be applied to the licenses to import for the second period of six months. They must continue in suspense at least until the import I licenses are issued for the second i period.

There are those importers who have been given permission to import for the first period only such a small quantity of goods as it would not pay them to handle. With them it is a question whether it would be better (a) to close down their operations altogether, or (b) to hang on in the hope of their getting more liberal treatment in the second perioil. If they adopt (a) it might be proved by subsequent events that the action was unnecessary; if they adopt (b) they might later find themselves receiving no better —or even worse—treatment for the second period, which will mean that they will have to close anyway, but only after having sustained * unnecessary loss in the meantime. Percentages Sought We appreciate that the state of the London funds will count materially in how the Government deals with second-period licenses, but if the Government would be more frank, and would state the percentage reduction in imoprts which it aimed to effect for the first period, then business men would be in some sort of position to judge for themselves whether the Government had been too liberal or too conservative, and would generally be able to gauge how. in their opinion, their own particular businesses are likely to be affected in the future.

What is the reason for the Government refusing to make public the detailed instructions given to the Customs Department as the basis on which applications for licenses to import for the first period were to be dealt with? Is it fear of what the public of New Zealand will think when they discover just how imports are being treated? Is is fear of repercussions in the United Kingdom—the most important market for our primary produce—upon our best customers seeing the basis on which their exportable goods to this country are being dealt with? Is it fear of reprisals on the part of both British and foreign countries —particularly those with which New Zealand has trade agreements—when they learn the schedules of bans and restrictions that have been arbitrarily applied to the admittance of their goods to this country? If the specific restrictions the Government is applying give it no cause for fear, then it. has nothing to lose by making the details public. If i the Government expects to have the understanding, goodwill and forbearance of other countries in its trade policy, and expects also to maintain with them a healthy two-way trade, i! j will not help itself or the people of : New* Zealand by establishing suspicion and distrust as the basis for those relations. What can the importers do to help in the situation that lias arisen ? What practical aid can they lend the Government? What are their own ideas for dealins: with the position? As to that, we have already, in previous I statements, indicated how the financial j emergenev could have been mot, by allowing the trading banks to check importations in the normal way that, used to be the custom; or -J , forming a voluntary exchange pool on j which the Government would have had first call for debt requirements; jor (3J the Government compulsorily

Controlling exchange sn as to ensure its obtaining sufficient for debt service purposes, and leaving' the balance available for free importations. If the Government is still determined to continue to merge import selection with the machinery of exchange control, then the importers believe that a system can he devised to give effect to this joint method, but with fewer injustices and hardships than are being brought- about by the particular lines of the present scheme. Official representative of the importers— even though they consider >uch a mixing of the two measures as hein-r undesiratde and unnecessary —would he pleased to he Pivcn Ihf nppnrtunify by the Government to di-russ with "it alternatives having the same objects as the Government's scheme.