Terms of Trade

As well as improvements in the living and working conditions of migrant workers there must be an improvement in the terms of trade between the Pacific Islands and New Zealand. Every encouragement ought to be given to the independent development page 14 of the Island economies. Tariff preferences should be established for such industries as handicrafts (Australia has introduced such a scheme, but New Zealand continues to have a quota – all that has been done by the Labour Government has been to increase the quota from $5,000 to $12,000 in the case of Tonga). At the same time, shipping services for perishable crops should be urgently improved – in the knowledge that this would encourage producers to improve the quality of their product. In the past, the prices paid, the onslaught of disease without the resources to fight it, and the inadequate and irregular shipping service to New Zealand have discouraged Islanders from expanding and improving the banana export industry.