. COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
j7O~ fl~ SPEECH
L i B AB eRt Hon. J. G. GORTON, M. P.
ON
TARIFF BOARD
Annual Report: Ministerial Statement
,[ From the ' Parliamentary Debates,' 9 October 19681
Mr GORTON ( Higgins-Prime Minister)
-Mr Speaker, I ask leave to make a statement
on the Tariff Board report just tabled.
Mr SPEAKER-There being no objection,
leave is granted.
Mr GORTON-Mr Speaker, in the
course of its last annual report, the Tariff
Board outlined the changes which it considered
to be desirable in its approach to its
own work. In the report for 1967-68, which
my colleague the Minister for Shipping and
Transport and Acting Minister for Trade
and Industry ( Mr Sinclair) has just tabled,
the Board has reported upon its study of
the structure and levels of protection now
operating in the Australian Customs Tariff.
It is, I think, important to understand the
nature of the information contained in the
two main appendices-Nos. 3 and 4-to
this report. Appendix 3 is a compilation of
what is termed the ' significant tariff rates'
applying to individual products or groups
of products, listed by tariff item. For comparative
purposes, the Board has included
statistical information about Australian production,
imports and the estimated Australian
demand for each item. In addition, to
reduce this information to somewhat more
manageable proportions, the Board has provided
a shorter table in Appendix 4 in which
the value of production of each industry
is distributed between three leveks of protection
measured by the significant tariff rate,
namely over 50%, 21 to 50% and not
over 20%.
23715/ 68 In short, the Board has linked information
on production and imports to a rearranged
version of the Customs Tariff.
Within the limits imposed by the form of
the available data, the outcome is a useful
conspectus of the existing levels and structure
of tariff rates which are applied to the
final production of Australian industries. It
reflects, to an important degree, decisions
taken by the Government in the past on
recommendations made by the Tariff Board.
In interpreting the information in the
appendices to which I have referred, honourable
members will have in mind important
qualifications to which the Board itself
has drawn attention. For example, the
report refers to the fact that tariff rates
which have not been reviewed for many
years may substantially overstate the current
duty needs of the industries concerned.
Moreover, it is the actual duty rates applying
to the final products of industries which
are summarised in the tables. These may
differ substantially from the effective rates,
which represent the degree of protection
extended to the production processes of
those industries. For most of the products
included in the appendices the Board has
not bcen able to calculate effective rates of
protection because sufficient data are not
available to it, and it has therefore not been
able to classify industries according to
effective rates of protection. This in-formation
will only -become known to the Board
in the course of future public inquiries. The
Board considers that the effective rate is
a better and more equitable method of
measuring protection than the nominal rates
shown in the Tariff.
For these and other reasons, the Board
has emphasised that the ranking of particular
products or groups of products in
its tables summarising present levels of tariff
rates should not be taken as indicating the
view which the Board would take at a
future tariff inquiry of the desirability of
assisting an industry or the level of any
protection it would recommend.
In the future, as in the past, recommendations
for changes in the level of duties will
be made only after public inquiries at which
all interested parties may be heard. The
information in the appendices to the Board's
report does not pre-judge in any way the
individual recommendations which the
Board will make in the future after public
inquiry. Requests from the Board for
references designed to facilitate public
inquiries into areas of the Tariff which the
Board considers to be in need of review will
of course be considered in accordance with
normal procedures for determining references
to the Board. Such inquiries would
follow the generally accepted procedures of
the Board conducting public inquiries at
which the views of all interested parties are
welcomed. Recommendations by the Board
as a result of such reviews would be considered
by the Government in accordance
with current practice.
It will be noted that the Board has established,
for its own guidance, points of
reference which it has expressed in terms of
effective rates of protection of 25% and
The Board acknowledges that the
assessment of these points involved a considerable
element of judgment. They are not
to be regarded as precise but as providing
orders of magnitude which the Board
believes will assist it in its approach to its
work. The Government has considered this
report in the context of our established and
well tried tariff policies. There has been no
change in those policies. The Government is committed to ensuring the growth of a
strong manufacturing industry which is in
fact at the very foundation of the Government's
population building policies. The
development of manufacturing industry is
encouraged in many ways, and most notably
by means of the Tariff. The Government has
always been prepared adequately to protect,
and will continue adequately to protect,
economic and efficient industries. The
Government will also afford adequate protection
to industries of high importance
from the standpoint of our strategic or other
vital national interests.
Tariff policy has been and remains the
responsibility of the Government, both in
general and in relation to every single
decision. In making these decisions we look
to the Tariff Board for sound and practical
advice. The Board has developed for almost
half a century as an independent body. The
Government does not attempt to set for the
Board the procedures it should follow. It is
therefore quite proper for the Board to
examine its own methods of work, the way
it shall conduct its inquiries and the bases
on which it makes its recommendations. The
Government expects the Board to take all
possible steps to improve the quality of its
advice. To enable the Government to exercise its
responsibility for tariff policy, it is clearly
necessary that it should have available to it
in the Board's reports the fullest possible
knowledge of all the elements relevant to
each particular case. We would, for example,
expect the Board to report fully not only on
the effective rates of protection that would
be afforded by the nominal rates of duty
recommended but also on other aspects that
might be relevant to a consideration of the
protection of the particular goods under
reference. It will, of course, continue to be
the Board's role to advise, and it will continue
to be the Government's role, in determining
levels of protection, to decide
whether or not it will follow the advice
given. These have been our policies and they
have served us well. We have no intention of
changing them.
BY AUTHORITY: A. J. ARTHUR, COMMONWEALTH GOVERNMENT PRINTER, CANBERRA, A. C. T.