Buy New Zealand made is gone – good.
The stated aim of the campaign was to protect New Zealand jobs – but why would rejecting imports in favour of domestic production save jobs?
If we import things, we have to make more exports to pay for them! Ultimately, trading with the rest of the world allows us to focus on what we are relatively best at, while they focus on what they are relatively best at – then we can trade and all be better off!
Chris Worthington at Infometrics has discussed this before in the Dom Post.
Of course – we can try to justify the policy on other grounds (I can only think of one that would make any sense though). But overall I think this is Nationals first good economic policy decission – it doesn’t make up for the “40%” of Kiwisaver in NZ rubbish, but its something 
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4 comments
John says:
December 7, 2008 at 8:42 am (UTC 12 )
What about the loss of skills? British (eg) are saying “we don’t make anything anymore?……
and the process goes on trade goods > trade population (high migrates to low for lifestyle and we are one big globalised metropolis)?
goonix says:
December 7, 2008 at 1:03 pm (UTC 12 )
I’m very glad to see it scrapped.
Richard says:
December 7, 2008 at 2:11 pm (UTC 12 )
If it weren’t for the campaign I might not have bought SJD’s fantastic ‘Songs from a dictaphone’.
Matt Nolan says:
December 8, 2008 at 11:00 am (UTC 12 )
“What about the loss of skills? British (eg) are saying “we don’t make anything anymore?”
The distribution of skills (human capital) is very important – I agree. However, if this human capital is being used effectively, in the most efficient industries, why do we need to “protect it”?
The government has a role for improving the matching between households, skills, and industries – sure. There are transaction costs here that the government can help to reduce. But, protecting industries in this sense won’t do anything to help New Zealander’s gain the “right” set of skills for the global marketplace.
“I’m very glad to see it scrapped.”
Really
“If it weren’t for the campaign I might not have bought SJD’s fantastic ‘Songs from a dictaphone’.”
Unintended consequences aye