Shipley trumpets free trade

By Audrey Young

WELLINGTON - Jenny Shipley says Apec tariff cuts are saving every household money, with clothes now 15 per cent cheaper and cars 16 per cent cheaper than before the levies were reduced.

The lauding of free trade came when the Prime Minister opened a conference of women from the 21 member countries of Apec - the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

"Women, who are often the ones trying to make ends meet for the family, welcome reductions in prices," she told more than 350 delegates in Wellington yesterday.

Developed Apec countries have agreed to remove all tariffs by 2010, and developing countries to do so by 2020.

Mrs Shipley said women had benefited from deregulation, with cheaper goods and an expanding labour market overall.

Women's labour market participation grew by three percentage points from 1991 to 1997.

But the Council of Trade Unions secretary, Angela Foulkes, also at the conference, warned the delegates against concluding that the global economy was good for women.

Many were working shorter hours than they would like, and employment had become more casual.

She said Apec economies had to develop social and labour protections "to anticipate the accelerating and deepening risk that goes with the process of freer trade, investment and finance."

Meanwhile, New Zealanders are split over whether the Apec forum in Auckland in September will benefit the economy, according to a One Network News-Colmar Brunton poll.

Asked "Do you personally think that the NZ economy will benefit as a result of holding the Apec forum?" 43 per cent said yes, 39 per cent said no and 18 per cent did not know.