Spectre of trade wrangle over TV quota

By EUGENE BINGHAM

political reporter

New Zealand may have to invoke changes to a global trade agreement that no other country has tried and risk international sanctions to introduce local content quotas for broadcasting.

Papers made public by Act yesterday show officials have warned the Government that its plans to introduce quotas fall foul of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (Gats).

"Since New Zealand has no specific reservation covering local content quotas, the logical course of action ... would be a modification or withdrawal of New Zealand's Gats commitments on audio-visual services," said a paper from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

"This process has not been invoked to date by any other World Trade Organisation member."

Any country that felt it would be affected could request compensation.

Act broadcasting spokeswoman Penny Webster, who obtained the papers under the Official Information Act, said the Government would expose New Zealand to international sanctions worth millions of dollars if it introduced local content quotas.

"This means in no uncertain terms that the introduction of local content quota will have a debilitating effect on the New Zealand economy," said Mrs Webster.

Prime Minister Helen Clark dismissed Mrs Webster's claims.

"It's always been clear to me that the way we approach local content will require quite a lot of thought. But Mrs Webster is drawing a pretty long bow to put out statements claiming sanctions worth millions of dollars will be faced."

Helen Clark said New Zealand, unlike some other countries, had ratified the Gats without preserving its right to protect local content and this did present a problem.

"We have unilaterally disarmed ourselves on trade but very few others have been so foolish. We're now left with perfectly legitimate calls for more local content and people saying, 'You can't do that because of Gats.'

"This seems a bit ridiculous so we're just working out the best way to handle it."

The Government would certainly not be put off introducing a local content quota somehow.

"The work New Zealand on Air's done to survey here and other countries on the level of local content shows how dismal ours is. So something must be done if we're seriously interested in maintaining and asserting a New Zealand identity."

A spokesman for the Minister of Broadcasting, Marian Hobbs, said she was working with officials on proposals to put to the Government.

"The whole question of quotas is on a work programme which is to be developed through the year," he said.

It is understood one way around the problem would be a voluntary quota system.