Browsing by Author "Holmes, Frank"

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Open Access
Negotiating Without Bargaining Power: A Review of ‘New Zealand’s Trade Policy Odyssey’
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2003) Holmes, Frank
This review focuses on a recent publication from the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research: Chris Nixon and John Yeabsley (2002) New Zealand’s Trade Policy Odyssey: Ottawa, via Marrakech, and On, Research Monograph 68, Wellington: NZIER. It attempts to add value to this useful monograph through additional reflections on lessons from past experience on addressing the central issue of “how best does a small open economy on the edge of the world conduct its trade, and particularly its trade policy, in an efficient and effective manner?” It illustrates the dangers of paralysis of decision-making through excessive political concern about achieving consensus. The growing importance of services, multinational organisations and environmental issues in international trade negotiations increases the complexity of the issues facing negotiators. So too does the increasing significance of bilateral and regional arrangements in the policies of important trading partners, many of them still wedded to high protection for agriculture. The review discusses the implications of these changes. It discusses the contributions nongovernmental organisations have made, and can make, to extending the effectiveness of official negotiators, for example, in research and in the processes of negotiation, and how they can be most effectively harnessed. It also raises issues arising from the changing nature of the debate about effective government assistance to domestic producers engaged in trade, and whether the public sector needs to reconsider the structure and methods of coordination of the official agencies involved in trade negotiation.
Open Access
New Zealand in the World Economy 1938–56
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2004) Holmes, Frank
While sorting through some old papers recently, I came across a paper that I had completed, probably early in 1957, on ‘New Zealand in the World Economy 1938-56’. This had been intended to be a contribution to a book on ‘Contemporary New Zealand’, on which a group of us at Victoria University College were collaborating – Ken Scott, Kingston Braybrooke, Winston Monk and myself being the main contributors. Tragically, Winston was killed in an aircraft crash at Singapore early in 1954. I became involved in assisting a Royal Commission in 1955. The other contributors also became involved with tasks of higher priority. Accordingly, the project was never completed, and my paper was never published. Economic historians to whom I showed the paper have encouraged me to publish it now, with a brief introduction and minor modifications to avoid misunderstandings about the timing of events. Thinking back to the period during which this piece was written, one of them recalled how little independent research and informed commentary on important domestic and external economic issues were going on in New Zealand at the time. The first of the Economic Surveys produced by the Treasury did not appear until 1951. The sections on the history of the financial system that Albert McGregor and I prepared for the report of the Monetary Commission, presented early in 1956, were a significant semi-official contribution. The dearth of economic research in the mid-1950s was noted by the Commission. Thanks to the efforts of Professor Horace Belshaw and some farsighted business people and officials, the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research was established in 1958. The relative lack of informed independent comment on economic issues through the New Zealand media and academic community was reflected in the decision by the National Government to set up the Monetary and Economic Council in 1961 as an independent ‘economic watchdog’. Thus the following analysis, produced in the mid-1950s, is of some intrinsic interest for its scarcity value. My qualifications for writing it had been enhanced by my having been the lesser half of the Economic Division of the External Affairs Department, under Lloyd White, from 1949 until 1952.
Open Access
The Quest for Security and Welfare in New Zealand 1938–1956
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2004) Holmes, Frank
This paper, largely written in the mid-1950s, appraises the implications of the policies followed by the first Labour Government from 1935 to 1949 and the National Government that succeeded it between 1949 and 1957. They were fortunate that, through most of the period, favourable market conditions prevailed, especially in Britain, for New Zealand’s major pastoral exports. This provided a good basis for the expansion of the volume of goods and services available for a rapidly growing population. The emphasis of policy was on full employment, – it was an era of considerable shortage of labour – on redistribution through monetary benefits, free education and health services and state housing, and on a regulated stabilisation policy aiming at “fair shares” among producers. The paper discusses the implementation of these policies and their effects on the rate and pattern of growth and on the capacity of the New Zealand economy to develop in the less favourable external environment that was emerging.
Open Access
The Rocky Road to CER
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2003) Holmes, Frank
This paper is a history of discussions, debates and arrangements leading up to the Australia New Zealand Closer Economic Relationship (CER), which was launched 20 years ago. While a large volume to celebrate the anniversary has been published by the Australian and New Zealand governments, in fact the events covered by this official publication were preceded by another 20 years or so of negotiations, debates and discussions, some unofficial and some official, on both sides of the Tasman. While the author of this policy paper was never an official negotiator, he was a major driving force behind the arguments for a regional free trade area, and this account of what led up to CER has not only historical validity and depth of detail but also personal acuity and insight.