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Kōrero: Customs and tariffs

Levin shirt factory

Image
Levin shirt factory

By the late 1990s the abolition of import controls and the phasing out of most duties had led to a flood of cheaper imports, especially from China. This seriously threatened the jobs of workers in New Zealand industries previously protected by duties and import controls. Here Jenny Sargent (left) and Xhou Jie Xia, a migrant from Canton in China, work hard to keep up production at the L. R. Wishart’s shirt factory in Levin.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Alexander Turnbull Library, Dominion Post Collection (PA-Group-00685)

Reference: EP/1994/0681/5A-F

by Ray Pigney

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Tony Simpson, Customs and tariffs – Tariffs and the GATT, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/photograph/22582/levin-shirt-factory (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Tony Simpson, i tāngia i te 12 April 2010.