As Ireland prepares to become part of the common market the tax and duty paid on imports and exports will change.
The government has announced a ten per cent cut in industrial protective tariffs from 1 January 1963.
The new type of tariff is based on the Brussels Tariff Nomenclature (BTN), an internationally agreed system of classifying goods for customs purposes. This brings Ireland in line with all the member states of the European Economic Community (EEC).
The new tariffs will mean that some goods will become cheaper. However, the new rate does not apply to revenue tariffs or agricultural tariffs.
Colm Barnes, a former president of the Confederation of Irish Industry (CII) explains how the new system will work. While acknowledging that this is the beginning of the dismantling of the old tariff structure, he says that price reductions will in fact be quite small. The tariff is being reduced by ten per cent so if the tariff was previously 40 per cent, it will now be 36 per cent.
This is a small reduction in tariffs.
Colm Barnes says that the reduction is a signal to industry that the tariffs are going and it will give industrialists time to adapt to the challenge of freer trade. That time is needed to prepare for joining the common market.
Trade Union representative Donal Nevin explains how the cuts in tariffs will affect jobs. He says that a cut of ten per cent will not make a huge difference to the employment market and does not believe it will create unemployment.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 13 November 1962.
