Commerce Minister Paul Swain and Associate Arts Culture and Heritage Minister Judith Tizard have released a public discussion document on parallel importing and creative industries.

In the Speech from the Throne last year the government promised bans for periods of up to two years on the parallel importing of creative industries goods such as music CDs, motion picture videos and DVDs, software and books.

The policy objective of the proposed bans was to encourage an increase in international investment in and overseas promotion of New Zealand creative talent.

The government has already committed $86 million to New Zealand's cultural sector through the Cultural Recovery Package.

"Earlier this year the Ministry of Economic Development consulted with some of the creative industries on the proposed bans," Paul Swain and Judith Tizard said.

"The responses cast doubt on whether parallel importing bans would achieve the desired objective in the creative industries.

"And there were a number of issues that were raised during the consultation period, particularly by the film industry, which need further consideration. Also the related matter of piracy and what should be done to address that problem was raised.

"For those reason we are releasing this discussion document and inviting public submissions.

"This discussion document outlines the arguments put forward in each creative industry for bans, along with the preliminary views of officials on these arguments. The concerns of other interested parties, including consumers, libraries and Internet retailers are also outlined.

"We now want further information from interested parties on the potential effects of parallel importing bans, both positive and negative.

"The closing date for submissions is Friday 30 March 2001.

"We plan to take a report to Cabinet with decisions on proposed parallel importing bans in the middle of next year," the Ministers said.

Submissions should be sent to:

Karen Chant
Parallel Importing Submissions
Competition and Enterprise Branch
Ministry of Economic Development
PO Box 1473
WELLINGTON

A copy of the discussion document is available from the Ministry of Economic Development web site: www.med.govt.nz

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