Car dealers await ruling on imports case

A decision on whether new restrictions on used car imports will go ahead is expected within a fortnight, although the judge hearing a last ditch bid for a delay questioned whether he had the right to do so.

Lawyers for the Imported Motor Vehicle Industry Association (IMVIA) were in the High Court in Wellington yesterday, arguing for a judicial review of new emission standard rules due to come into force on January 1.

As it stands, the rules will prevent most cars manufactured in Japan before 2005 from being imported into New Zealand.

IMVIA, which represents used car importers, has warned that the new rules will cause an increase in the prices paid by consumers for used cars, but was in court arguing that a promised review of a previous emission standards rule change had not occurred, and so the new rules should be delayed.

Justice Miller repeatedly queried David Jones QC, Imvia's lawyer, over whether the court had jurisdiction to provide relief in the form of a delay of the rules.

Jones presented Transport Ministry documents which suggested officials were aware that the rule change could lead to older cars being kept on the road longer and a drop in used car imports and possibly air quality.

However, Justice Miller said the court's job was not to re-evaluate the minister's decision to bring in new rules.

"Mr Jones, if I was the minister [of Transport] this would be an interesting conversation, but I am not," Justice Miller said at one point.

Jones cited affidavits from IMVIA chief executive David Vinsen claiming that in a meeting, former associate transport minister Judith Tizard had promised a review of earlier emission standards rules, which came into force at the start of 2008. Jones argued that this led to a reasonable expectation that this review would be carried out.

Crown lawyer Hamish Dempster argued that there was no promise of the review of the rules in the form that Imvia claimed, saying references to it in cabinet papers were referring to a rolling age ban on used imports, a policy which has never been introduced.

The Crown disputed that Tizard had ever promised a review of the emission standards.

Dempster said Transport Ministry officials had spent "hundreds of hours" considering the arguments raised by Imvia's lobbying, and that this should amount to a review that the importers were arguing for.

Justice Miller reserved his decision, but told the parties they could expect to receive it in "a week or two".

Source: www.stuff.co.nz