TRADE WITH GERMANY.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 158, 5 July 1921, Page 7

TRADE WITH GERMANY.

"Australia, in dispatching one of its Government steamers with a cargo to Hamburg, is taking a first step towards resuming commercial relations with Germany. Such relations will have to be resumed 6ome day," says the "Dominion," "but the feeling in most Allied countries for some years to come will be strongly against buying anything from Germany that can be obtained elsewhere. Mr. Schwab, the American "steel king," a few weeks ago warned a gathering of New York business men that they must expect very keen competition before long from the Germans. At present he says Germany can land steel in Britain £5 a ton cheaper than British manufacturers can make it. In the United States the Germans are selling pneumatic tools in Detroit, which formerly exported them to Germany. However, the competition is limited "at the moment by the smallness of the Ger_ian output. In place of her 5,500,000 tons of steel in 1913 she last year turned out only 200,000 tons, and her margin for export cannot have been large. She is, however, exceedingly keen to regain her place in the world's commerce, and markets which she cannot enter directly she aims at reaching indirectly. At a recent trade fair at Milan, German exhibits are said to have greatly outnumbered those of the. Allies, and great quantities of goods have been sold to Italy for re-export as articles of Italian manufacture. Having lost the war the wily and industrious German is making every endeavour to steal the fruits of victory from the victors."