CANADA'S BUTTER TRADE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 144, 19 June 1926, Page 16

CANADA'S BUTTER TRADE.

COMPETITION RESENTED. EFFECT ON RECIPROCITY. i From Our Own Correspondent.) VANCOUVER, May 18. Scenes behind the curtain fronting •the political stage in Ottawa have proved more interesting and important than the assaults and counter-assaults delivered in the continuing Budget debate in the House of Commons, and in the first instance nt transpired that the Australian trade treaty is suffering from an attack of zeal on the part of tiie Canadian importers of butter and tinned fruits. They could not stand prosperity, and, therefore, the Department of Customs, using the antidumping regulations as a • weapon,promptly undid the work which occupied Hon. James A. Robb for more than a year, following his trip of investigation into the trade situation in New Zealand and Australia some time back. The crisis in tlie life of the Australian treaty—and a similar condition rules a* regards trade arrangements between Canada and New Zealand —was brought to a head by a first-class difference of opinion between Canadian interests and the firms importing butter and tinned .fruits from the antipodean Commonwealth. The dairymen discovered that in the rush to capture tlie Canadian market the Australian products were being sold in Canada at prices more than 5 per cent less than the prices at which similar products were being sold on the Australian home market. They applied to the Department of Customs demanding the application of the anti-dumping regulations and the Customs Department, possibly after one shy glance in Mr. Robb's direction, put on the brakes. Collecting Dumping Duty. Naturally the importers were annoyed. They besieged the Administration with information tQuvt the evidence gathered by the dairy interests would not stand the light of investigation. The pressure became so great that the Customs Department initiated an investigation, and there is much heart-burning as to the outcome. In the meantime the Canadian Government is collecting the extra, or dumiping, duty on Australian butter and tinned fruits. In order to placate the wrath of the importers, the Ministry promised that the extra duty would be rebated provided it was eventually proven that the Canadian prices on the products are not more than 5 per cent lower than the prices on the Australian market. The butter and tinned fruit provisions in the Australian treaty have been attacked by the Conservatives in the Commons time and again. Such sturdy advocates of protection for the Canadian farmers and fruit growers as J. D. Chaplin, of Lincoln, and Donald Sutherland, of South Oxford, Ontario, have filled countless pages of Hansard with declarations that tlie treaty would eventually ruin the Canadian dairy industry. Their fears will remain groundless so long as the anti-dumping regulations remain in force. Inquiries in Vancouver disclosed the information that butter importers had been notified by the Customs Department at Ottawa that the payment of six cents a pound dumping duty would be imposed on all butter that they had imported to Canada from Australia since January 1 of this year. It was estimated by one of the importers that approximately 1,400,000 pounds of butter have been brought in from Australia in the four months ending April 30 last. Six cents a pound dumping duty on this amount represents 84,000 dollars, and, to make the situation more perplexing for the importers, it was explained that almost ev-e.ry pound of the imported butter had been disposed of. as the demand for Australian and New Zealand butter in Canada, and especially in British Columbia, has risen since the treaty came into effect. Only Halfpenny Profit. Dealers stated that in the handling of the Australian butter they had been operating on a one-cent margin of profit. They imported at a time when there was not adequate British Columbia or Prairie supplies to meet home requirements, and the butter was not stored with any purpose of breaking I the market. In fact, they asserted, the butter was only sitored. temporarily, as the high quality of the imported variety quickly caused it to be placed on sale in the retailers' shops. It was explained that under the Canadian-Australian treaty the regular duty on butter from Australia is one cent a pound, and in view of shortage of supplies in Canada a_d the new duty regulations under the Canadian-Aus-tralian trade treaty, the importers declared they proceeded in good faith to bring in a commodity which the public required. Representations subsequently were made to the Minister of Agriculture in Ottawa and to the Minister of Customs to have the extent of the dumping duty modified, but no definite reply had Jjeen received up to the time of writing. It was stated that a considerable quantity of the butter went east to Toronto. Most of the butter came from New South Wales, where it was said there is a producers' pool. To the declaration of the Ottawa authorities that the butter was bought in the country of origin at a price less than the cost of production, the importers were reticent when interviewed on this point. The imposition of the anti-dumping duty on the imported butter has afforded much consolation to the dairy interests in Ontario and Quebec, as tending to stave off outside competition and advance Canadian butter prices, the latest quotations showing creamery solids at 34 «ents a pound and in prints a cent more, while cooking butter stands- at 31 cents per pound. These are wholesale figures, running as high as 52 cents a pound for best creamery/retail, but in Montreal prices remain very low; only 40 cents being the advertised price for medium prade table butter at one large department store.