PRODUCERS' PLAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 27, 2 February 1932, Page 8

PRODUCERS' PLAN.

EMPIRE PREFERENCE.

Mac Donald Justifies Tariff Policy. GRATITUDE TO COLLEAGUES. (United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 2 p.m. I LONDON, February 1. The British Empire Producers' Association has submitted to the Government proposals for the preferential treatment of about 20 Empire commodities, including butter, eggs, cheese, sugar and tobacco. It suggests a duty of 5/ a cwt on foreign apples and an increase in the tariff on foreign canned and dried fruits. The Prime Minister, Mr. Mac Donald, devoted the greater part of his speech at Seaham on Saturday to the Cabinet's agreement to differ on the question of tariffs. He said he was most grateful, and the nation, and every party which had joined in the creation of the National Government, should be grateful to his colleagues who had assisted him in order to effect this very desirable and profitable end. They must be careful in handling impost schemes not to create tariff walls. He would like to aim at tariff agreements so that any change on Britain's part, instead of building tariff walls higher would induce other nations to come to an agreement to bring those walls down. They must keep in mind the internal employment point of view, but there was also a need for foreign markets to be made accessible for British products. The safe and wise policy could only be achieved by a combination of these factors handled by able men who would not be tied too much by the economic theory. That might come back when the world became normal, but it was only hampering when the world was in its present abnormal condition. The "Daily Telegraph" says that the Government contemplates a commission which will frame a graded tariff and approach the task in an unbiased and judicial manner. The commission is unlikely to include men who have expressed views either for free trade or protection, or who have been prominently identified with industry cither as employer or employed.