SURTAX AND PRIMAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 238, 7 October 1932, Page 7

SURTAX AND PRIMAGE.

UNITED KINGDOM GOODS. IMPORTERS' DISCUSSION. The importers' section of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce at a meeting yesterday discussed a statement from the Dunedin Manufacturers' Association in connection with the Ottawa Conference, to tho effect tlmt the surtax (9-40 tha of the specified duty) on goods from the United Kingdom should be removed at once and the 3 per cent primage duty abolished as soon as financial conditions permitted. It was stated that the Dunedin statement would create a wrong impression, in that it might lead people to think that what was contemplated was the removal of the whole of the duty on manufactured goods, whereas in fact the original duty would remain, as only the surtax was to be discontinued. It waß pointed out that most goods manufactured locally were protected against the importation of similar goods from Britain by ad valorem duties ranging to 35 per cent, whereas most raw material was on the free list, subject only to primage of 3 per cent ad valorem. It was claimed that the manufacturers had had the benefit of the 10 per edit adverse exchange rate. Tho section supported the Government's decision to remove the surtax on British goods immediately and welcomed any remission of the primage duties. It would support a downward revision of the tariff that had as its object the lowering of the cost of living, and which would act as an incentive to a reduction of costs in local production.