LOWER TARIFF.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 62, 15 March 1933, Page 5

LOWER TARIFF.

AUSTRALIA'S MOVE. INDUSTRIES ALARMED. SEQUEL TO OTTAWA. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, March 10. It is in many ways unfortunate that, just at the moment when public opinion here is aroused against the Ottawa Agreement by the demand for the restriction of our meat and butter exports, the Federal Government has brought down its tariff proposals, which, in the name of Imperial Preference, provide for the removal of many of the defences erected to protect our secondary industries against external competition.

At the opening session of the Federal Parliament this week Mr. White, the new Minister of Customs, submitted to the House his fiscal scheme for the redistribution of tariff incidence, in accordance with our Ottawa undertakings. He intends to remove the 50 per cent surcharge hitherto payable on 13 important groups of goods, leaving eight groups still subject to it. This surcharge is not a protective measure, but purely a financial expedient, and as the revenue returns have exceeded all anticipations, and Mr. Lyon has a large surplus in hand, there is no further need for maintaining it. But apart from this Mr. White proposes a reduction in the duties now levied on 51 separate items, and this announcement has produced a great explosion of indignation from the parties chiefly concerned. Manufacturers' Protests. Taking a general survey of the new schedules, Major-General Gordon Bennett, president of the Chamber of Manufacturers, declares that the proposals "can only fill with alarm anyone who is interested in the employment of Australians in Australian industries." He predicts a great increase in unemployment

and heavy public expense through the increase in the dole, and he expects that many manufacturing firms which have planned to extend their industries will be forced to abandon their projects and scrap machinery already installed. He holds that the new tariff will prove "a distinct setback to the development of our manufacturing industries," which will react disastrously upon the investors of capital as well as upon the "workless workers" who are still in their thousands looking for employment and wages. Of course, all this has been anticipated by those who have studied the details of the Ottawa Agreement. For it is implied in the contract made by the Dominions with Britain to lower the barriers by which the entry of British goods into our markets is to some extent impeded. Whether the advantages secured for our primary producers by the concessions that our secondary producers are being forced to make will ultimately repay the sacrifice is a matter for separate discussion. But for tlio moment the manufacturers and business men directly affected are venting their grievances with 110 uncertain voice. The secretary of the Metal Trades Employers' Association predict "serious results" to the industries concerned; Hendersons (hat manufacturers) expect that "serious unemployment" will result; Standard Waygood (electricians) describes the new tariff as "the last straw"; the general manager of Bonds (hosiery) is "astounded" at this new menace to his industry, and prophesies disastrous consequences; and so oa through the list.

Position Complicated. The new company which has just taken over Cockatoo Island dockyard is particularly aggrieved because it haa lost one of itos "most valuable prospects" (through the removal of the duty on small vessels); and in regard to the 50 per cent surcharge it is alleged that the jewellers will be ruined by its maintenance, while the local match industry will be ruined by its abolition.

No doubt all these verdicts are mora or less prejudiced by personal interest, but there is no escaping General nett's conclusion that the_ new taritt must, at least for the time, mi i against the expansion of our eecon arjr interests, and to that ,extent it "ill financial situation. 1