UNFAIR TAX?

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 307, 28 December 1935, Page 10

UNFAIR TAX?

COCONUT OIL IMPORTS.

SOAP MADE FROM GARBAGE.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SAN FRANCISCO, December 4,

Excise tax on coconut oil imported from the Philippines will be eliminated at the next session of Congress, according to a prediction of Mr. John Dockweiler, Democrat of California.

Mr. Dockweiler, author of the bill to remove the three-cent per pound tax on coconut oil, declared his measure was being supported by cattlemen, agriculturists and industrialists who previously favoured the tax. He pointed out that more than 70 per cent of the coconut oil imported is used in manufacturing soap and does not compete with domestic agricultural products.

"Our strongest opposition," Mr. Dockweiler said, "comes from garbage collectors in large cities who are rendering garbage into fats for soap." The excise tax was unfair to both the Philippines and the United States. Americans were paying more for their soap and the Filipino people were unable to buy American products because of the restrictions against their principal product. "Japan eyes our. soap market —the greatest in the world—with anticipation. It would be simple to set up factories. They are nearer the Philippines than we are and could produce soap at less cost," he added.

Mr. Dockweiler's bill would lift the tax only on coconut oil going into industrial channels, retaining the tax on oil used in edible products. This subject is of intense interest to South Seas islands where coprp, and other coconut products have been imported into Pacific Coast cities for the purpose of manufacturing soap and other articles much in demand.