DUMP DUTIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 21, 25 January 1936, Page 12

DUMP DUTIES.

ON NEW ZEALAND BUTTER. i . WHY THEY WERE IMPOSED. (from Our Own Correspondent.) OTTAWA, January 0. The currency dump has been imposed by the National Revenue Department on a shipment of 01,000 pounds of New Zealand butter landed at Vancouver. The dump was "fractionally under 4 cents per pound, which, with the treaty tariff of 5 cents, brought total Customs charges to 9 cents. Prevailing wholesale prices are 25J cents at Montreal and 20 at Vancouver. It is learned that the laid-down cost of the New Zealand butter at Vancouver is 21 cents, so that the importers stand to make a substantial loss. Word of the impending import of New Zealand butter, the' "Financial Post" says, appears to have caught the Cabinet unprepared. While the currency dump has beeu imposed 0,11 this particular shipments there isiup, reason, as yet, to believe tliat further shipments will be given like} treatment. The legal position of the Government is as follows: Under Article 4 of the New Zealand Trade Treaty and an Ordcr-in-Council passed by the Bennett Government in 1932, the imposition of currency dump duties is mandatory. To remove the dump it would have been necessary for the Cabinet to rescind the 1932 order and this was not done.

It is understood the matter was referred, at the eleventh hour, to a Cabinet sub-committee composed of Hon. W. D. Euler, Minister of Trade and Commerce, Hon. J. L. Ilslev, Minister of National Revenue, and Hon. J. O. Gardiner, Minister of Agriculture. The subcommittee decided, for. the time being, to let the Order-in-Couneil stand, but it is believed probable that a full discussion will tiller place in Cabinet early this year. The decision to apply currency dump duties in this instance, therefore, does not mean that the Government is committed to such a policy.

Advices tliat the shipment was en route carac as a surprise to Ottawa-. Only last October, acting on tlie belief that a large surplus of butter existed, the Bennett Government created an Export Hoard, which subsidised the shipment of 0.(5 million pounds to Britain. Private shipments brought the total export movement to 7,000,000 pounds. The subsidy paid by the Treasury worked out at 1.10 cents per pound. It is claimed that this export move improved prices by 3 cents per pound from 23 to 20 cents. This benefit, however, is now imperilled by the possibility of imports coming in from New Zealand free of currency dump duties. The butter trade, it is learned, is active in defence of the dump duties.