FOREIGN TRADE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 122, 25 May 1936, Page 7

FOREIGN TRADE.

AMERICAN POLICY.

Important Issue in Pending Election. RISE IN EXCESS OF IMPORTS. United Press Association.—Copyright. (Received 9.30 a.m.) NEW YORK, May 24. The "New York Times" Washington correspondent states that the Administration's foreign trade policy is likely to become one of the important issues in the coming campaign. The Department of Commerce report published yesterday revealed that the unfavourable balance of the previous three months was continued in April. During that month imports exceeded exports by 202,000,000 to 193,000,000 dollars.

For the first four months of the year the unfavourable balance totalled 12,000,000 dollars, compared with a favourable balance of 31,000,000 dollars for the corresponding period of 1935. Both exports and imports were materially increased, however.

In a luncheon address to the Foreign Trade Association, Mr. Cordell Hull, Secretary of State, defended the Administration programme, insisting that the adverse balance resulted from the necessity for abnormal importations of animal products because of drought and the enlarged need of manufacturers for raw materials.

The Administration, he said, had in effect admitted that the position as a creditor nation makes excess of imports over exports imperative, but the Republican Opposition naturally accepted no sucli thesis and expected to use the trade situation to the best possible political advantage.