The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. FRIDAY, JULY 3, 1936. NEW MEAT POLICY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 156, 3 July 1936, Page 6

The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

FRIDAY, JULY 3, 1936. NEW MEAT POLICY.

Tw the oause that locks asristanoa, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future distance, And the good that toe can do.

A meat agreement which appears more favourable to Australian producers than they could have hoped for in their most roseate dreams twelve months ago is reported from London. Although only beef is immediately involved, there can be no doubt that the main features of the new arrangement will be used as a precedent by Australia, and also by other Empire countries, in discussions which must be held during the coming season preparatory to the revision of the Ottawa pacts. The essence of the agreement now reported is that it gives Australia an assured place as a beef supplier in the British market, firstly by continuing the present quota, which has no restrictive effects, but actually permits of some expansion, and secondly, by reducing the Argentine quota. Further, a levy of three farthings a pound on Argentine beef is included. Perhaps the best feature of all from the Australian viewpoint is that the agreement is to be for a long term.

The change envisaged in Britain's meat policy is probably of greater importance to Australia than t-o Xew Zealand, for several reasons. Beef rivals mutton as an item in Australian exports, and. beef has been particularly open to foreign competition during a period o'f* unprecedented difficulty. The Argentine has been the dominant factor in the market over many years, but the monopoly which for so long has appeared virtually unchallengeable now shows signs of yielding, at least in some degree, to the Empire producer. Compared with the huge volume of beef, exceeding 400,000 tons annually, which the Argentine ships to Britain, the Australian exports of 70,000 to 80,000 tons, and the New Zealand export of 20,000 tons, represent but a small proportion of the trade. Australia, however, has been making rapid headway since 1932. The chilled process has given an opportunity not offered before, and the merging of large meat interests in the Commonwealth, coupled with the energetic efforts of Australian pastoralists to breed a better animal, has undoubtedly done much to consolidate Australia's position.

Another influence, possibly of paramount important in the final stages of the negotiations, has been Australia's general trade gesture towards Britain. The other side of the feud between the Commonwealth and the two foreign countries, Japan and U.S.A., against which the recent tariff measures have been chiefly directed, is the generous treatment offered to British goods. If foreign imports into Australia are reduced, there will be more room for British, and particularly for those manufacturing lines, textiles and mechanised transport, in which Britain requires expanding markets. If this gesture has been the deciding factor, the lesson should not be missed.in New Zealand. Interpreted thus, it means no less than that Britain is now prepared to make trade arrangements with the Dominions individually and is ready to give especially favourable treatment to any Dominion offering sufficient inducement.