TRADE INCREASE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 206, 31 August 1936, Page 7

TRADE INCREASE.

BELGIUM TO BENEFIT.

NEW ZEALAND MARKET. RECIPROCAL CONCESSIONS. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. In a Government Gazette supplement, published this afternoon, modification of the trade agreement between New Zealand and Belgium, which has been in operation since December, 1933, is notified. The present modification or extension of the original agreement is a culmination of negotiations instituted on behalf of Belgium early last year. Carrying foi«-ard these negotiations, the Minister of Customs, the Hon. W. Nash, lias completer an agreement with the Belgian Government under which New Zealand will exempt a number of Belgian imports from primage duty, and also in a number of other cases remit the surtax and make reductions in duty. The Minister states that this action will be of material benefit to New Zealand manufacturers, as the items from which primage is removed raw materials, machinery and appliances used in industry. New Zealand's direct exports to Belgium in 1935 were valued at £645,000, and imports of Belgian goods into New Zealand at £217,000. 11l addition, considerable quantities of New Zealand produce were re-exported into Belgium through the United Kingdom. Belgium, under the new agreement, has undertaken to admit natural honey at GO francs per 100 kilos, and to admit free sausage casings, kauri gums and casein. The agreement is terminable at six months' notice by either party.