FIVE POINTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 230, 28 September 1936, Page 10

FIVE POINTS.

IMPERIAL TRADE. SIMPLER CUSTOMS. CANADIAN SUGGESTIONS. «BUT EMPIRE" SENTIMENT. (From Our Own Correspondent.) MONTREAL, September 3. Merchandising efforts necessary for the consolidation of Empire trade and various principles which should be followed, apart from the maintenance of a margin of British preference through the operation of trade agreements, are outlined in a memorandum which was approved by the executive of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce yesterday for submission to the fourteenth Congress of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce of the British Empire to be held in Wellington, New Zealand, from October 2 to 7. The Canadian Chamber's memorandum will be presented by Mr. W. M. Birks, of Montreal, a vice-president of the federation, who will head the Canadian delegation, which also comprises Messrs. C. V. M. Townsend and G. Horseley Townsend, of Montreal, and Mr. T. Frank Matthews, of Toronto. Mr. Henry W. Morgan, chairman of the executive of the Canadian Chamber, presided at the meeting which drew up the memorandum. The view is taken by the Canadian Chamber that the Empire agreements of 1932, "aiming at a great stability and flow of trade," have been of practical value in the promotion of Empire commerce and so long as the basic principles embodied in the present agreements are not disturbed the chamber suggests that it is immaterial whether new agreements are inaugurated or whether supplementary agreements are made providing for revisions which may be found necessary. Constructive Proposals. The Governments of the Empire can expedite Imperial trade further, it is suggested, through the following means: (1) By bringing about a further simplification and a greater uniformity of Customs regulations, including documentary requirements. (2) By the interpretation of customs regulations in the spirit of the agreements. (3) By the more general extension in Empire trade agreements of those concessions which had proved valuable in the development of British transportation facilities. (4) By the co-ordinating of Empire trade statistics and their issuance with more dispatch. (5) By a freer dissemination of pooled Empire commercial intelligence data. The memorandum recognises "a definite sympathetic trend to 'Buy Empire'" but emphasises that tariff arrangements and sentiment of themselves will not sell commodities. "Special service, therefore, is necessary, if the advantages of favourable tariffs, customs regulations and prevailing sentiment are to be fully enjoyed." More Orderly Marketing. In this merchandising effort the Congress " recognises the desirability of business itself encouraging the orderly marketing of goods by such sound commercial pra-ctice as advertising and the maintenance of stocks, of more regular conferences of producers and traders of two- or more Empire units, of. importing and and exporting so far as practicable through trading agencies established in Empire countries, of greater standardisation of products for sale in the respective Empire markets, of a more effective co-ordination of such commercial and economic agencies which now exist for the simplifying of Empire trade in Great Britain, the Dominions and colonies, and of the producers of the various Empire countries participating more in the fairs and exhibitions of one another's countries. Air communications and air mails, migration, shipping, reciprocal trading agreements with foreign countries and a variety of other Imperial commercial matters are to come before the congress in a long series of resolutions. Congress will be by the GovernorGeneral of New Zealand, the Rt. Hon. Viscount Galway, G.C.M.G. British delegates to the 14th Congress of the Empire Chambers of Commerce reached Montreal yesterday 011 their way to New Zealand.. The party was entertained at an Informal dinner given by the Montreal Board of Trade in the Windsor Hotel.