OTTAWA PACT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 237, 6 October 1936, Page 14

OTTAWA PACT.

EXPIRY NEXT YEAR. i NEW AGREEMENTS PENDING. I I>AIRY BOARD HOPEFUL. ■ j The arrangements which have just been completed between the British Governments and the Governments of Xew Zealand and Australia in connection with meat, promise well for the dairy produce negotiations to take place next year when the Ottawa Pact is due to 'expire, states the annual report of the Dairy Board, which was issued yesterday. It is anticipated that the Xew Zealand Government will be represented in London by the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, and the Hon. W. Xash. By the terms of the Ottawa Treaty, it fs stated, the British Government have imposed either a quota or a tariff, or both during the past two years. The treatment accorded to 2s ew Zealand had been generous,- however, and a free market has been available for all her produce. Tlie treatment has been continued for meat, as the new quota is easily sufficient to cover all the meat available for export, and in addition, a tariff has been imposed on foreign meat. Thus the Dairy Board feels optimistic about the result ot the negotiations regarding dairy prices. Benefits of Empire Preference. Empire preference was the underlying idea of the Ottawa agreements and the resulting benefits both to the Mother Country and the Dominions are enumerated in the report. From October 1931 to December, 1935, the duty paid on foreign imports was approximately £8.000.000. During that same period the' prices of the principal dairy products fell by more than 40 per cent, and consumption increased substantially—for butter, for instance, from 18.11b to 25.21b per head a year, ine proportion of imports coming from Empire countries has increased, and so has home production. "From these five points may be drawn the deductions that, since the establishment of Empire preference, and largely as a consequence of it, (a) the taxpayer has benefited; (b) vitally essential foodstuffs have been made cheaper; (c) the nation has been more liberally fed on a shrinking puree; (d) Empire production has been greatly stimulated at the expens'e of the foreigner, in accordance with the implications of the Ottawa agreements and the policies of successive Imperial Governments; (e) the stimulation of Empire production has prevented the foreign producer from adding the tariff to the price of his goods to the consumer; (f) home manufacture of dairy products is being put on a sound and organised footing. Benefits to Consumers. "Here are a few further illuminating figures as to the benefits the consuming public has derived during the period' of the operation of Empire preference: The United Kingdom purchased in 1935 2,800,000cwt of butter more than in 1930 for £7,500,000 less. In 1930, the average price of best Xew Zealand butter was 158/ per cwt (about 1/5 a lb). In 1935 it averaged 91/9 per cwt, about 10d per lb. Last year we imported 2,700,000 cheese compared with 3,112,000cwt in 1930, but the cost was only £6,600,000 compared with £12,600,000. "On the debit side prices have beenunprofitable to the producer—home, foreign and overseas Empire alike. The fall in dairy prices cannot be attributed' to the fiscal policy of Empire preference; it was, of course, merely part of the general collapse which followed the fall in the purchasing power of tlie public."