TRADE BARRIERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 201, 25 August 1937, Page 22

TRADE BARRIERS.

N.Z.—AUSTRALIA. ORANGES AND POTATOES. EMBARGOES TO GO 1 (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, August 19. The citrus fruit growers of New South Wales never lose an opportunity for impressing upon each other and the general public the heavy loss that this country sustains through the refusal of the New Zealand Government to permit free sale for Australian oranges in the Dominion. At a gathering of fruit growers in Sydney this week special attention was drawn to' the present situation and official correspondence was read showing that the fruit growers here have kept carefully in touch with all recent developments and that they are watching the situation with anxious eyes. As explained at this meeting, the present position is that for this year, between May and November, the Dominion Government has authorised the admission of 180,000 cases of South Australian oranges into New Zealand. It is understood that this large consignment from South Australia, along with the expected supplies from Cook Islands, will satisfy the local demand for citrus fruit, but if the collective supply does not prove equal to the demand, "sufficient importation of further quantities will be" permitted from the fly-free areas of Australia." As to the following period—December to April—not only will oranges from South Australia be admitted to New Zealand "without quantitative limitation," but the same concession will be granted to all oranges grown on fly-free areas in New South Wales and Victoria.

Naturally a great deal of interest attaches to the precise definition of the term - "fly-free areas." At present it appears the phrase will be applied only to such areas as in the experience of the New Zealand Government have already proved to be free of the fruitflv infection—such as the Murrimbidgee irrigation area, from which a considerable quantity of oranges was sent to the Dominion last December. The New Zealand Government, however, is anxious to maintain all reasonable precautions against the dreaded danger, and it has requested the officials of the Department concerned to suggest a precise definition of the phrase and to draft a form of certificate which under 6uch circumstances might be required.

It is thus evident to Australian fruitgrowers that the Dominion authorities are taking this matter of the importation of citrus very seriously, and tliat they are prepared to make all reasonable concessions to the Australian citrus growers consistent with the safety of their own horticultural interests. This news has been welcomed enthusiastically here, for our citrus growers are well aware that New Zealand should and could provide the best available market for thei'- products and they are extremely anxious to exploit it.

Retaliation. They are equally well aware, however, that the Dominion's embarjro on Australian citrus fruit is in fact a retaliatory measure intended as a setoff to Australia's exclusion of New Zealand's potatoes, and they have long since drawn the logical inference that if they could persuade the Commonwealth Government to remove the ban on New Zealand potatoes they could soon induce the Dominion to buy their oranges without any great reluctance. This, of course, means that the potato growers of New Zealand in their efforts to force their way into the Australian market have strong allies ready made in the Australian eitriw growers, and if the Dominion, by offering them a reasonable chance of supplying New Zealand with orancres. could interest their service® on its side, it might soon lie possible to overcome the resistance of the Victorian and Tasmanian potato growers, who are the chief olistacle to New Zealand's desire to sell potatoes freely over here. It i«. therefore, possible that the opnortune concessions just made to Australian citrus growers by the Dominion may prepare the way for the reciprocal removal of the two embargoes, and for free trade in oranacs and potatoes across the Tasman Sea.