TRADE STRUGGLE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 221, 19 September 1938, Page 10

TRADE STRUGGLE.

DOMINION EFFORTS.

FLEXIBILITY ESSENTIAL.

MANUFACTURERS' POSITION.

"The difficulty of assisting manufacturers adequately is potentially the greatest single factor operating against the continuance of the Ottawa policy of trade," said Dr. W. B. Sutch, secretary to the Minister of Finance, on his return by ihe Monterey from Sydney, where he was a member of the New Zealand delegation at the Second British. Commonwealth Relations Conference.

Discussions at the conference, and informally among delegates, had shown fairly general agreement that the Ottawa policy had been of assistance to the countries of the British Commonwealth, he stated, but it had also been an irritant to the rest of the world and had added to the difficulties of northern and central European countries in depriving them of part of their markets in the United Kingdom. Also the manufacturers of most

of the Dominions and of the United Kingdom felt that the Ottawa agreements had been of no astetance to them. "A viewpoint which was fairly widely held was that the agreements had been too cramping in their effects and that mure flexible arrangements should be made," added Dr. Sutch. "In the marketing of meat, however, the position was somewhat different, as regulated marketing has had a large part in the success achieved." The agreements were continuing to operate, except in India, he continued, and, although the Dominions and Britain had the power to give six months' notice of their termination, no such action had yet been taken. Discussions on migration had revealed that the wholesale transference of people, as in the earlier settlement of the Dominions, was a thing of the past, and that future operations would be on more restricted lines. Probably this would involve some transference of trained workers to countries where they were most reeded. One suggestion fcas that an organisation might he set up with Empire scope, perhaps by the initiative of trades union organisations, to supervise the training of men in skilled crafts and to assist in placing them in jobs. New Zealand's method of marketing dairy produce was a topic of much interest, and views had been expressed that this Dominion 'might succeed in solving some of the problems which were now beins* met hy the Commonwealth and other parts of the Empire, stated Dr. Sutch. The similarity of Australia's problems made the experiments of special interest there. Besides the Australians, the Canadians were greatly interested in the procedure of the guaranteed price for dairy produce. The differences which exist on the question of the guarantee were mainly political.