LIFTING THE EMBARGO.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17702, 2 March 1923, Page 8

LIFTING THE EMBARGO.

INRUSH OF GERMAN GOODS FEARED. HOW IT MAY CAUSE HEAVY LOSS. That the lifting of the embargo on trade with Germanj is regarded with [ an tip ty in gome quarters was demonstrated at the meeting of the Council of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday. Mr W. P. Cuthbertson presided over the meeting. i£r John iTyers said that it was with some surprise that he had seen it announced in the papers that the embargo on goods from Germany was to be lifted as from September Ist next. At a meeting last year, the Chamber had resolved to ask the Government that if the embargo were to be lifted the merchants of .New Zealand should be given at least twelve months' notice, to give them a chance to get rid of their goods before the market was flooded with German goods. Merchants had already ordered their goods for the next Christmas trade, and they would arrive here in July, August, and September next. With only six months' notice of intention to remove the embargo, anyone who had not already ordered his stuff could now order from Germany. That would mean that the losses would be colossal. The losses entailed on the difference in exchange would be slight compared with what they would be if the Government carried out its intention. Conditions in Germany. As showing what the conditions of trade in Germany were, Mr ilyers read the following letter (dated September 20th) from Mr Walter Cohen, of Berlin, with whom his firm had business relations prior to the war:— "I received your favour of June 13th, to which I regret I have not been able to reply before this, having been away from home for some months. Anyhow, I do not think that business under present circumstances would have been practicable. I can supply you with the pianos same as before, but it is quite impossible for me to fix a price for»you. The Treaty of Versailles has been so disastrous to the j conditions of business that we do not know to-day what may be the prices of articles the next day. The constant fall of the German mark makes all raw j materials dearer for us from day to I day, and the continual strikes of the j workingman for higher wages owing to the excessive prices of all necessaries of life quite upset our calculations. The quotation for the 130 centimetre pianos (it is no use your buying the smaller sizes now, as they are all one price up to 130) is at this moment £32 —excluding zinc-lined case, which latter would cost about 4000 marks each, and there would be a small charge for export permission. But as indicated above, I cannot say whether this price would hold good to-morrow. If you seriously mean to buy, all you can do is to give me a confidential order to deliver you the instruments at the lowest 1 can do for you at the time of. the receipt of the order. And as to payment, you would have to deposit English money with a Berlin bank to pay me the amount of my invoices upon my handing them the receipt of the Berlin forwarding agent. The quotation is understood delivered free to station, Berlin." Mr Myers asked, was it likely that anyone would do business under such conditions? He mentioned an evil which would follow precipitancy in lifting the embargo on trade with Germany in the effect it would have on the manufacturing ' trade of Great Britain. The importation of German goods into England had already been the means of causing many manufacturers to close down, leading to a great deal of unemployment. N Position In Australia. .The effect of importations from Germany was further shown by a letter the speaker's firm had received from its, agent in Sydney. This letter read as follows: —"We are in receipt of yours of the 19th ult., asking us to convey to you the exact conditions existing in Australia at present in regard to the importation of German goods. We would inform you that your request is somewhat difficult to satisfy, inasmuch as merchants in the Commonwealth who have imported German goods, hardly know where they are in • respect to costs, etc., on account of the difficulty in interpreting the AntiDumping Act. Briefly, this Act was brought into force to protect, firstly, the Australian manufacturerer; secondly, the British manufacturer; and thirdly, to prevent any couqtry whatsoever dumping goods into Australia at a figure below the home market value. As to how this Act works, we will take, for example, the importation of German pocket-knives, at a home cost of 4s 6d a dozen, similar in pattern to a British line -which cannot be sold in Sheffield under 12s a dozen. ! The British article is subject to a duty j of 15 per cent. ad. val. The German article would be charged 7s 6d a dozen dumping duty (the Customs take this 7s 6d besides the ordinary duty), bringing it up to 12s, on which the ordinary foreign rate of duty of 25 per cent. ad. val. would be charged. Thus the German article would land at a higher price than the British-made. This is the simple reading of the Act, and, from our experience, each Customs collector in the various States can place almost any interpretation on it that he pleases. As an example, we might mention that we imported from Solingen, a line of flat nickel penknives. Ours cost us landed abont 15s a dozen. The same line, imported by our Brisbane house, cost landed 5s 6d a-dozen, and the home cost was about 3s a dozen. We imported some German dolls; landing charges equalled 317 per cent. The same lines in Brisi bane cost even a higher rate. We now i learn that there is a possibility of getj ting some refund from the Customs. I It seems to be the practice of the Cus- • toms Department (when a merchant • imports a line from Germany that has j not been on the market for some time) ! to take a sample round to his com- • petitors, and get their idea of the value im comparison with a similar line of ; British or American manufacture, and I then they assess the duty accordingly. j "You will see from what we have ' written above that there is' really no hard and fast rule to guide us when ordering goods, and as German goods : have been only allowed into Australia ; for the past four or five months, our ! (Continued at foot of next colmnn.) I . -

experience is still somewhat brief, and it is almost impossible for us to convey to yon any information that is likely to assist you in your coutry." In conclusion, Mr Myers moved:— "That in consequence of merchants having ordered their goods for next Christmas, this Chamber urges upon the Government to postpone the lifting of the embargo on trade with Germany until January Ist, 1924." This was seconded by Mr A. S. Longuet and carried unanimously. * GOVERNMENT'S ACTION SUPPORTED. (SPECIAL TO -"THE PBEBS.") •WTITiT.TNG-TON, March 1. Though two or three local merchants are making seme fuss about the renewal of trade with Germany, and demand- | ing a postponement of the date on I which it shall come into force, the genj eral opinion seems to be that the six months' notice given is ample. A merchant writing to the "Evening Post" says that "The reasons given for an extension of the time to January, 1924, are trivial. Nothing cheap is likely to come from Germany for a considerable time, as the trade conditions there are so bad. It was a local j merchant who said he feared competition with cheap German- goods next Christmas. The merchant above referred to, however, points out that one has only to read the daily accounts of the position on the Ruhr to understand this. Any importer also knows that trade cannot be resumed in a few short months, as it is neeessaiy to get out trade catalogues, samples, ana firm' prices in British currency. This could not possibly be done in time to permit of any cheap German goods reaching here by September Ist 1923. "Speaking broadly, says the correspondent, "competition is the soul of business, and the sooner we get back to open trade with all the countries in the world the better it will be for industry generally in New Zealand. The mere Fact that New Zealand is the last country in the world to open the doers of trade* to Germany shows how isolated we are. To hold off removing any restrictions still further is quite unnecessary. The wise judgment of Cabinet ana the ALinister of Customs, as reported in the proclamation, gives in detail the many sound reasons which influence the Government in its decision, and the report we rend in your paper of the Chamber of Commerce discussion ftnd resolution in comparison is trivial in the extreme."