The Canadian Tariff.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20036, 18 September 1930, Page 10

The Canadian Tariff.

The first instalment of the new Canadian tariff is announced to-day in a cable message from Ottawa. Although a general revision will not be attempted before the next session of Parliament, we have already the new schedule of butter duties, amounting to eight cents under British preference, twelve cents intermediate, and fourteen cents general. As no specific mention is made of New Zealand butter, it would appear that a great deal depends on the negotiations for a new trade treaty now being conducted at Ottawa by Dr. Craig, Comptroller of Customs, on behalf of the New Zealand Government, and upon what may be the result of the discussions in London between Mr Forbes and Mr Bennett during the 1 Imperial Conference. The present treaty, whereunder New Zealand butter is admitted to Canada on a one cent duty, expires early next month, and unless something is settled in the meantime the new duty will be not less than eight cents, which is just twice as much as was proposed in the Dunning Budget, on which the Liberals went to the country. It is to be hoped that Mr Forbes, during his short stay at Ottawa on his way to London, was able to present New Zealand's viewpoint convincingly. He at least told the Canadian Club that Canada's trade to New Zealand had increased from somctlrng. less than twelve million dollars ii 1926 to more than twenty-three million dollars in 1929, while New Zealand's trade to Canada had increased from six million dollars to sixteen million dollars. That, with the fact that he was hailed in one newspaper as a man who "looks like a fighter and "acts like one," and carried himself " with all the poise and self-possession "of a European diplomat," will perhaps encourage our farmers to believe that the battle is not yet lost.