Trade with Great Britain

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21084, 8 February 1934, Page 8

Trade with Great Britain

In a letter to " The Press" yesterday Mr W. Machin reopens the question of quotas on New Zealand produce. Our statement in a leading article that " members of the present British Government have "made it clear that the quantita- " tive regulation of food imports has " become a permanent part of Great Britain's commercial policy" does not, he says, cover the whole question, since it may be true without New Zealand having to accept a quota or without her having to accept as severe a quota as othex countries. Mr Machin also draws attention to the recent trade agreement between Great Britain and Denmark as an example of Great Eritain's willingness to grant substantial concessions to countries prepared to buy British goods. Up to a point we are in sympathy with Ihe general trend of Mr Machin's argument. Though it is not in the j cast likely that New Zealand can obtain exemption from quotas, it is certain that the treatment she receives within the quota system will be partly conditioned by her own concessions to British exporters. It is therefore most necessary that the New Zealand Government should, with as little further delay as possible, carry out the obligations it incurred at Ottawa. But it is hard to discover what Mr Machin means when he suggests that New Zealand should "deliberately agree to "buy from her TGreat Britain] " more of her imports." If he is merely suggesting a more favourable larifT, the answer is (hat this lias already been promised and will shortly be brought into operation. If, however, he is suggesting that New Zealand, like Denmark, should agree In take specific quantities of certain British goods, he if asking fur what, is hardly practicable. The Danish agreement was quantitative on both sides because Denmark was able to offer, m return for a favourable dairy produce quota, to purchase a fixed minimum quantity of British coal. New Zealand's imports from Great Britain are so varied that an undertaking to buy specific quantities would be impossible without an undesirable degree of state interference in trade and commerce. In the circumstances the agreement concluded at Ottawa seems to embody the only practicable method of increasing reciprocal trade between Great Britain and New Zealand; and those who, like Mr Goodfellow, are disturbed over the future of the New Zealand farming industry should be content to urge the Government to carry out the spirit as well as the letter of that agreement. As Mr F. L. Hutchinson points out, in a letter to "The "Press" on this subject, it is mischievous and foolish to suggest that New Zealand can buy exemption from quotas by further concessions to British exporters.