JAPANESE WOOL PURCHASES

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21806, 11 June 1936, Page 15

JAPANESE WOOL PURCHASES

EFFECTS OF AUSTRALIAN TARIFFS PRICES HAVE RECEDED Australia’s prospects of selling 1,000,000 • bales of wool annually to Japan have diminished as a result of the new tariff arrangements in regard to the importation of Japanese manufactures into the Commonwealth, says the latest report of Winchcombe, Car* son. Ltd. Japan’s woollen textile industry has been reared on Australian wooL As far back as 1890-91, 200 bales were shipped from Sydney to that quarter and for the first 10 months of this season the total exported from the Commonwealth was 711,646 batesOriginally Japanese buying activity was centred on good class, free merino fleece wools.of the finer types. As the manufacturing industry increased and experience was gained, purchasing extended to a wide variety of wools. The proportion of free merino fleece bought decreased and more attention was devoted to medium to broad quality fleece wools carrying burr and suitable for top*-making purposes. Skirtings of almost all classes, lambs’ and crutchings have also commanded strong bidding from Japan and in one act the loss of a large volume of those influential orders is threatened. It is regrettable that more open discussion of the possible eventualities bl the duties of Japanese goods was not permitted. Whatever results may be, the evident fact at present is that the probability of a marked reduction in Japanese purchasing in Australia has already' disturbed confidence in wool values and prices have receded. At the same time Australia is faced with a problem. The current cry for balancing trade between individual nations is a development of comparatively recent times. is obviously impossible for the Commonwealth to provide sufficient reciprocal business for all her buyers of primary products. We complain of a wide disparity in the volume jf business between the United States and Australia. But in the past Japan bought Our wool, America purchased Japanese silk and we took the manufactured products of the United States, That triangular movement more or less provided an indirect balance and similar movements kept world commerce moving. Nowadays the world has reached*such a “botch potch” of import duties, quotas, etc., that each nation looks to its own first-hand business. The actual solution of the difficulty can only be found by general world action to alleviate the situation. Statistically wool is well situated from the selling standpoint. That is a helpful feature of the current dilemma. Confidence, however, is the keynote in wool buying as in all other operations. It has been upset to some degree and the future will be somewhat uncertain until it is re-estab-lished. '