The Press MONDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1936. New Zealand’s Trade Policy

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21976, 28 December 1936, Page 6

The Press MONDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1936. New Zealand’s Trade Policy

We printed on Saturday a full report by our London correspondent of a speech on New Zealand’s trade policy made by the lion. Walter Nash at a civic banquet in Sheffield. It is impossible to read what Mr Nash said on this occasion without feeling that, if this is the vcision of New Zealand’s trade policy which he is putting before the British public, he is incurring a very heavy responsibility. In the most unequivocal terms he is declaring the willingness of his Government to “ block ” all credits received from the sale of New Zealand goods on the British market for the purchase of British manufactured goods. He has, he says, come to Great Britain to say, “ Give New Zca- “ land an expanding market inside the shoics “ of the United Kingdom for the products that “ can be brought into being from our soil, and “ we will see that the credits that are raised “from the sale of our products are used to “ the full to buy products from you.’’ This year, he adds, New Zealand’s exports will be worth £50,000,000; Efritish manufacturers can have the whole of this, less the sum required for interest charges, if the British Government will sign the agreement he wants. The fust thing to be said about this amazing proposition is that Mr Nash is grossly over-bidding his hand. He implies that the New Zealand Government already controls all the credits obtained by the sale of exports. “ There is a clause in the “Reserve Bank Amendment Bill,’’ lie explains, “ which says that the Minister for Finance controls in its entirety the external exchange “ built up from the sale of our products over- “ seas.” At this point simplification for the sake of clarity comes perilously close to misrepresentation. The Minister controls only those credits w'hich result from the sale of dairy products, amounting probably to about £15,000,000 (New Zealand currency) a year. He will not control all export credits until all the export industries are covered by the guaranteed prices scheme; and no one knows better than Mr Nash that this prospect is indefinitely remote. Indeed, it is not so long ago that the Prime Minister was hotly rebuking Mr W. J. Poison for saying that there would shortly bo guaranteed prices for meat and wool. The second thing to be said about Mr Nash’s proposal is that it would be impracticable even if he did control all export credits. There are dozens of products required by New Zealand which cannot be imported from Great Britain and dozens more which could only be imported from Great Britain at an exorbitant cost.