IMPORTS FROM BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24740, 4 December 1945, Page 3

IMPORTS FROM BRITAIN

+ COMMENT ON MR WEBB'S STATEMENT

TRADING AT £ FOR & WOULD BE WELCOMED

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, December 3. A statement was made to-day by the United Kingdom Manufacturers' and New Zealand Representatives' Association in reply to the' cabled report of the Hon. P. C. Webb's speech in Great Britain on November 27, and particularly with reference to that portion in which he stated that "for evjery £ which Great Britain spent in New Zealand, the Dominion would buy £1 worth of goods in Britain." The association stated that it welcomed this statement by Mr Webb which, it was hoped, he would impress upon his colleagues in the Government upon his return to New Zealand. At the moment the huge sterling balance which this Dominion held in London was not being expended at anything like the rate of £ for £, and the 1946 import schedule was in direct contradiction to such a reasonable trading policy.

"Indeed," the. statement proceeds, "recent information . stating that licences will now be granted for the import of tobacco and cigarettes serves to confirm the suspicion that the policy of import control is to make a convenience of Britain rather than to encourage her to do what Mr Webb stated, namely: 'the sooner Great Britain can get exporting the better for Great Britain and the Dominion.' It is interesting to note that tobacco and cigarettes have been banned for many years, but now that manufacturing firms in this Dominion cannot meet the demand, relaxation is permitted, although importation is expressly banned in the 1946 licensing schedule. Surely this is expediency if ever it was, and the people of Great Britain are entitled to something more than, expediency and being made a convenience of. They are asking merely for what Mr Webb has publicly stated—the opportunity to export under fair competitive conditions on the basis of £ for £."