AUSTRALIA LOSES FIJIAN TRADE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27010, 9 April 1953, Page 3

AUSTRALIA LOSES FIJIAN TRADE

COMPETITION FROM | BRITAIN 1 (From Our Own Correspondent.) < SYDNEY, March 25. : Australia is losing. valuable export 1 markets in Fiji, according to the secre- 1 tary of the Export Development Group j of New South Wales, Mr D. Cox. Mr ] Cox said this was because Australia • was unable to quote competitive prices for goods. United Kingdom suppliers • were undercutting prices offered by | Australian merchants in many lines, ; especially manufactured goods such as ; footwear, hardware, clothing, and tex- ‘ tiles. Australia’s rising costs had out- ! stripped those of other countries. Mr Cox said. Another factor in Australia’s loss of trade with Fiji was the imposition of export levies on goods such as wheat and footwear. Fijians and Indians, who made up the bulk of Fiji’s population, had a low purchasing power and provided a ready market for low-priced English manufacturers, especially textiles. Mr Cox said that although Australia’s trade with Fiji had increased since the end of the war, the increase in the trade between Fiji and Britain had been proportionately greater. Britain had also provided a market for Fiji’s primary products, which paid for imports from Britain. Britain bought most of the country’s copra. A spokesman for Morris Hedstrom (Aust.) Pty., Ltd., said that Fiji was importing more and more goods from Britain instead of Australia. Morris Hedstrom with Burns, Philp and Co., Ltd., handles the bulk of the general merchandise exported from Australia to Fiji. The spokesman said that a direct shipping cargo service operated between Britain ana Fiji, and this considerably reduced shipping costs .between the countries. The direct service by-passed costly transhipment of goods at Sydney. 1