The Dominion. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16. 1920. BRITISH EXPORT TRADE

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 121, 16 February 1920, Page 6

The Dominion. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16. 1920. BRITISH EXPORT TRADE

Approval will no doubt bo given in the oversea Dominions, as well as in Great Britain, to the decision of a conference of British manufacturers and others that manufacturers ought regularly to allot a fixed portion of their output for exportation regardless of home demands. To people here and elsewhere in the Empire who are anxious to import manufactured •articles from Great Britain, this proposal will bring some prospect of relief from a situation in which they are under a strong temptation to look to foreign countries to supply their needs. The proposal aims generally at stabilising exchange and at promoting a return to normal conditions of trade, but thoso who have mado it are presumably not unmindful that British manufacturers will bo pursuing a very shortsighted policy if they neglect their best market—the market that offers within the Empire. On all Bides complaints are heard in this country about tho_ difficulty or impossibility of obtaining many kinds of manufactures from Britain within any reasonable period, and it ought to bo clear enough that this is a state of affairs the British manufacturer is quite as much interested as importers and other people in New Zealand in terminating. It is, of course, recognised that manufacturers in the United Kingdom jire labouring under enormous difficulties in re-establishing their export trade and also that the low level of output thoy have as yet attained in the j:-urn-over from war conditions leaves them, as a rule, in a position to choose between supplying demands on the home and other markets. _ These conditions, however, arc distinctly _ temporary, and it is as necessary in their own interests as in thoso of their customers in the Dominion that British manufacturers should look ahead and prepare as far as possible to meet entirely different conditions. The step now projected of earmarking a percentage of manufacturing output for export is the more advisable in view of the efforts foreign competitors arc making to interrupt and divert the currents of interImperial trade. So far as the importation of manufactures into this country is concerned, the United States is a formidable competitor with Great Britain, and though the <id verse rate of exchange, superimposed upon the preference accorded io the Mother Country, to some extent limits the expansion of American trade, the protection thus afforded is not,absolute and will not avail- indefinitely. Demands are so acute in this country and in other Dominions that people are ready to import at prices that formerly would have been regarded as extravagant. On all grounds, therefore, British manufacturers will bo well-advised to do what is imtaedi-

at,cl,v possible towards retaining a foothold in the markets which before long will offer them easily their best openings for a profitable expansion of trade. Action on these lines is all the more necessary since evidently it will be some considerable time before British trade is re-established on ft really satisfactory bnsis. At an immediate view some of the Inter figures of trade arc encouraging. A cablegram published last week showed, for instance, that the increase in British exports last month (as compared with the previous January) exceeded by nearly ten millions sterling the accompanying increase in imports. It has been computed that when account is taken of invisible exports as well as of the export of goods, Britain had established a small favourable balance of trade towards the end of last year. When he was questioned on the subject in tlw House of Commons in December, Sir Arcia,\xn Geddes made the follow icy statement: It is roughly estimated (hat the exccss value of imports over exports of merchandise during the period of eleven months ended November 30 is offset to the extent of about three-fourths by the earnings of Hrit'sh shipping, interest on British investment abroad, banking, insurance, and other commissions, the value of bunker coal, etc. Precise figures are, in the nature of the ease, not ascertainable, but I anticipate (hat the figure of three-fourths will not lie far wrong for the working of the whole year.

This means, the Economist obseved Hi commenting on the Ministers statement, that in November Britain was actually paying her way, ov even enjoying fl small real balance of trade in her favour, though it must not be forgotten "that all these calculations procecd on the assumption that all our exports are paid for with the same promptitude an our imports, which seems highly improbable." In noting the pro Kress Britain is making towards v tablishing a satisfactory balance of trade it should npt, of course, bo forgotten that tho actual volume of hor trado is still far below what it was before the war. Tho President of the Board of Trade recently pave tho following particulars of the volumo of British imports and exports in 1913 and in the twelve months to the end of last October: Imports, Exports. Tons. Tons. Calendar year, 1913 51,500,000 91,381,000 Twelve months end-

cd October, 1919 ... 37,9.10,000 43,779,000 Tho export of goods other than coal, coke and manufactured fuel was as follows in tho two periods: Tons. 1913 14,091,000 Twelve months to October, 1919 6,812,000 These figures demonstrate how far Bititish manufacturing industry is at present from being able to satisfy demands. Production on such a settle as would meet demands is impeded in a number of ways, most seriously by slackened industrial effort, and evidently will not be attained for some time to come. As has been said, British manufacturers ought to be all the more ready on that account to set aside a substantial proportion of their output for export, and move cspcoi' ally for export to the. Dominions They can loss afford to allow thoi?* competitors a free run in the markets of tho Dominions than if the limitations now imposed on tlie.i'' output were likely to be removed in the very near future.