INTER-COLONIAL TRADE

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 110, 7 February 1928, Page 8

INTER-COLONIAL TRADE

MR. PRATTEN’S COMING VISIT

The announcement that the Commonwealth Minister of Customs (Mr. H. E. Pratten) would visit the Dominion shortly to confer with the New Zealand Government upon reciprocal tariff matters was considered by the council of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce at its. last meeting.

The president expressed appreciation that a conference was to be held shortly to discuss the trade situation between the two countries. Chambers of Commerce for some years past, he said, had urged upon the Government the necessity for revision of existing agreements, and the general revision of the tariff last year liad made that an urgent matter. The great difficulty was that both countries produced in the main articles of a similar nature, and each wished to conserve its own market to it own producer. In acting for sectional interests in this way there was danger of ignoring the general interest, and actions taken under the tariffs and in other ways had been such as sometimes to savour more of retaliation than of reciprocity, especially where duties had been raised to such a height as to be prohibitive. Interchange of products between the two countries would induce betterment of the shipping service, which, after all, looked for freight to help pay the costs of operation. It was agreed to write the Government on the necessiy for a satisfactorytariff arrangement being arrived at, and various anomalies consequent on the general revision last year being straightened out.