CANADIAN TRADE

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 69, 15 December 1931, Page 10

CANADIAN TRADE

Mr. Downie Stewart Has Busy Day TRADERS URGE NEEDS I Dominion Special Service. Auckland, December 14. ■The Minister of Customs, the Hon. W. Downie Stewart, who will leave by the Niagara to-morrow for Honolulu, where he will enter into trade negotiations with the Canadian Minister of Trade and Commerce, the Hon. H. H. Stevens, reached Auckland to-day. He spent a busy day conferring with merchants and representatives of organisations interested in New Zealand’s trade with Canada. The tentative Canadian proposals for a new trade agreement, which were cabled to New Zealand on Saturday, were referred to the Minister. He declined to make any comment, on the ground that it would hardly be right for him to discuss questions which might subsequently be employed as the basis of his negotiations with the representative of the Canadian Government. The suggestions that there should be an immediate truce in regard to trade with Canada, so that New Zealand could get back to the position that obtained before the recent increases in customs duties were effected, were made to the Minister, and the hope was expressed that at least New Zealand would be placed on the same footing as Australia.

Representatives of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce stated that local butter importers were satisfied that if New Zealand butter entered Canada on the same terms as Australian butter a useful trade could be developed, and New Zealand butter would be able to compete successfully with the Australian product. Formerly there had been valuable trade in lambs with Canada, but this had fallen away. It could, however, be developed if the Canadian duty on New Zealand lamb were fixed at the same favourable rate as that enjoyed by Australia. Another point discussed was the rate of exchange, and the Minister was asked to make an effort to secure some stabilisation. It was suggested that the basis of conversion for duty purposes should be par. The Minister assured the deputations that he would give careful consideration to the points raised. HELP THE FARMER Cure for Unemployment ARBITRATION AND COSTS By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, December 14. “Until something Is done to help the farmer, the rest of New Zealand is bound to have unemployment,” said the Hon. W. Downie Stewart, Minister of Finance, when replying to a Farmers' Union deputation to-day. “The whole thing at present,’’, Mr. S«.ewart added, “is to get down internal costs. We have on the stocks some proposals regarding the Arbitration Act, but I do not think they will help nearly as much as the farmers think they will. I thought the best way might be by a suspension of awards, but all the experts on this subject say that that would not meet the case at all, and that we would have to alter the constitution of the court.” He added that it appeared that It was the irritating conditions attached to awards that were the cause of the trouble.