RUSSIA'S FOREIGN TRADE

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 129, 28 November 1923, Page 4

RUSSIA'S FOREIGN TRADE

The Russian economic situation is full of Unknown factors, and anything like trustworthy statistical and similar information relating to production is extremely hard to obtain. In a report appearing in the cablegrams to-day it is stated that the Soviet Government is drawing up a new tariff, and it looks as if Russia may presently again take its proper place among the trading nations. Export duties, it is said, will be removed from all agricultural products and import duties placed oh all goods manufactured in Russia: while iA«vtwi.UUim! inHuhincry ,i,,d impte' meats, not already made in that

country, will be admitted duty free until 1926. Russia formerly produced much in addition to wheat and butter (from Siberia) that found its way into the markets of the world, and for which other sources of supply had to be looked to. when that great country became virtually a hermit nation. If the reports of the drafting of the new tariff are correct, the commercial reopening of Russia under something like pre-Soviet conditions will have a very important bearing oh its relations with other countries, and should have a decidedly beneficial influence on British industry. The free export of agricultural products, especially wheat and other cereals, and (so far as New Zealand is concerned) the heavier and untrammelled export of butter from Siberia, will be matters that the British Dominions will not be able to ignore. At the same time, all crop estimates and similar information relating to production that emanate from Russia as a whole must still be interpreted in a conservative spirit.