GERMAN LEATHER

Evening Post, Issue 59, 10 March 1924, Page 6

GERMAN LEATHER

IN BRITISH-MADE BOOTS

REPLY TO NEW ZEALAND

COMPLAINT,

The complaint made by boot manufacturers in Jsew Zealand as to the serious effect on the local trade of the use of low-priced German leather in the manufacture of boots ajid shoes exported in unusually large quantities from the Old Country is replied to. in the January issue of "The Journal" of the Boot Manufacturers' Federation in England. Examining the exports of boots and shoes from the Old Country to New Zealand during the eleven months ended November, 1923, "The Journal" states that the total was 1,613,916 pairs, valued at £751,298. For the eleven months ended November, 1922, the total number of pairs exported from the United Kingdom to New Zealand was 876,----444, and the value £386,137. "Arising out of the Dominion campaign," tihe paper states, "the Boot Manufacturers' Association has been invited by the Board of Trade to supply full information as to the extent to which German leather Is used in the manufacture of boots and shoes in the United Kingdom, the proportionate value of such leather to the total cost of the boots and shoes, and the effect which the-use of German leather has on the total cost of the boots and shoes. It is of the highest importance that the Board of Trade should be able to inform His Majesty's Trade Commissioner for Isew Zealand of the exact position in order that agitations of this kind may' be satisfactorily answered.' Left unchaflenged, British interests in the boot and shoe trade may be seriously endangered. GERMAN IMPORTS COMPARA- . TIVELY SMALL. '

"A very exhaustive inquiry was made into the questions submitted, and the reply approved "by the General Purposes Committee of the Federation to the Board of Trade will be of interest to many. -In the first place a schedule was prepared from information obtained through the Statistical Office, His Majesty's Customs, and Excise, setting out the imports with their values of upper leather into ' the ■ United Kingdom for 1913, 1921, and 1922 from Germany and other countries. Although the statistics do not :reveal the amount of imported German leather used in the export trade as compared with the home'trade, one or two facts which have an important bearing on this question stand out clearly. ]?or instance, with the exception o£ box calf, the total amount of upper leather imported from Germany is considerably' less than that imported from the U.S.A., and, furthermore, the imports of German glace kid into this country are comparatively small. "LITTLE UNFAIR COMPETITION." "As to the proportionate value of such leather to the total cost of tha boots and shoes, it is estimated that this varies from 15 per cent, to 25 per cent, of the wholesale price of the boots and I shoes according to the kind and quality of leather used. "In regard to the effect* of the use of German* leather on. the total cost of Soots and shoes, the general opinion seems to be that the disuse of German upper leather, would make- very little, if any, difference in the costings at the present time. Up to this point, then, it is considered that little unfair competition has arisen, particularly from the importation of German box calf, good and medium quality German box leather being on the whole not lower in price than American or even English production."

PROBLEM IN CANADA,

According to a Montreal correspondent of "The Times Tirade Supplement," footwear products of German origin are being offered for sale at remarkably low prices with which Canadian manufacturers cann.ot hope to compete. Even the Canadian shoe manufacturing industry is confronted with a new problem in the form of a threatened inflow of footwear direct from German manufacturers. Wholesale houses at Montreal have placed large orders for German leather shoes at prices which are leas than one-half the Canadian cost of manufacture. The importers claim that by spring they will have German "welts" of good quality to sell to the wholesale houses at 1.50 dollars per pair. The steadily-growing volume of imports of various kinds from Germany and other countries •of Central Europe has prompted appeals to the GovernmSit for stricter enforcement of the anti-dumping law.