TRADE WITH THE EAST

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 131, 1 December 1930, Page 9

TRADE WITH THE EAST

IMPORTANCE TO CANADA

MISSION OF BUSINESS MEN

(From "The Post's" Representative.) VANCOUVEK, 29th October. Forty business men, representatives of the nine provinces, of Canada, have left for Japan, China, and Hong Kong, as a trade mission, under the loadership of Mr. John Imric, vice-president of the Associated Chambers of Canada. Purchases by Japan and China of Canadian products 'increased tenfold during the first two decades of this country, and fivefold in the third. The average annual export of Canadian goods.to the Orient for the past five years has been more than twenty times as great as the highest total reached before the war. Japan buys moro Canadian goodsv than any country in the world except the United States and Great Britain; China is eighth on the list of Canada's customers. Last year Canada's exports to Japan, China, and Hong Kong trebled those of 1920. They paid, in 1929, £8,000,----000 for wheat and flour, £1,000,000 for lumber, £500,000 for pulp, £800,000 for silver, £.300,000 for zinc, £500,000 for" dried fish, and a host of other products, ranging from, cheese to motorcar tires. The total was £14,000,000 —four times as much as Canada bought in return. Canada sells Japan from 2$ to 3-J times as much as she buys from her. Not only did Canadian-Japanese trade reach a new record in 1929, but Canada, supplied Japan with half the wheat imported by "that country. Japan's purchases of wheat from.' United States are declining, in proportion. In 1927 Canada's share of the wheat imported by Japan was onethird, while in 1929 it was one-half, the balance being made up by the United' States and Australia. Last year the value of Canada's export of wheat to Japan was £3,750,000 —an increase of £350,000 over the previous year. Canada's total exports to Japan last year were valued at £7,000,000 — an increase of 3 per cent. Imports from Japan remained stationary at £2,700,000. In the lead market Canada also exported more -than half Japan's needs, about £800,000, or £100,000 more than in the previous year. ■ Japan is importing far less lumber, owing to the fact that the reconstruction of Tokio and Yokohama is completed, and to the retrenchment policy of the Government and business concerns in preparation for the lifting of the gold embargo. There was a fallingoff of £2,500,000 in imports of lumber from Canada. While the totaV value of Japan's zinc imports decreased, Canada's portion was only slightly less than in 1928. Automobile imports from Canada remained stationary at £130,000, but machinery increased slightly. Among the chief items of Japanese exports to Canada there were: Silk fabrics, |-£950,000; raw silk, £550,000. The former showed a decrease; the latter increased by more than 50 per cent.