BRITAIN'S TARIFF

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 74, 29 March 1932, Page 7

BRITAIN'S TARIFF

LIST OF EXEMPTIONS AGRICULTURAL POLICY EMPIRE AND OTTAWA (From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 16th February. The text of the Import • Duties Bill has now been issued, ancT reveals a fairly long list of exceptions, some of which are not pleasing'to certain sections of the community. Articles included in this list are:— Gold and silver' bullion and coin. 'Wheat in grain. ' Meat, that is to say, beef, veal, mutton, lamb, pork, bacon, ham, and edible offals, but not including extracts and essences of meat or meat preserved in any airtight container. Live quadruped animals. Fish of British taking, including shell-fish. Tea. . , Cotton (raw) (including unmanufactured cotton waste and unbleached cotton linters). Flax and hemp, not further dressed after scutching or decorticating; flax and hemp tow. Cotton seed, rape seed, and linseed. Wood (raw), including llama, vicuna, alpaca, mohair, cashmere, and camels hair, whether scoured or carbonised or not; rags of wool not pulledj wool noils. Hides and skins (including fur skins, but not including goat skins), raw, dried, salted, or pickled, but not further treated. Newspapers, periodicals, printed books, and printed music. Newsprint, that is to say, paper in rolls containing not less than 70 per cent, of mechanical wood pulp and of a weight of not less than 201b or more than 251b to the ream of 480 sheets of double crown, measuring 30 inches by 20 inches. Wood pulp. Rubber (raw, including crepe; Tubber latex; gutta-percha and balata (raw). Iron ore, including manganiferous iron ore, but not including chrome iron ore. Scrap iron. and scrap steel. Irou pyrites, including cupreous pyrites. Tin ores and concentrates. Wooden pit-props.. . Sulphur. Mineral phosphates of lime. Unset precious stones. Radium compounds and ores. HOW VALUE IS DETERMINED. Clause 15 specifies how the value of any imports shall be determined. It says:— "The value of any imported goods for the purposes of this Act shall be taken to be the price which an importer would give for the goods, on a purchase in the open market if the goods were- delivered to him at the port of importation, freight, insurance, commission, and all other costs, charges, and expenses incidental to the. purchase and delivery at that port (except any duties of Customs) having been paid, and duty shall be paid on that value as fixed by the Commisisoners. "In determining the value of any goods for the purposes of this Act, the Commissioners may have regard not only to the value of the goods as declared by an importer, but to all relevant considerations." LOOKING TO OTTAWA. "The text of the Bill," comments "The Times," "confirms the impression, given by the debates on the preliminary resolutions, that the Conference at.Ottawa next July will mark a turning point in British history. Upon its results depends very largely the success or failure of a policy which aims at the organisation of the Empire as an economic unit. And, it must not be forgotten that this conception does not follow any bigoted or exclusive principle of Imperial economics. The Bill clearly aims at making the King's Dominions the core of an economic unit,! but it envisages the prospect of a wider system. The strength of the political British Empire, as Mr. Amery very truly said during the debates on the Statute of Westminster, has come to lie mainly in a reciprocal economic interest between its component parts. To a large extent production in the various parts of the political Empire is complementary. But there are other countries whose economic links with this country are very strong, countries where preponderating amounts of British capital are invested, whose products we use and which use our products; and it may well prove that not the least fertile provisions of the Bill, in increasing aad securing our commerce, in expanding our markets, and in guaranteeing our sources of supply, are those which foreshadow the conclusion of reciprocal exchanges of goods with foreign countries in harmony with the results of the Ottawa Conference. Finally, the Bill makes it clear that, after the results of that Conference are known, no duty of any kind is to be exempt from review by a Tariff Committee; and this may well bring some comfort to those who rightly hold that tariffs should be made conditional upon their consequences and upon the efficiency of British industries." AGRICULTURAL POLICY. Sir John Gilmour, Minister of Agriculture, outlined the Governments agricultural policy in the House of Commons. The principal announcements ho made were:— Wheat: Quota sehemo to pi-ovide a guaranteed market and an enhanced price. Barley:. The 10 per cent, duty will apply. Milk: The Government aimed, particularly at the improvement of milk, and had decided to set up a Reorganisation Commission under the Marketing Act. A scheme for t"he reorganisation of the industry in Scotland was already in an advanced state. Bacon: The preparation of a scheme for the organisation of the industry would be undertaken forthwith. Provided a feasible and satisfactory scheme were evolved, the Government would be prepared to. promote some form of quantitative regulation of imports. Potatoes: The Government would appoint a Reorganisation Commission if desired by the growers, with instructions to prepare a scheme for the organisation and marketing of the home crop, and to consider action for the regulation of imports of main crop potatoes. The Government, said Sir John, intended, .as far as financial circumstances would permit, to maintain and develop agricultural education and tosearch and the1 policy of land settlement. Great importance was attached to the better grading and identification of home-grown flood supplies, including, where practicable, the extension of the National Mark movement. carry a united party into the lobbies of the House of Commons in a division on a motion of censure of the Government. And in t&e same column of the same newspaper he saw that while Lord Arnold denounced tho wheat quota as a crude, fantastic, and impossible proposal, on the same day Dr. Addison was advocating it. as a sound, beneficent measure, and compilaining that had it not been for his (Viscount Snowden's) opposition this proposal for a quota would have been carried into effect under the late Labour Government. (Laughter.) . '. .