TARIFF REVISION-

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 67, 21 March 1933, Page 8

TARIFF REVISION-

OTTAWA AGREEMENT

DAIRYMEN'S CRITICISM

MANUFACTURERS' REPLX

"I cannot believe that Mr. Goodfellow is serious in charging New Zealand with failure to honour her obligations under tho Ottawa Agreement," said Mr. F. Campbell, president of the New Zealand Manufacturers' Federation, when replying- today to criticism made by Mr. W. Goodfellow at a recent meeting of directors of the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company. Mr. Goodfellow said in the course'of his remarks that the dairy industry was alarmed at the-export restriction proposals. After New Zealand, by the Ottawa Agreement, had been given a free market for threo years, the drastic amendment now proposed was, in the directors' opinion, due- to the fact that New Zealand had not only. failed to carry out her obligations under the Ottawa Agreement, but also, by not promptly reducing duties to neutralise the effect of the recent exchange increase, had definitely defied the spirit, if not the letter, of the Ottawa Agreement.

"The immediate adjustments in our duties asked for by Great Britain were effected, as Mr. Goodfellow knows, within a few weeks of the Conference," said Mr. Campbell. "As regards the general tariff revision, it is common knowledge that tho British Trade Commissioner (Mr. Paish) is now in England preparing the case which he is to submit to the commission. Does Mr. Goodfellow suggest that the inquiry should commence before the United Kingdom representatives are ready? INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION. '■'Mr. Goodfellow's references to the New Zealand Manufacturers' Federation are very wide' of the mark. The federation is prepared to help the Government to obtain tho real facts about our existing tariff and its effects; and we are in a position to show how very substantial concessions can be made to the United Kingdom without in any way injuring New Zealand industries. At the same time, every reasonable person must agree that ijfc would, be madness for New Zealand now to do anything which would injure or destroy her manufacturing industries, or check industrial expansion. "Mr. Goodfellow, Mr. Poison, and the leaders of the farming industries have allowed our farmers to drift blindly into a disastrous position—a glutted market and an inferior product, absurdly high land values and interest charges, uneconomic farming methods, and inefficient marketing. As a recent statement by the Manufacturers' Federation pomted out, these farm,industries are being supported now only by subsidies and concessions charged upon the rest of. the community to the extent of not less than £12,000,000 per annum. "Let Mr. Goodfellow, Mr. Poison, and other propagandists of the farm industries turn their attention to putting their own house in order. This attack upon manufacturers is merely a 'red herring' to draw the farmers themselves away from, realising how badly their own affairs have been bungled. Manufacturers deeply regret that this country versus town issue has again' and again been raised by tho farmers. But probably the farming farmers are not as narrow and selfish as the talking farmers would have us believe."