RUSSIAN IMPORTS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 111, 7 November 1933, Page 8

RUSSIAN IMPORTS

SALE IN NEW ZEALAND

ON COMPETITIVE BASIS

Representations regarding a - wide variety of Russian goods were made to the Tariff Commission today by Mr. L. J. Duflou, managing director of L. J. Duflou, Ltd., Wellington. ■ It was submitted that the tariff schedule should be arranged so as'to give Russian manufacturers an opportunity of exporting to New Zealand on a fair and competitive basis. Reduction of foreign duties was sought in a number of cases, and. in others Mr. Duflou asked that no alteration .be made. The application covered cheinicalS| tobacco, salmon, and other tinned fish, including Russian sturgeon, chinaware, and general glassware, salt, rubber footwear, leathers, preserved fruits such as cherries, greengages, and strawberries, carpets, and electric light bulbs. In connection with chinaware and glassware, Mr. Duflou submitted that if it was really necessary to. put a brake on Japanese imports other measures should be devised without penalising the rest of the foreign countries. ■ ■ ■■'■'.•■ Professor B. E. Murphy: Have you any suggestions as to what those other measures'should be?'. "■ Mr.xDuflou: No. That is not really our province. We don't say Japanese goods should be stopped, but that goods of equal quality should be given an equal chance of being soldi. . Irrespective of where they come from?—-Yes. SLIPPER INDUSTRY. Application, was made Ly New Zea-land-Slippers, Ltd., Wellington, for retentibn of the present duties on imported slippers and extension of the tariff to include children's sizes from 3 to 9, which are now admitted free of duty. Mr. H. D. Vickery quoted figures showing that the production of slippers in New Zealand in 1928-29 was 7731 pairs, aii"d since the establishment of the company :in the following season it had increased very considerably, with the result that the production during 1931-32 was 306,128 pairs. The company was producing a large proportion of the slippers made in New Zealand, and there was no reason why. all the slippers required locally should not be made ml the-Do-minion. Extensive use was being made of chrome split, which w'as-made out of what was previously a waste product. The company's slippers were manufactured. very largely from New Zealand products, including felt, leather, and cowhair. ■ RECLASSIFICATION WANTED. Mr. A. F.. Fitchett, a. director of Johnston, Garnett, Ltd., applied. ;to have "Fergoiiella" dr.op; stitch ' printed voile, manufactured by Ferguson Bros., Ltd., Carlisle, England, classed in a different tariff schedule, so-as to permit entry freo of duty, instead • of being subject to 20 per cent.-ad valorem British preferential. tariff. Mr. Fit-chett-said ho understood that the present tariff was determined by.the Minister of Customs for the reason that in the process of , weaving threads running,in the same general direction had been made to cross one another at intervals. ENGLISH FOODSTUFFS. Representing the Food Manufacturers' Federation (Inc.), London, Mr. Edwin Salmond asked for a-reduc-tion of the "present 'duties on table jellies, custard powder, soup squares, and canned herrings. During the past four years, he. said,, there had been a serious de.clino in the exports of-these commodities to New Zealand, accounted for, no doubt, to some * extent, by the gen.eral depression, but primarily by the combined effect of duty and ex•change. ' • . Mr. Salmond also asked that canned herrings be placed on the same footing as tinned sajmpn. Whereas, he said", under the ■ British preferential tariff, canned herrings on importation into New - Zealand paid duty, at the ■rate of 2d'|p'er Jb, representing in itself approximately 44 per cent, at par Exchange, fish, potted or preserved, namely, salmon, including liquor, oil, or sauce, was admitted at the rate of l|d per lb.