PRODUCE & MARKET REPORTS FROM DAY TO DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 131, 30 November 1933, Page 16

PRODUCE & MARKET REPORTS FROM DAY TO DAY

RECIPROCAL TARIFF

TRADE WITH AUSTRALIA

THE NEW AGREEMENT

"Evening Post," November 30,

The new Australian and New Zealand trade agreement operates as from to-mor- ' row. It was described by the Commonwealth Minister of Customs as ''the ■ maximum benefit which it was possible, < under present conditions/ to obtain in a ' tariff agreement with New Zealand."

The New Zealand Alinister of Customs, Mr. J. G. Coates, has expressed the hope that full advantage will be tiken by ' the' Dominion o£ the trading facilities ■ which the agreement will' afford. The ■- chief concessions under the agreement may be summarised as under. Each country grants to the goods of the ' other the benefits of its British prefer- ' ential tariff, although in each ,case there ' are certain classes of goods on which special rates have been fixed. In order to protect New Zealand industries duties on the following principal ' classes of Australian . goods have been fixed at rates higher than those in force on similar United Kingdom goods:—Potatoes, fresh cherries, canned fruits, jams, soap, sugar of milk, rennet,'woollen rugs, blankets and textiles, footwear other than '"' rubber, leather manufactures, earthern roofing tiles, galvanised iron manufactures, ■ tinware, gas heating and cooking appliances; ■ ' Duties lower than those collected by the New Zealand Customs under the British preferential tariff have been granted by: New Zealand on certain Australian goods, including cotton seed, meal, hay, chaff, oats, dried peas, fish, fish pastes and 1 soups, wine, eucalyptus, oil, chamois lea- . ther, vacuum pumps for milking ma^ chines, certain oil engines, and timber. \ ' DRIED FRUITS. Australia over a long period has .been endeavouring to persuade the New Zealand Government to place a duty on for 7 eign raisins. It, has now agreed to impose on them a duty pf Id pe¥ lb. In 1931 jfew; Zealand imported, raisinsto the value of '£249,000, of which Australia supplied £180,000. With the preference now ' granted by New Zealand the Commonwealth Government believes that Australia should' be able to oust all foreign competitors, of which the United States of America is the principal. In regard to canned pineapple, there is a market valued* at £30,000 per annum for Australia to capture. About 70 per cent, of the goods Australia sends to New Zealand are manufactures of secondary" industries. The trade is almost wholly dependent on_the tariff' preferences received .in New 4ealand. The value of the agreement to Australia, may be gauged from this fact, ~; IMPORTS FROM NEW ZEALAND. Lower duties than those under the British preferential tariff are provided on the following New Zealand products entering Australia:—Stilton cheese, fresh and smoked fish, fish', pastes, dried peas, hay, chaff, fresh, smoked, and preserved meats, toherbaand other, fish soups, onions, lucerne - seed; wine, furs, hats and . caps,; ■woollen floor rugs,-pig iron, various agricultural and dairying machinery,, petrol pumps, various kinds of machinery, oil engines, whale oil, casein, sugar of milk, timber, chamois leather, and cartridges. PR!WAGE AND SALES TAX. Article VI exempts New Zealand goods, from primage, which on present trade amounts to about £55,000 yearly. New Zealand's rate of primage is 3 per cent,, and this rate applies only to Australian goods which are free under'the New Zealand tariff. Goods of Australian origin ■which are subject to.tariff duty pay no •^Article XI provides for!a reciprocal arrangement under which exemption from sales tax is granted , where the local goods are exempt from sales tax. That is if any class of New Zealand goods is exempt in New Zealand from sales tax, like Australian goods will also be exempt in New Zealand. The same provision applies reciprocally to New Zealand goods imported into Australia, if like Australian goods are. exempt in Australia. With the coming into force of the new agreement the Australian-New Zealand .agreement of 1922 will cease to have effect! THE TRADE BALANCE. •Mr. L. J. Schmitt, JNew Zealand Trade Commissioner in Australia, has stated that in two years.the balance of trade in •Australia's favour was £2,934,000. In other words, Australia had enjoyed U per cent, and New Zealand 28 per cent, of the trans-Tasman trade during the period. The figures showed a great reduction in the total value exchanged in prior years. Lower prices and reduced quantities, the latter in some cases only, had been largely responsible for the falling off Other factors had been'the movements of exchange and increases in primage and other; charges. . New Zealand had purchased from. Australia during tbo last decade goods to the value of £38,250,000, and during the same period Australia had purchased New Zealand products to the value of £24,300,000, the balance in Australia's favour being £13 850;000. New Zealand had increased its .proportion of several' important* classes of imports from Australia during the past three years.. | . ■• "While Australia is a good customer of New Zealand products,^ Mr. Schmitt added, "it is hoped and expected in the Dominion that the new treaty may tend to increase generally the total exchange " of trans-Tasman trade, and assist to place New Zealand in a more favourable position than it has been and is at present in legard to its adverse balance.'':