CAN MANUFACTURERS SHARE?

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 135, 5 December 1933, Page 8

CAN MANUFACTURERS SHARE?

Readjustment .of Empire-.trade has to be considered ,in the light of new ideas within the Empire units—new ideas of what should be imported and of what, should be made at home. If "the quota," as conceived by British agriculture, were taken at its face value, a revolutionary self-contain-ment might be predicted; yet it is fairly safe to say that the day of exports is by no means over. Meanwhile, Canada yand the Old Country have been engaged in an interesting post-Ottawa discussion between representatives of the British and Canadian woollen industries. Tho participants were traders, not politicians, and this fact chimes well with the remark made to the manufacturers in Wellington on Thursday evening by the Leader of the Opposition, that "a trade emissary was required to have a commercial rather than a political head on his shoulder's." As the British and the 'Canadian woollen delegates, who met in Canada in got right down to costs, and as cost figures were exchanged on a basis of mutual confidence / with secrecy to Foreign competitors, a good deal of the discussion was necessarily in camera. But the real test is whether they can arrive at a working agreement, giving effect to the competitive principle of the Ottawa agreements. To these it .is fundamental that there should be an accepted method of assessing legitimate costs. A sharing-by-consent of the Canadian woollen market, as between Canadian and British manufacturers, would be a new angle of approach to Empire trade. It is the angle that underlies much of what the; Ottawa Conference tried^to do, and is as important to New Zealand and Australia as to Canada. '.■■-'.'••'