TRADE WITH INDIA.

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 78, 1 April 1936, Page 14

TRADE WITH INDIA.

Mr. C. Lawton, principal of a firm of importers and exporters at Colombo, who recently arrived in Sydney, said that high freight rates between Australia and India were depriving Australia of a splendid outletfor many of its products. Ceylon had no manufactures, he said, and was forced to import almost the whole of her foodstuffs and manufactured goods. The dense population required a tremendous volume of imports and Australia was not securing her fair share of this trade. On all lines of produce the freight to England was lower than that for the considerably shorter distance to Ceylon. On top of that, shippers experienced great difficulty .in securing sufficient refrigerated space for the shorter voyage, and Australian trade was suffering from these setbacks, which caused the cost of the Australian article to rise • above a ■ competitive fipure, .while shipping facilities enabled both Japanese and American exporters to sell at keen prices and capture the bulk of the trade.