MARKETING CONTROL

Evening Post, Issue 66, 15 September 1936, Page 10

MARKETING CONTROL

PRIMARY PRODUCE

NEW ZEALAND'S EXPERIMENT

(From "The Pest's" Representative.) LONDON, August 26. The dangers .associated with the nationalisation of New Zealand's export trade in certain primary products is pointed out by the. "Financial Times" this week. It reviews the proposals in a leading article and declares that the Government's experiment will have several important economic consequences. ■ The Government, it notes, is taking the place of the intermediate merchant, who under free conditions of trade normally intercepts a profit or saves the producer from a loss. The tendency it 'sees is this, that if a Government is purchasing in bulk for export, it will be tempted to sell in bulk, and for this purpose will try to conclude agreements with other Governments. "Thus," says the "Financial Times," international trade will tend to become still more canalised in bilateral channels, and past experience has shown that as a free international market disappears, world trade contracts and world exchange becomes more restricted. To point all this out is not necessarily to condemn this new scheme. Rather, it, urges that a Government which becomes sole exporter on behalf of the nation mustp remember that it is undertaking a very complex and specialised business, which can have serious reactions upon every phase of the nation's economic life. Provided that due precautions are taken, such a scheme may in certain circumstances be beneficial, but it is essential to recognise its inherent danger*." . ' ' ' , ■■■'..