FOREIGN TRADE

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 121, 18 November 1936, Page 13

FOREIGN TRADE

TREATY RATIFIED

AUSTRALIA AND BELGIUM

M. Armand Niholte, Consul for Belgium in New Zealand, has been advised by cablegram from Canberra that the Belgian and Australian trade treaty, which he negotiated recently while in Australia, nas been ratified by the Commonwealth Parliament with commendation and practically no opposition. The treaty provides for the duty-free admission into Belgium of Australian wool, sheepskins, hides, and tallow, and no prohibition on imports of Australian barley, wheat, and frozen beef. Sir Henry Gullett, Australian Minister for Trade Treaties, in explaining the treaty with Belgium, said that the people of Australia, no matter what their occupation, should give wholehearted support to the trade treaty policy of the Government —a policy directed to the expansion and the intensification of primary production. Failure to expand the overseas demand for Australian goods must mean restriction of the present volume of production, which, in turn, unless the home consumption market was to be'glutted and prices broken, must mean the abrupt cessation of all scientific advancement in every branch of agriculture, in pastures improvement, like stock breeding, and orchard practices. NEED FOR TKADE TREATIES. Unless they could expand overseas consumption, rural Australia must stagnate, subdivision of large holdings with opportunities for farmers' sons and others would be blighted, and irrigation projects must come to an end. Deny markets to the farmer and cramp his purchasing power and dividends would shrink and employment fade in every part of the land. In moving actually into foreign treaty-making the Government, said Sir Henry Gullett, had proceeded on sound and profitable lines. Obviously, in return for concessions, or, in other words, an assured place in foreign markets for Australian primary produce, the Government had been obliged to make concessions in return, but it had stood above all for the restoration of general national confidence, with a view to bringing about general industrial recovery and employment for the workers in every field of activity. THE CONCESSIONS MADE. The concessions made, Sir Henry Gullett said, were:— 1. The grant to Czechoslovak and Belgian goods specified in the agreements of tariff rates recommended by the Tariff Board, based on the protective effects 6f London-Australia exchange. This tariff assessment was known as the Tariff Board (A) level. This level had already been accorded to the United Kingdom, and half the reduction has been accorded to foreign countries. 2. The grant of reductions in duty where the preferential margins to the United Kingdom were in excess of the commitments. These excess margins had been held for application in foreign treaty making. 3. Concessions with respect to the Ottawa margins of preference by agreement with the Government, of the United Kingdom. 4. Reductions of specified duty on revenue and non-protective tariff items. 5. A number of primage concessions. The total amount of primage remission involved in the two treaties was estimated at £99,000 annually. This estimate was on the basis that the same concessions would be granted to certain other countries with which Australia had most-favoured-nation obligations, and also to a few countries concerning which the Government was satisfied that provision should be made for the grant of the concessions pending conclusion of a treaty: These primage reductions would serve in part as concessions in the making of additional foreign treaties. Consequential adjustments had been necessary in a number of cases to the primage* rate on United Kingdom goods. These, however, were included in the figure of £99,000. Sir Henry Gullett also made it clear that the concessions to Belgium would be extended to other countries having agreements with Australia under the most-favoured-nation clause for twelve months. But if Within that period any such countries did not enter into a tariff trade agreement with Australia, then they could no longer enjoy the privileges granted under the most-fav-oured-nation clause. No such stipulation, it is understood, was made when New Zealand entered into its two trade agreements with Belgium in 1933 and 1936. EXCHANGE OF PRODUCTS. Referring to trade with foreign nations generally Sir Henry Gullett remarked: "Ideal conditions for the disposal of our surplus primary production are that it should have as many overseas markets as are attainable. There is nothing in the least inconsistent in this declaration of policy with the Government's part in the present dispute with a certain country. Overseas markets, valuable as they are, may prove unacceptable to Australia on an unlimited basis, unless the conditions governing the exchange of products are of a kind satisfactory to the Commonwealth. It is not wise that we should become so dependent upon any one market as to prejudice our Australian national interests as a whole. The exception to this principle is, of course, trade with the United Kingdom."