ANGtG-GERMAN TRADE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 3, 4 July 1938, Page 12

ANGtG-GERMAN TRADE

EXPORT SUBSIDIES

THE MOTOR-CAR BUSINESS

"Evening Post." July 4,

Subsidies to exports from Germanywas the subject of a Press dispatch, cabled London, July 1, and appearing an these columns. Complaint was made of this competition with the British coal export trade, and also of the subsidies granted to leather, siik, and woollen goods, ranging in amount, it was said, from 30 to 40 per cent. Competition of Germany in the United Kingdom motor vehicle trade was the subject of complaint by Lord Perry, chairman of the Ford Motor Company. Addressing shareholders on May 10, he said that British imports of German goods in the first two months of this year were three times the rate of 1937, which, in turn, was ten times greater than in 1936. He claimed that this growth was due to the application of a secret subsidy on German exports and not to inefficiency on the part of the British industry or to an inadequacy of our tariffs. The German market, on the other hand, was closed to the British motor industry, and Lord Perry called for .urgent Government action to redress ;the position. • The increasing import of foreign cars, «Lord Perry stated, particularly of light Tears, was now a matter of serious concern. '■-■ 'After Lord Perry's remarks were the returns of the Board of "Trade showed that for the first four months of this year Great Britain im■'ported 3183 motor-cars from Germany, t. compared with 1049 during the first -.four months of 1937. Nearly all this imports came in the first three for only 13 reached England in *April. This year's imports were valued :';&t £285,849, against £91,801 a year •ago. «r Strong representations have been '^made to the Board of Trade by the ■heads of the British motor industry c against the dumping of cheap German :cars in Great Britain. "If the low-priced German cars were Being imported normally no one in this country -would have just cause for complaint," reported H. E. Symons, motoring correspondent to the "Sunday Times." But the cars are being in- - voiced for export purposes at prices! "far lower than the trade price in Ger*many, and the amount of Customs duty <paid is consequently far lower than it •; would be if importers had to pay as ■much as a German motor agent would be charged for the same cars." These cars, it was stated, were being exported from Germany as ' a means of melting frozen credits, and the German motor industry is subsidised in order that the cars may be sold in the United Kingdom at a lower price than British-made vehicles. Furthermore, the retail prices in Germany were kept high in order to compensate for the low prices obtained for cars sold abroad. Hundreds of these cars, it was stated, were "lying out in the open at Southampton, slowly rusting. Scores of garages in the neighbourhood are full up with small, German cars, waiting to be sold at knock-out prices to small dealers who will purchase a number at a time. They are then resold to the public at less than the list price, and the dealers still make a handsome proXSi. JJ Urgent action was essential to put a stop to this subsidised dumping, for the commercial vehicle manufacturers would be the next to suffer. Plans are on foot for the large-scale importation of low-priced Blitz trucks and lorries, manufactured by the Opel ComP£Board of Trade returns for May (received by air) show that imports of all foreign cars for that month were 401, compared with 1674 for May, 1937. Of the May, 1938, imports, 29 cars only came from Germany, whereas there were 642 for May, 1937. The imports from the United States for May, 1938, were 90 cars; for May, 1937, they were 645 cars. .„„ British car exports for May, 1938, were 4446, of which 1012 were for Australia. Exports for May, 1937, were 3938, of which 95 were for Australia.