TRADE WITH ITALY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 137, 11 June 1940, Page 10

TRADE WITH ITALY

NEW ZEALAND'S SHARE

NECESSITY TO IMPORT

New Zealand's direct export trade for 1939 with Italy was of small account, being of the Customs value of £1565; but imports from Italy, according to country of origin for that year were of the value of £ 137,837. For the first three months of 1940 exports were £131; imports £55,196. The balance of trade in favour of Italy for 1939 was £126,215; for the first quarter of the current year, £54,329.

Italy intensified its attempts to make itself independent of supplies from outside sources in the early years of the depression as a way out of the country's exchange difficulties. Still more strenuous efforts have been made in the last five years for purely political reasons.

The development of domestic resources and of substitute materials has enabled Italy to achieve a measure of success, but the country remains a poor one, according to an authority. The programme has been very costly, and has not been able to make good some important deficiencies in natural resources. Practically the whole of the oil requirements, for example, must be imported, and the chief source is America, which supplies more than three-quarters of Italian needs. Twothirds of the steel requirements are met by imports of iron ore, scrap, and semi-finished steel, mainly from France ! and the United States. Coal consumption exceeds 12,000,000 tons a year, and only about 2,500,000 tons are produced locally. Germany is the most important source, and supplies three-quarters of Italy's coal imports, but in the past about 10,000,000 tons have been shipped by sea. . -

All raw rubber supplies, the greater part of the fibres, fertilisers, and copper used, and important quantities of oilseeds and edible oils are imported.

The self-sufficiency drive has brought drawbacks in its train, as in the case of wheat, where successful efforts greatly to extend wheat cultivation have been accompanied by a marked decline in fodder and livestock production, with a corresponding increase in imports of such things. Moreover, as in Germany, the industrial machine is showing the ravages of over-driving and inadequate maintenance.