AUSTRALIAN TARIFF

Evening Star, Issue 22379, 1 July 1936, Page 9

AUSTRALIAN TARIFF

FURTHER EFFECTS OF CHANGES AMERICA IK RETALIATORY MOOD Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright WASHINGTON, June 29. . The Treasury Department has announced that President Roosevelt has ordered the withdrawal, beginning on August 1, of all trade benefits accruing to Australia under the reciprocal trade treaties. The order followed a communication from President Roosevelt to .the Secretary of the Treasury (Mr H. Morgenthau), in which the President invoked his authority under the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act, which provides for the suspension of the application of tariff rates to any country “ because of its discriminatory treatment of American commerce or because of, other acts or policies which, in his opinion, tend to defeat the purposes set forth in the Act.”

President Roosevelt’s letter declared: “ You are hereby notified that I find ns a fact that the treatment of American commerce by the Commonwealth of Australia is discriminatory. I therefore direct that the proclaimed duties shall cease to be applied to the products of Australia entered for consumption or withdrawn from warehouses for consumption on or after August 1.”

President Roosevelt further ordered Mr Morgenthau to publish his decision in an early issue of the weekly Treasury decisions. Australia thus joins Germany on the Treasury’s so-called black list of countries excluded from tariff benefits under the reciprocal agreement. The practical effects on Australian imports for the present are said by trade experts here not to be great, inasmuch as the United States imports of important Australian products have not figured largely in the reciprocal agreements so far negotiated. .The imports likely to be affected include certain ores, sausage casings, wines, hides, and skins, but, in the event of the completion of additional agreements with other countries, the President’s action will undoubtedly assume larger practical proportions. Whether the Treasury’s order will operate against the prospects of a reciprocal trade agreement between the United States and Australia is a matter on which trade experts decline to make predictions. At Los Angeles a sub-committee dealing with the Australian embargoes decided to recommend to the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce to suggest that Australia appoint a Minister at Washington with a view to ironing out trade problems, and that the Pacific Coast Chambers of Commerce urge Australia to send a delegation of business men to America with samples of exportable goods, except primary products which compete with American products.

The opinion was expressed that Australian hardwoods, minerals, metals, coke, coal, and hides could be sold in. America. It was. felt that Australia was partly to blame for the unbalanced trade owing to the inadequacy of sales efforts. PURELY NOMINAL EFFECT STATEMENT BY MINISTER.OANBERRA, July 1. (Received July 1, at 11.5 a.m.) The Australian Minister in Charge of Trade Treaties . (Sir Henry Gullett) stated that none of Australia’s important exports to the United States would be affected by President Roosevelt’s order. He added that the effect of the United States action was purely nominal. Examination of States most favoured nation treaties had failed to disclose any benefits upon imports into the United States from Australia.