HOMELAND TARIFFS

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 February 1932, Page 5

HOMELAND TARIFFS

GOVT.’S AIMS OUTLINED

WEAPON FOR BARGAINING

[BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.]

RUGBY, February 15Exceptional interest was displayed in the Commons debate on the Imports Duties Bill, which with the proposals for dealing with agriculture, outlined last week, constitute the main part of the Cabinets' scheme for meeting the National Emergency. Major Elliot, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, moving the second reading, said that the Government sought by this measure to correct the balance of payments, to check the depreciation of the pound, to secure freedom of trade by offering advantages to other countries in return for advantages they might give Britain, to have an instrument to meet discrimination against the British, to encourage British people to secure a reasonable share of their markets, and to fortify the finances of the country by a not unduly high u but a widely spread,' revenue duty. Referring to the Advisory Committee to be set up, he said that its duty / would be to consider the position of consumers as well as producers. It could recommend duties additional to ten per cent advalorem, which might or' might not be subject to drawbacks. Part two of the bill gave power to the Board to add supplementary duties to be imposed in the case of foreign discrimination. The Government believed that Britain with its huge markets had a more powerful lever under the bill than any other country, and it would be used to bring down duties. The Government fully recognised the necessity for preserving the country’s great entrepot trade, and this was provided for in part three of the bill, which contemplated dealing with it not by a single specific proposal, but by proposals applied to the needs in each case.

LABOUR LEADER’S OPPOSITION-

LONDON, February 16.

In the Commons, Mr Lansbury moving the rejection of 1 the Imports Bill, on the ground that the provisions were irrevelant in the present crisis, claimed that despite tariffs the United States, which was a creditor nation, is still on the gold standard, and a rich self-contained country, had eight to twelve millions unemployed, and it was reported that hundreds of children were dying, and thousands were homeless and starving.

TRADE WITH DOMINIONS.

LONDON, February 13.

Mr Neville Chamberlain (Chancellor of the Exchequer),-speaking at Birmingham, said: When we impose the new duties we shall not allow them to operate against goods from the Dominions until the matter is fully discussed. We are confident that having begun in an enthusiastic spirit, we will find a response in the Dominions, and shall leave the Ottawa Conference with a commercial treaty ensuring that every one of the Dominions, will buy from Britain what they do not manufacture themselves. We shall negotiate with foreign countries a few months hence regarding reciprocal commercial relations.

The “Daily Express” and “Daily Mail” ask: Why are newssprint, woodpulp, and rubber being admitted free under the British tariff? Why are the Dominions deprived of the preference which should be theirs? CONFERENCE AGENDA. OTTAWA, February 13. The Canadian Government is not in a position to reveal the agenda of the Ottawa Imperial Conference, and may not be during the session, so Premier Bennett informed Mr Mackenzie King in the House of Commons. The agenda, he said, was a matter of negotiation between the Empire countries.

SIR J. PARR INTERVIEWED.

HAWERA, February 16.

In an interview with, the “Hawera Star,” Sir James Parr endorsed the suggestion made by Mr. G. A. Duncan, well-known in dairying circles, that the primary producers should confer and decide which British articles they are prepared to see granted tariff preference, as an expression of appreciation of Britain’s extension of the 10 per cent, preference to the Dominions. “I am confident,” said Sir J. Parr, “that British people would value the expressions of gratitude from the primary producers . We need to encourage a kindly feeling between the Homeland and ourselves, so that both Governments may go to the Ottawa Conference with tihe best possible atmosphere for making a great trade treaty.

I do not see how our Government can go to the Conference without getting the opinion of primary producers in some way. I suggest that a cablegram of appreciation from the dairying interests, to Mr. Neville Chamberlain, would strengthen the hands of our friends in London.”