GRADUAL TARIFF REMOVAL

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 19 October 1933, Page 5

GRADUAL TARIFF REMOVAL

DUTIES ON BRITISH GOODS. REQUEST BY MEAT BOARD. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Oct. 18. An immediate substantial reduction in duties on British goods, to be followed by the removal of the balance o£ the dutes at the rate of 25 per cent, a year, was advocated by the New Zealand (Meat Producers’ Board in lengthy evidence submitted to the Tariff Commission to-day by Sir William Hunt, a member of the board. It was urged that no change should be made in the tariff on goods from other countries, including the British Dominions, except upon a reciprocal basis, and that in arranging any r such charges British interests should be considered' as well as those of New Zealand. Three submissions were made to the commision on; behalf of the Whisky' Association of the United Kingdom. The first was that the commission recommended a substantial decrease in the existing spirit duty of 40s per proof gallon and a reversion to the rate of duty more nearly approximating to 18s per proof gallon in vogue until 1921. The second was that the mode of assessing the duty on Scottish and Irish whisky be on the basis of actual strength in relation to the proof gallon or alternatively that in assessing duty the arbitrary limitation of strength to 16.5 degrees under proof now imposed be amended to 25 degrees under proof. The third was that whisky be not imported unless it be of five year maturity.

CONDITIONS IN JAPAN

LONGER HOURS; LOWER WAGES

WELLINGTON, Oct. 18

The British industry in general contends that the basic explanation of the merenso m Japanese exports at the expense of United Kingdom exports is the existing conditions of hours and wages in the Japanese industry, was stated as part of a case presented today to the Tariff Commiss’on on behalf of the Silk Association of Great Britain and Ireland. Japanese competition whether described as fair or unfair, was possible only because of the conditions of longer hours and lower wages, which conditions were not tolerated in the United Kingdom.

Any reduction of the wages of United Kingdom operatives, it was mentioned, would result) in diminishing the purchasing power of the United Kingdom customer buying New Zealand lamb, wool' and dairy produce.