TRADE WITH GERMANY.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XII, Issue 233, 14 September 1922, Page 5

TRADE WITH GERMANY.

PROTECTION OF BRITISH TRADE. BILL BO ORE THE HOUSE. Wellington. September 14. In the House of Representatives on Wednesday night the Hon. W, D. Stewart moved the second reading of the Customs Amendment Bill, the chief feature of which was, he said, the clause dealing with countries having a depreciated currency. It was possible we might have to resume trade twith Germany at an early date, and we must be in a position to protect British goods in that event. There was what had been called a “catastrophe boom” going on in Germany at the present time, and Australia and Canada had taken powers to meet this situation. Even though it was known to be only temporary, fairly wide powers were takeq in the bill, but not, he thought, wider than might be required. x Mr. T. K. Sidey said the Government had evidently come to the conclusion, as many other countries had done, that we must resume trade with Germany. His opinion wag that a great many German goods had been coming into the Dominion for which people had to pay much higher prices than would have been the case if we had been trading direct. He considered Australia had not gone far enough in her legislation to cope with the failing mark. Therefore, he thought the Government was justified in taking the extended powers asked for in this bill. Mr. 1). G. Sullivan thought the provisions against dumping wer© inadequate. It seemed to him that the powers taken by the Minister in this connection might be abused, inasmuch as they might he used to bolster up artificial industries without conferring any benefit to the consumers. He asked for further information in this con. nection. Mr. W. A. Veitch thought that before the Minister was allowed to exercise the vast and extraordinary powers taken in this bill, the House should come to some determination what our national policy in connection with industries was to be. Mr. M. J. Savage said the bill was only a patch on a system which was already covered with patches, but in the absence of a complete change in the system he could see no alternative to giviiig the Minister the extended ppwerg asked for, because Parliament could not be sitting all the time to deal with every fall in the German mark. Mi*. H. E. Holland said he recognised th© difficulties of the position, but at the same time he did not like the great powera given to the Minister in clause 8. We were in an enormous economic tangle, and the only remedy the Government could find was to bring down such a bill as this . Time was w’hen Ministers scouted the idea of resuming trade with Germany, and anyone who suggested doing so would have been called disloyal. To-night Ministers were falling over themselves to do what they formerly repudiated. After the Minister had replied, durwhich he briefly traversed the technical points raised by the bill, the measure was read the second time.