TARIFF TREATY

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXI, Issue 306, 10 December 1931, Page 7

TARIFF TREATY

N.Z. AND BELGIUM AGREEMENT REACHED TO-DAY. HEAVY DUTY REDUCTIONS. Bv Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, Dec. 10. The tariff treaty was concluded at Parliament House this morning between Belgium and New Zealand. The two countries have'agreed to accord to each other the most favoured nation treatment and it is provided that prohibitions or restrictions on the importation or exportation of goods are not, with certain special exceptions, to be imposed unless they are similarly imposed on the products of other countries. The treaty is the first to be negotiated directly by New Zealand with a foreign country under the latitude given to British Dominions in that respect bv the decisions of the 1986 Imperial Conference. The only similar arrangement was entered into in 1928 when, by an exchange of notes, the most favoured nation treatment was mutually agreed upon between Now’ Zealand and Japan. That agreement, however, was not in the form of a treaty. The new treaty, which has been the subject of negotiation for some months past, was signed in the Prime Minister’s room at Parliament House at about 11 o’clock this morning and is signed on behalf of the Belgium Government by the Consul-General for Belgium in New Zealand, M. Armand Nihotte and on behalf of New Zealand by the Prime Minister and the Minister for Customs. The document is written both in French and in English. The tariff agreement consists of seven articles briefly setting out the terms of the treaty. It is provided that on certain goods duties both in Belgium and New Zealand shall not be higher than those fixed in the schedule. Goods passing in transit across the two countries are reciprocally free from all transit duties. The treaty is to be ratified by both Parliaments and will come into force on the fifteenth day after ratification by the two parties. There has been an increasing demand in the Belgian Parliament that the duty on butter under a minimum tarifl. should be increased. It has been arranged under the treaty that a maximum shall be fixed at about 7 per cent. The ad valorem duty on fresh fruit has been reduced from 3/- to 1/- a case. Tallow, hides, skins, greasy wool and phormium tenax entering Belgium from New Zealand are to be admitted free of duty. The duty on frozen lamb has been fixed at the equivalent of about 11 per cent.