AUSTRALIAN TARIFFS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 111, 7 April 1930, Page 7

AUSTRALIAN TARIFFS.

EMERGENCY MEASURE. OFFICIAL STATEMENT. SYDNEY, April 6. Mr F. M. Forde, acting-Minister of Trade and Customs, has issued a statement declaring that the new tariff measure has been introduced merely to meet a national emergency, and not as part of the Government’s protective policy. It is primarily intended to restrict imports. “Australia is a debtor nation,” Mr Forde adds. “Her house must bo put in order. One thing the Government is determined upon is that Australia shall honour her obligations. We took this action only after 6erious consideration, and after advice was sought from the banks and others in a position to say which was the best way to rectify Australia’s adverse trade balance, which amounts to £90,000,000 for the past six years. A group of representative business men conferred with the Premier of New South Wales, Mr T. R. Bavin, on the subject of the trade depression and financial stringency, the main object being to explore methods of reducing the cost of production without causing further unemployment, and at the same time ensuring a corresponding reduction in the cost of living. A committee was formed to prepare a report. The State Treasurer, Mr Bertram Stevens, also conferred with the banks in order to get their views. Five hundred workers at the huge Port Kembla iron and steel works have received notice of dismissal. Scores of miners employed at Hoskins’s local collieries have been reduced to half-time. It is stated that the reason for the retrenchment is the cancellation of orders for steel girders owing to slackness in the building trade, and the suspension of railway contracts at Wollongong and Port Kembla. The workers’ families are in a panic. OPINION IN AMERICA. VARIETY OF COMMENT. WASHINGTON, April 5. A variety of comment, official and unofficial, concerning the Australian tariff schedule indicates a variance of opinion concerning the seriousness of its effect on American trade, although everywhere there is much interest in what some of the observers declare to be “the highest tariff barrier in the world.” The Associated Press reports that the Department of Commerce officials predict that American exports to Australia will decline approximately 59 per cent., both as the result of the schedule and the business depression existing in the Commonwealth. The exports to Australia last year were valued at 159,000,000 dollars and totalled 3 per cent, of America’s export trade. The prohibition of manufactured tobacco is expected to react favourably on America’s export of leaf tobacco to the Commonwealth, which in 1929 totalled 7,065,000 dollars. Officials are confident, however, that as soon as the stocks of American goods on hand are reduced and Australian business conditions improve, the emergency schedule will be lifted. However, it is stated that while striking directly against America’s foreign trade in automobiles, Australia’s schedule is viewed with little concern by Government trade officials. America’s trade with Australia amounts to only three-tenths of one per cent, of this country’s total foreign business. The New York Times’s vVaslungton correspondent says: “Late last year it was planned for the American consuls in Australia to file exceptions to the tariff lists then in the making, but this was not done when there was no evidence of „■ discrimination. The new tariff is expected generally to cut American trade.”

Mr Hawley, a member of the House of Representatives who has played an important part in the revision of the American tariff said to-day that he preferred to make no comment on the Australian schedule until he had had an opportunity to study the details. Nevertheless, he pointed out that the United States was not in a position to make a protest unless it could show that there was direct discrimination against American trade. RETALIATION BY FRANCE. LONDON, April 5. The Australian Press Association is authoritatively informed that, owing to the increase in tariff duties, France is contemplating retaliatory action against Australian goods. Australia House has not been officially informed yet, but officials have received advice that the tariff will come as a blow to the potteries. The director of one of the largest firms in North Staffordshire, which sends its own travellers to Australia, and which has built up a substantial business there, stated to-day: “It will cause us severe loss.” The head of a firm of sanitary-ware makers said: “A large proportion of our trade is with the Commonwealth.” The Times commends the courage of the Scullin Government in tackling the crisis, and says: “British trade will be adversely affected, but the setback must be accepted philosophically.” The Financial News asks: “Will not the rise in internal prices exaggerate Australia’s present difficulties? The new laws should be given a definite time limit.”