IMPERIAL TRADE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 290, 5 November 1934, Page 6

IMPERIAL TRADE

NEW ZEALAND AND BRITAIN. REDUCTION OF ADVERSE BALANCE SOUGHT. Brigadier-General Sir Henry Page Croft, G.M.G., M.P., who is chairman of the Empire Industries Association, 18 Abingdon Street, London, m a letter to tile editor, says : . In view of the increasing interest which is being shown both at Home and in the Dominions regarding problems of Imperial trade and settlement, may I, through your columns, repeat publicly the congratulations already cabled by the Empire Industries Association to the Prime Minister of New Zealand on the Dominion’s revision of its tariffs in favour of British manuTliis association, whose membership includes over 300 members of Parliament, warmly welcomes the tendency towards greater reciprocity in Empire trade relations which is indicated by the action of the New Zealand Government. Board of Trade returns show that New Zealand is now rapidly increasing her purchases of British goods and in the quarter ended June 30, 1934, her imports from Britain were 32 per cent, higher than in the corresponding period of 1933. New Zealand has achieved a brilliant success in marketing her goods in the United Kingdom, where as one of the most loyal of the Dominions she always enjoys a particular welcome. She has not been slow to take advantage of the fact that since the United Kingdom became a protectionist country her products have continued to enjoy free entry, while those of her competitors have been subjected to duties and other forms of restriction.

The New Zealand representatives have shown their enterprise by seizing the new opportunities created by our adoption of a protectionist system, while the New Zealand Dairy Board has been singularly effective in its efforts to extend sales in the markets of the North and Midlands of England and in Scotland, where foreign products had obtained such a strong hold. The conveyance of goods from a country so distant as New Zealand has been of marked assistance to our shipping during a period of particular distress in that industry. I might add that to my own knowledge the New Zealand board’s representatives in London have done most useful work in keeping members of the Imperial Parliament apprised of the facts in relation to the world dairying situation and have so strengthened the claims of the Dominion producers vis-a-vis the foreigner. While I welcome the growth in the sales of New Zealand produce in the United Kingdom and also the increased sales of Great Britain’s produce in New Zealand, I must draw attention to the disparity which still exists. In the June quarter of 1934 imports of New Zealand produce valued c.i.f. were £13,583,000 as compared with £2,539,000 worth of British exports to New Zealand (valued f.0.b.). Of course. I realise that a considerable part of this difference arises from the interest payments which New Zealand makes on money borrowed from the United Kingdom, but may I express the sincere hope that as a sequel to the important new preferences just accorded by New Zealand, there will be a reduction in this adverse balance of trade, brought about by no diminution of imports from New Zealand but by a large expansion in exports to New Zealand.

The Lord Provost of Glasgow, at the recent conclusion of a New Zealand daily produce campaign there, said that “New Zealand is showing more enterprise in selling her produce than any other British country.” I would add that the same spirit is animating the efforts of her trade representatives to strengthen the ties of Empire trade, but it is equally necessary that the representatives of British industries should show the same enterprise in marketing British goods in New Zealand, and I feel sure that if they will do so they will continue to receive the same cordial welcome that we are so glad to extend to representatives of New Zealand.