Manawatu Evening Standard. WEDNESDAY, MAY 27, 1936. BILATERAL TRADE TREATY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 150, 27 May 1936, Page 8

Manawatu Evening Standard. WEDNESDAY, MAY 27, 1936. BILATERAL TRADE TREATY

The Minister of Finance (Hon. W. Nash) will endeavour, during his visit to London, to enter into a bilateral trade treaty with Britain, and is hopeful of arranging it. Others who take a practical view of affairs are not so sanguine of the Minister’s success, though lie may accomplish something in the direction he desires. It goes without saying that Mr Nash wall do his very -utmost to achieve success, and everyone in New Zealand would like to see him succeed, but this goodwill does not blind us to the difficulties confronting the Minister. It was long' ago stated that Britain would not enter into a bilateral trade agreement with any of the Dominions, but, even if Britain departed from this decision, there are other obstacles in the way. We want to export more meat along with other primary products to Britain, while Britain is determined to protect her own meat producers. The position of the British beef producer has been an unenviable one. Ever since the autumn of 1934 he has had a Government subsidy'equal to Id a pound. Places, however, have continually sagged and the position is still very little better than before the subsidy scheme was introduced. It is claimed for the British producer that present prices are quite uneconomic and the fact that beef is produced at all can be accounted for only by the natural inertia of a huge industry, observes an authority, who says further that the difficulties are enough to daunt most students of the problem, so involved is the v existing trade m live stock. It is unnecessary to refer to the efforts and operations of Britain’s Milk Marketing Board, nor yet the Pm Board. The point to be realised is that Britain is making special efforts to revive her agricultural industry, her oldest industry and one that absorbs the labour of more people than that of any other industry in the country. And we must allow that Britain has a right to do this and to do it in her own way. Because we have stimulated production through subsidies, bounties and concessions of one kind and another does not give us the right or the pri\ilege to dump our produce on the British market to the detriment of British agriculture. We resent other countries dumping their subsidised products on our local markets, and we must admit that others have equal privileges. The recent discussion in the House of Commons makes it clear that Britain will demand a quid pro quo for any concessions she may make to the Dominions. “Tax for tax is the British slogan, and our Minister of Finance will discover that to

be a difficult liurdle to negotiate. Major Elliot, the British Minister of Agriculture, long ago expressed the view that both tariff and quota would be necessary to protect British agriculture. The British Treasury must be recouped to the amount of the subsidies, and that can be achieved by imposing levies, and quotas would be necessary to regulate imports. It seems that we must recast our views regarding trade with Britain and endeavour to realise that we can no longer dump our products on Britain’s markets at our own pleasure. Viewing the conditions as they exist it is difficult to see how the Minister can succeed to the full extent of his plans.