FOREIGN TRADE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 153, 31 May 1937, Page 8

FOREIGN TRADE.

EMPIRE RAW MATERIALS. An appeal to the Dominions to make their raw materials accessible to foreign countries was made by tl|e South African Minister of Commerce (Mr Fourie) in an interview with the London Daily Telegraph. He warned tliat the manufacture of synthetic materials and the search for substitutes were uneconomic. It was better, he said, for the Dominions to make clear that countnes needing raw products could have them in exchange for trade. The only question was how best to achieve this exchange—by agreements betu een a European country and a particulai Dominion, between the Empire and individual foreign countries, or through some economic arm of the League ot Nations. . '. . , , The voice of some Dominion might bo a small voice, but a plea from the whole Empire might yield definite results. “Within the limits of the obligations to ourselves (meaning Ottawa), the United Kingdom and the Dominions ought to reserve a substantial portion of their trade for foreign countries, he said. , ~ , Trade conducted along the lines he had suggested was basically part or what Mr Lyons had put forward in his Pacific understanding, although it was yet too early to go into the widei implications of that proposal.