BRITISH TRADE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 276, 20 October 1938, Page 11

BRITISH TRADE

AVENUES OF IMPROVEMENT. CHALLENGE TO COMPETITION. THE IMMEDIATE TASK. I United Press Association.—By Telegraph.—Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) Received October 20, 12.25 p.m. RUGBY, Oct. 29. The Parliamentary Under-Sec-retary for Overseas Trade (Mr R. S. Hudson), speaking at Sheffield, to-day, said that, unfortunately, the upward trend of British exports had ceased towards the end of 1937, and, in the first half of 1938, there had been a drop of over 10 per cent.

“Every possible method of improving our competitive position should be explored/’ Mr Hudson stated. “I am convinced that among these one of the most important is to devise machinery to enable the industries of England to speak on equal terms with competing industries abroad.” Mr Hudson went on to refer to the high standard of living and the unrivalled social services in Britain, and said that, to maintain both of those standards and her competitive position abroad, Britain must clearly show that her determination was equal to that of the other countries and match their progress with the advances in her own efficiency of production and organisations for export. This called for a united effort, both from employers and employed, aud not merely from those industries engaged in export trade, but also from the industries fortunate enough to be engaged in supplying the protected homo market. PROBLEM OF SELLING. Tile points touched on by Mr Hudson were also discussed at a special meeting called in London by the Association of British Gluunbers of Commerce to consider the export trade. Sir Granville Gibson expressed the view that the cheap money policy had lost its driving power as far as the export trade was concerned. The problem was not the producing, but the selling, and he asked if the overseas selling organisations of British industry were sufficiently skilful. He mentioned the possibility hinted at by Mr Hudson that they ought to consider related trades selling for export through some central organisations, or even the amalgamation of firms exporting with similar goods in similar markets. OPINIONS ON QUOTAS. Sir Cecil Weir condemned quotas, and complained of the prohibitively high tariffs and the foreign export bounties, but a representative of the coal trade defined the quota system, without which, he argued, it would be impossible for British coal exports to compete in foreign markets against successful coal exports from other countries. ;• Mr D. Hamilton, of Bradford, criticised the Ottawa Agreements and the policy embodied in them from which he dated the increase in the world economic and political difficulties, maintaining that a reversal of that policy would be the most effective answer to Germany’s coal trade. Sir Alan Anderson thought the solution of the difficulties ot the export trades and the shipping industry lay in the implementation of the van Zeeland report. M. van Zeeland’s remedy was appeasement, political and economic—and by far the most important was the political. They had now the right man in Mr Chamberlain to deal with that problem, and he hoped all the Chambers of Commerce would urge him forward on the road to peace. In adjourning the conference until to-morrow, Sir Granville said a halt must be called to the expenditure on social services and education, and suggested the lengthening of working hours.