Butter Barrier Removed

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 238, 8 October 1936, Page 5

Butter Barrier Removed

ACTION BY TRANCE ■An official decree cancelling, from October 10 compensatory exchange on Australian and New Zealand products is announced in a Tress . Association cablegram irorn i'ans. Tno cancoua tion, a further message states, is accompanied by decrees limiting the SmoJapaneso. exchange tax to 10 per cent., reducing the duties on goods not subject to quotas by 20 per cent, iu the case of raw materials, 17 per cent, m the case of semi-manufactured goods and 15 per cent, in the case of manufactures. Tho duties ou quota goods are reduced by 20 per cent. The decrees are aimed at checking excessive prices.

Shortly after Now Zealand depreciated her currency by raising the exchange rate London in January, 1033, franco introduced a retaliatory measure by placing a compensatory duty on Lew Zealand butter and oneesu imported into f ranco. Action was also taken against Australia. Canada adopted a similar course, these being tno only two countries to impose penalties on account of tho mcerase iu tho rate of exchange. In some quarters it is felt that this step is ouo of the first of tho many benelieial results .ikely to arise from tho co-operation of Great Britain witu Trance in tiding the latter country over the present monetary crisis. It is also pointed out that the decree coincides with the end of thy Trench dairying season and that finding herself short of dairy products Trance nas cnoseu a convenient time to iower the oarner which has eilectiveiy operated against New Zealand and Australian imports for over three years.

JLn recent years Trance has maintained a rigid quota system on butter and cheese, with a very heavy tariil on butter. This has had tho eiicot of heavily reducing her imports. This reduced trade has been shado by Denmark, tho Netherlands and the Argentine so far as butter is concerned, and by tho Netherlands, Switzerland and Italy in the case of cheese. Although with tho abolition of the retaliatory duty New Zealand still faces au obstacle in surmounting the ordinary duties imposed by Trauco against the Dominion's produce the decisions of the Trench Government contain welcome signs of a general weakening in tariff walls.