APPEAL AGAINST TARIFF REVISION

Northern Advocate, 8 January 1938, Page 2

APPEAL AGAINST TARIFF REVISION

In connection with the requests which have been made by the New Zealand boot and shoe industry, to the New Zealand Government, for an increase in the import duty on boots and shoes, the tariff committee cf the Federated Associations .of Boot and Shoe Manufacturers of Great Britain and Ireland has sent to the Minister of Finance representations asking that no further import duly should be imposed and that no quota system for imports should be established, says a communication from the Bureau of Importers. The general lines of the representations made to the Minister of Finance are as fellows: — 1. These representations arc made on behalf of virtually the whole of the United Kingdom boot and shoo industry. 2. There was a very full hearing before the New Zealand Tariff Board in 1934 when the duty was adjusted to its present level. Expansion Here Since 1934. 3. Since 1034, the New Zealand footwear industry has expanded and flourished. This is proved by the report on the boot and shoe industry in the Dominion “Monthly Abstract of Statistics,” September, 1937, published by the Census and Statistics Department, Wellington. 4. The boom period of late 1936 and early 1937 is over. Reports from many United Kingdom manufacturers show that orders for New Zealand have fallen off. No doubt it will be found that the reports from United Kingdom manufacturers are confirmed by the results of the New Zealand Department of Industry and Commerce investigations into the footwear industry. Position Due to Overstocking.

5. The position of the New Zealand industry is due to over-stocking by wholesalers who bought in excess of normal requirements for fear a rising market was gc-ing to rise still higher. Evidence- that this cause of the position was known to the New Zealand Government is provided by the speeches of the Prime Minister on October 15. reported in the “Dominion,” Wellington, on October 16, and of the Minister of Finance in the House of Representatives on October 25, reported in the Wellington press on October 26. 6. New Zealand costs are understood to have risen by 10 per cent., owing to the reduction of hours from 44 to 40 and wages increases. Since the tariff adjustment in 1934, United Kingdom costs have gone up by api proximately the same amount. Hours | have been reduced from 48 to 46 and will again be reduced next June to 45 hours per week. Wages and Hours. The combined effect of the reduction in hours and rise in wages will be that the wage rates per hour will, by June, 1938, have increased by 14.7 per cent, for male dayworkers and 22.8 percent. for female dayworkers. The percentage increase in wage i*ates per hour averaged over all workers is indeterminate between these figures and the bare 61 per cent, and 5 per cent, advances in male and female piecework price statements. Cost of materials has risen by amounts varying up to 30 per cent. Sample costings showing the factory I price in the United Kingdom 1934, as ' compared with 1937, show an average j increase of 9 per cent. | 7. The combined effect of tariff, de-1 predation of New Zealand exchange, i freight, marketing expenses, etc., is that the landed cost in New Zealand in New Zealand currency, is 70 per . cent, above the United Kingdom fac-1 tory cost in United Kingdom currency, i Broad View Urged. j

8 It is suggested that the question of the imposition of a quota is not a matter which can be decided merely on the circumstances of the boot and shoe industry, but on broad grounds of policy. 6. In conclusion, it is suggested that the representations show that no change unfavourable to the New Zealand boot and shoe industry> in the basis of relative cost of economical and efficient production in the United Kingdom and in New Zealand, has taken place since 1934, and that, in consequence, the New Zealand Government, in its desire to give effect to Article 8 of the United Kingdom-New Zealand Trade Agreement, will not wish to alter the duty.