TRADE MATTERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 23 January 1939, Page 8

TRADE MATTERS

DOMINION AND UNITED STATES TREATY SHOULD BE ARRANGED VIEWS OF FORMER COMMISSIONER I United Press Association! WELLINGTON, This Day. The expediency of New Zealand endeavouring to arrange a trade treaty with the United States at the earliest possible moment was emphasised by Mr J. W. Collins, a former New Zealand Trade and Tourist Commissioner to Canada and the United States, who returned by the Awatea. Before his appointment eight years ago Mr Collins was head of the Department of Industries and Commerce for nearly ten years. Mr Collins and his wife intend to settle permanently in New Zealand. After referring to the growth of trade between New Zealand and Canada, Mr Collins said that the 1939 returns would probably show a sharp decline, due to domestic products, particularly wheat, being of very low values, thus affecting the general purchasing power, but prospects indicated that the slump would be of a temporary nature, as well-informed opinion predicted that Canada was facing one of the golden eras of business for the next ten years. Regardless of affairs abroad, New Zealand’s trade relations with America were equally satisfactory, despite the temporary recessions.

Commenting on the fact that the United Kingdom and Canada had entered into truce agreements with the United States, he expressed the sincere hope that New Zealand would without undue delay seek a like agreement with Canada, which had been granted reductions on 129 items, largely in agricultural products. The Hon. Walter Nash visited Washington in 1937, and the able case put forward for closer relations was now being examined by the State Department at Washington, and it was now expedient that the matter should be further explored and if possible a treaty consummated.

The tourist traffic outlook also was most encouraging, and it was expected that the summer season should prove a record so far as visits from Canada and the United States to New Zealand were concerned. Since leaving Toronto last June Mr Collins has been in Europe, the Far East and Australia.