PARTLY-BRITISH GOODS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18565, 24 November 1923, Page 10

PARTLY-BRITISH GOODS.

A question of very great importance was revived by the Industrial Association in its. conference with the Minister for Customs yesterday —the proportion of British value required to qualify for preferential customs treatment. At present preference is extended to goods that are wholly the production of the British Dominions, goods of British manufacture from foreign raw material, and goods in which only the final processes of manufacture have been performed within the Empire, provided that not less than one-fourth of the' finished value is due to British materials or labour. Even in normal circumstances, it was found j

that the 25 per cent, proportion was too low, permitting what might' be called quarter-caste British goods to enter into competition with Empire manufactures in a manner that was antagonistic to both popular sentiment and the principle of the legislation. Present conditions aggravate the anomaly, for it is evident

that the regulation will permit good l that are actually of foreign production to enter the Dominion under a thin camouflage of British nationality, and evidence is already accumulating that some traders in Ergland are exploiting the opportunity to make profits by passing such goods on to New Zealand. Mr. Stewart expressed his sympathy with the views of the Industrial Association, but declared that as the matter had been decided by a Customs Conference a few years ago, it was not in the power of the Dominion to amend the existing regulation without the consent of all the other countries concerned. This difficulty .should not be insuperable. The one-fourth ratio was fixed many years ago by regulations, and while it may have been endorsed by a later conference, it is surely a matt ir in which the Dominion should be free to act independently. If that independence has been compromised, the first step would be to advise the other parties to the agreement of whatever action is contemplated. No such agreement should be allowed to stand in the way of a new rule, for the present arrangement may be injurious to New Zealand industries, and it is certainly of no benefit to British manufacturers, and makes no contribution to the relief of British unemployment. The purpose of the preference policy will, in fact, be largely defeated if this absurd regulation is preserved as a loophole for the admission of cheap foreign goods that have acquired a British flavour by passing through the hands of a trader in England. ,