PREFERENTIAL TARIFF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19291, 1 April 1926, Page 10

PREFERENTIAL TARIFF.

PARTLY- BRITISH GOODS.

THE 50 PER CENT. RULE. APPLICATION FROM TO-DAY. Customs preference for British goods entering New Zealand is modified from today by a requirement that at least half tho value of tho goods must have been created in British territory. Formerly the proportion was only 25 per cent. It was proposed more than two years ago that the percentage of value should be raised, as the Government considered that quantities of goods coming in under the preferential tariff were hardly more than nominally British. Regulations were gazetted on October 2, 1924, fixing the proportion at 75 per cent. They wero to bo operative from April 1, 1925, but before that date their enforcement was suspended in order that the whole question might bo reconsidered. It was felt at the time that to require so high a percentage of British value would inflict a hardship on manufacturers of certain goods. Accordingly, a fresh set of regulations, fixing the proportion at 50 per cent, was promulgated on November 26 last, to be operative on April 1, 1926. How the Change Applies.

British preferential duty now applies to tho following:—(a) Goods wholly the produce of British countries; (b) goods wholly manufactured in British countries from British materials; (c) goods manufactured in British countries from foreign raw material or from certain specified foreign partly-manufactured materials; (d) goods which have undergone their final process of manufacture in British countries. It is tho last class that the 50 per cent, requirement affects. The value basis is the factory or works cost of tho finished goods, and it is provided that the expenditure in British material or British labour, or both, must be not less than the proportion named. In determining the factory cost, no account is to be taken of manufacturer's profit or the remuneration of any trader or other person dealing in tho finished goods, nor of royalties, cost of outside packages, pack-, ing or shipment of tho finished goods. Certain Exceptions. The value does not have to be analysed if the goods are wholly manufactured in a British country from raw or partlymanufactured foreign raw materials, a schedulo of which latter appears in the regulations. These include such materials as metals in pigs or other crude forms, crude and refined oils, hides and skins, coir yarn, rags, strawboard and woodpulp. The Customs Department requires an analysis of value to be declared by the manufacturer or supplier of the goods. In any doubtful case, the consignee is charged full duty or required to give an equivalent guarantee, and the matter is referred to the department's resident officer in London or New York for inquiry. The New York officer makes regular trips to Canada, and is therefore able to make all necessary inquiries about goods from that Dominion. It is expected that the new regulations will affect fairly large classes of goods made from foreign materials that have hitherto been a little above the 25 per cent. mark. These include Italian felt hats finished in Britain and envelopes made from Swedish paper. Some motorcars from Canada may possibly be no longer entitled to preference, though the best-known machine manufactured there is well over 90 per cent. Canadian.

The regulations apply to goods actually arriving in New Zealand to-day and latei, regardless of the date of shipment.