CLAIMS FOR PROTECTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19503, 6 December 1926, Page 10

CLAIMS FOR PROTECTION.

The suggestion that claims for increased tariff protection should be publicly examined has been rejected by the Minister of Customs, for reai sons which he has set out in correspondence with the Auckland Chamber of Commerce. They certainly present an impressive case for the secret inquiry which the Tariff Commission has been charged to undertake, but the argument is not decisive. The Minister contends that manufacturers claiming protection and importers opposing such proposals would object to the publication of information regarding their affairs, on the ground that it would be of advantage to their competitors. This view of the matter does not give sufficient consideration to the interests of the other party concerned in the granting of a protective duty—the general body of consumers, including other industries subject to the reaction of the tariff change. An applicant for protection asks for public assistance in meeting foreign competition, for the right to charge a higher price than could be obtained if the competitive imports were not handicapped. The cost of that shelter must be borne by the consumers; surely they are entitled to ask for substantial justification of every claim before it is granted, and to conclude that the reluctance of any claimant to face public examination is a measure of the weakness of his case. The Minister illustrates his argument by reference to a manufacturer's unwillingness to disclose information to his competitors, apparently in the same industry in Now Zealand. But alterations to the tariff cannot be made for the benefit of individual manufacturers ; they must be based upon consideration of the industry as a whole, and it is the industry, not its constituent manufacturers, that would have to face the ordeal of public examination. There is a precedent, not less appropriate because the political circumstances are different, in the procedure adopted in Britain. There, an industry seek-

ing protection must publicly prove that, by reason of the volume of employment it provides and the quantity of its productions, it is of substantial importance ; that foreign importations are in abnormal quantities at prices below the cost of profitable domestic manufacture ; or that," for other reasons, in spite of reasonable economy and efficiency, the industry is at a "relative serious disadvantage." These are questions that can be answered frankly and fully by any industry that has a good case for tariff protection, and none that objects to public examination of its representations can reasonably expect the' community to regard its difficulties at all seriously.