TRADE WITH CANADA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20760, 31 December 1930, Page 10

TRADE WITH CANADA.

The major negotiations for a new trade agreement between Australia and Canada have been so far advanced that the Commonwealth Minister is able to reiterate his confident predictions of a successful issue. Mr. Moloney has been in Canada for a fortnight, in direct conference with the Canadian Minister, Mr. Stevens, and their conversations have been assisted by occasional reference to tho Cabinet. Even so, the negotiations have been more protracted than -was expected and Mr. Moloney has had to cancel other engagements, so that he might remain in Ottawa until the last moment. It is, of course, very easy for the Governments of two Dominions to agree in principle that their interchange of trade should be encouraged by reciprocal tariff concessions, but when their representatives set to work upon the translation of their intentions into practical details they are confronted with a task of enormous difficulty. Essentially, it comprises a whole series of problems arising from the fact that by widening the opening for the entrance of goods from the overseas Dominion, home producers may be threatened with stronger competition in the domestic market. It was for that reason that Mr. Stevens, on the eve of Mr. Moloney's arrival, remarked that the negotiation of a treaty with New Zealand would be more difficult because of tho butter duty question. That remark and the apparently successful conclusion of Mr. Moloney's mission recall the fact that, prior to his departure for the Imperial Conference, Mr. Forbes undertook to negotiate a trade agreement with Canada. By what means negotiations have been conducted and how far they have been advanced have not been announced, but there is a plain hint in to-day's telegram from Ottawa that finality has not been reached at least on the central question of the butter duty. Mr. Forbes endeavoured to enter into official conversations on tho subject when he visited Ottawa on hjs way to London, but neither time nor circumstances permitted any serious attention being given then to his representations. Yet, while Mr. Moloney returned t-o Canada from London and has devoted a fortnight to direct negotiations, Mr. Forbes is returnin:; by the Suez route. On present information, it appears that the opportunity to secure a satisfactory revision of the existing tariff arrangements has been neglected and that the Dominion will get no more than Canada is willing to concede after concluding a new agreement with Australia.