TRADE WITH CANADA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20987, 25 September 1931, Page 8

TRADE WITH CANADA.

A further assurance of his anxiety to enter into tariff negotiations with Canada has been conveyed to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce by the Prime Minister, but Mr. Forbes adds that there is no alternative but to await action by Canada. Unfortunately, exactly the same attitude is adopted by the Canadian Government. In various public statements as well as the official correspondence, Ministers have reiterated their willingness to enter into negotiations, but are apparently also waiting for further communications from New Zealand. Months have been wasted without the slightest practical advance toward a solution of the deplorablo deadlock. Direct responsibility for tariff arrangements has now been transferred to Mr. Stewart, and though he will be fully occupied with financial problems, the matter is sufficiently important to warrant a suggestion that he should reopen the correspondence by asking Canada to suggest arrangements for a conference. When he was previously in office, Mr. Stewart proposed to visit Canada to conduct tariff negotiations and—as Mr. Bennett recalled in one of his telegrams which was published in Canada but not in New Zealand—a reply was sent on February 29, 1928, suggesting a conference immediately after the prorogation of Parliament, but "no reply to the latter telegram was made by the New Zealand Parliament." There is always the risk of official correspondence being buried in departmental files, unless the Minister nominally responsible is sufficiently enthusiastic to pursue the subject himself. The fostering of trade within the Empire, the preservation of commercial friendship with Canada, and the development of markets for New Zealand produce are matters which should command the personal and constant attention of Ministers, and it is to be hoped that Mr. Stewart, who has already expressed anxiety regarding the present position, will, in spite of his heavy responsibilities, endeavour to bring the negotiations with Canada out of the exchange of amiable generalisations into serious discussion of practical details.