FIJI AND NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21328, 1 November 1932, Page 8

FIJI AND NEW ZEALAND

It appears that the method adopted by Fiji to "give effect to Ottawa undertakings has had unfortunate consequences for New Zealand. This country, some time ago, was given special tariff treatment compared with Australia. Fiji has long been anxious to trade with NewZealand rather than Australia; at least, a considerable section of the commercial community has expressed itself so, even if the Administration was more cautious concerning the point. The favourable treatment given Fiji produce here, compared with the virtual exclusion from the Commonwealth of the most important commodity, bananas, has been responsible for that attitude. As a result of Australian concessions, by which a strictly limited quota of Fiji bananas v/ill be admitted at a time that will assure a minimum of competition with the Queensland output, Australia has been placed on the same tariff footing as other Empire countries, which, for practical purposes, means New Zealand. There remains to Australia the advantage of the difference in exchange rates, which obviously places New Zealand trade at a severe disadvantage. If this is the inevitable result of the Ottawa agreements, the situation created, however unfortunate, must, be a difficult one to discuss. A survey of what Ottawa produced shows Britain to have been careful in giving all the Dominions exactly equal treatment as regards commodities in which they were mutually concerned, and it is natural that the Colonial Office should pass on such a principle to the colonics. But the change has been made, in the case of Fiji, by bringing the duties accorded to more favoured countries up to the level of those charged on Australian goods —by a scaling up instead of a scaling down of duties. This, it is represented with every show of reason, may have a seriously detrimental effect on New Zealand's trade, threatening to make the price of several important, commodities prohibitive to the public of Fiji. On this point, if on no other, there should be opportunity for making representations to whatever authority may be responsible for the policy adopted.