A CLAIM TO PREFERENCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21396, 20 October 1934, Page 12

A CLAIM TO PREFERENCE

London, comment on the report of the Dairy Commission indicates that two points, concerning the meeting of overseas obligations, and this country's equitable claim to special consideration in trade relations with the United Kingdom, have attracted most attention. The Times, discussing them, handles the first sympathetically, but offers no encouragement regarding the second. Briefly, the commission based an argument for preferential treatment on the ground that New Zealand's per capita trade with Britain, both inward and outward, is greater than that of any other country; that in the shipment of her products she makes the fullest possible use of British-owned ships, paying over £8,000,000 a year in freights to British shipowners; that this Dominion's tariff on British goods is the lowest in the Empire, and that dairy produce is not in any way subsidised. as is that from so many ! other countries—including British Dominions—which compete in the markets of the United Kingdom. On these facts the report bases the contention that "preference for preference" would be a reasonable principle to apply within the Empire as well as outside of it. The Times discounts this claim on the ground of the "general feeling that it would be invidious for the British Government to discriminate between different parts of the overseas Empire." If this general feeling is to be stabilised as an unvarying principle, there will be no encouragement for any Dominion to offer British trade progressively better terms. The only result will be to receive treatment based on the broad average of what the Dominions offer collectively in the way of concessions. This is the second time such an attitude has been indicated, for when the Prime Minister sent his now historic question asking what the response would be if British goods were given free entry into this country, the reply suggested that it was not possible to make separate bargains with individual Dominions. It surely cannot be realised how deadening and discouraging such an attitude is to those who wish to see two-way Empire trade continuously fostered. If that desire is replaced by a feeling that the British Government is not greatly interested in seeing British goods given wider opportunities in Dominion markets, it will not be surprising. A little healthy rivalry among the Dominions in offering such opportunities would do no harm, but the attitude disclosed at present, shows no realisation of the possibility.