TRADE TREATIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22449, 19 June 1936, Page 12

TRADE TREATIES

EMPIRE RELATIONS BUSINESS ' MEN'S VIEWS TARIFF QUESTION DEFERRED Consideration of a motion, of which notice had been given by Mr. I'. N. Ambler, that the Government be requested to adjust the tariff against foreign countries to give a greater protection to tho British manufacturer on the local market against foreign competition, was postponed at a meetingof the council of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce yesterday, as tho result of a point of order raised by Mr. J. Hislop, who held it. might affect importing interests injuriously. Mr. Hislop said a member had power to prevent a final decision being reached on a matter calculated to affect injuriously any trade section until it had been considered by the interests concerned. Tho question was ono of great importance to the importers he represented and also to exporters and manufacturers, and was not ono to bo dealt with lightly. Mr. G. Jackson, who presided, sustained the point of order, and the motion was referred to the exporters' and importers' sections and tho manufacturers' committee. Future Economic Co-operation Tho exporters' and importers' sections reported that at a joint meeting the report of the special committee ot tho Association of British Chambers of Commerce on the Ottawa agreements and future lines of economic co-opera-tion within the Empire had been considered, and certain points in it endorsed.-' \, . The meeting considered that in any conference for the purpose of negotiating new agreements, advisors representing the various sections of commerce should bo admitted to full consultation. It was recommended to tho council that it express support of the New Zealand Government's intention, to negotiate, if possible, a bilateral agreement with Britain, to be recorded in such plain terms as to avoid any future controversy. Support was accorded for the special committee's recommendations that the British Government should be urged to secure new trade agreements in extension and amplification of the Ottawa agreements, preferably negotiated with each Dominion separately, and at the earliest opportunity; that the policy should be one of overlaying the Ottawa agreements with supplementary ones affecting specific commodities, in order to diminish tho friction of a system relying on vague general principles; and that discussions should seek as their main object the increased exchange of commodities between the "United Kingdom and the Dominions or between United Kingdom, Dominions and all foreign countries. Stability of Currencies Other recommendations supported were that emphasis should be placed on the' need for the Dominions to absorb larger quantities of United Kingdom manufactures,- if the United Kingdom policy of explanding domestic agricultural production was not to entail a diminution of importations of these products from the Dominions; iind that the stability of Empire currencies was a fundamental to the smooth working of intra-Empire trade agreements. The meeting was of the opinion that the 50 per cent provision regarding Empire content for goods receiving Empire preference should be retained for New Zealand, with a proviso that if any of the raw materials used in the manufacture of British goods could not be as yet produced in commercial quantities in Empire countries, the value of those raw materials should not be taken into account. ! s ,, The meeting's report was adopted, Mr. .T. A. C. Allnm expressing the opinion that New Zealand should come into line with Australia and raise the Empire content requirement to 75 per cent.