ANGLO-BRAZILIAN TRADE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22499, 17 August 1936, Page 8

ANGLO-BRAZILIAN TRADE

The new trade agreement announced between Britain and Brazil does not appear to be comparable with the series of pacts concluded after Ottawa by Britain with a number of foreign primary producing countries. From New Zealand's point of view the most important were those made with Argentina and Denmark. The Brazilian agreement is a much less complicated arrangement, the two Governments concerned agreeing to accord to goods from their respective countries most-favoured-nation treatment. The bargain does not hold for a set period of years, being subject to termination at three months' notice by either party. Britain does not occupy the predominant position in the trade and finance of Brazil that she has gained in Argentina. In 1934, for instance, the United States took 39.3 per cent of Brazil's exports and furnished 23.6 per cent of her imports ; Britain's percentages were 12 and 17.2 respectively, and Germany's 13 and 14. The visible balance of trade generally favours Brazil, the bulk of British imports comprising tropical commodities, the most important of these being nuts, bananas and oranges. The new agreement is therefore of more interest to British colonies than to the Dominions. It is notable, nevertheless, that the most valuable item imported by Britain from Brazil in two recent years consisted of beef, the annual value being over a million pounds. That is a point of great interest to New Zealand, now really launched on the development of the chilled beef trade. Brazil is said to have enormous but largely unexploited potentialities for cattleraising, an industry in which it is claimed she could ultimately exceed the output of Argentina.