BOYCOTT THREAT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23320, 13 April 1939, Page 13

BOYCOTT THREAT

FRENCH WOOLBUYERS ULTIMATUM RUMOURS ADVICE BY GOVERNMENT DOMINION TRADE WANTED [BY TELEGRAPH—OWN CORRESPONDENT] CHRISTCHURCH, Wednesday An ultimatum that unless some adjustment is made in the import control regulations to allow France a larger share of New Zealand business, French woolbuyers will boycott tho New Zealand sales for the rest of this season after tho Christchurch sale and permanently thereafter is reported to have been delivered by I ( rench woolbuyers at present in the Dominion to the Minister of Finance, the Hon. W. Nash. The ultimatum, it is reported, will expire on April 17, two days before the final Dunedin sale. One more sale will bo held at Wellington after that.

Hie buyers are said to bo working under instructions from the French Government, which resents what amounts to a total prohibition of French imports into this country. Great interest has been displayed in the development in Christchurch, where the fourth and final wool salo of the season is to be held on Friday. The catalogue, the largest for this season, comprises 29,600 bales, and a large proportion of it is of types in which French buyers are generally particularly interested, and for which there is virtually only French competition. It appears that no action is likely to be taken that will have any effect on the Christchurch sale, but it will be recalled that tho sudden cessation of French bidding, particularly on piece wools, at Napier had a marked effect on tho course of prices at that sale. No Statement

French buyers would make no statement this evening, and would neither confirm nor deny the truth of the rumours. They said, however, that something might be made public on or after April 17. It was stated that French objections to the import control system were first conveyed to the Minister of Finance about three weeks ago, when Mr. Nash promised to give the matter consideration. Nothing further lias been heard from the Government since then.

The proposed action of the French interests lias beon known for about three weeks, and has caused serious disquiet in the wool trade. The cancellation of the fourth Christchurch sale if the French buyers decided to carry their threat into effect has been discussed, as a sale without French support would have resulted in a very severe drop in prices. Franco is an important buyer of New Zealand exports, and after Great Britain, the most important buyer of wool. Although imports from France are comparatively unimportant, the main export from New Zealand to France is wool, whence £1,041,941 worth of a total of £12,325,000 went in the 1937-38 season.

Value of Imports In 1927 imports from France were valued at £192,593. According to the Year Book the total favourable trade balance with France was in that year £822,348, which was the third largest although as a purchaser of exports France occupied only sixth place. In 1927 France took 1.99 per cent of New Zealand exports and was responsible for 0.42 per cent of the imports of this country, but both figures were well below the average of the 10 years before that.

As buyer of wool, Franco is important mainly because of her continued interest in piece wools and loAver descriptions, for which there is only a limited market outside. The actual figures of French buying do not tell the whole story of the operations on 'behalf of that country at New Zealand wool sales because French buyers bid on very much more than they take and thus have their effect on prices.