TRADE WITH CANADA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23995, 19 June 1941, Page 8

TRADE WITH CANADA

The trade agreement between Canada and New Zealand, made in 1932 and renewed from year to year since then, would expire on September 30 next if nothing were done to keep it alive. As a result of discussion between Mr. Coates, Mr. Langstone and members of the Canadian Government there is a suggestion that the next renewal should be for the duration of the war. In other circumstances there would be a great deal of interest in the fate of the agreement, and in the possibility of its terms being modified. It has not remained unaltered since first approved. For example, in 1937, New Zealand was granted a fairly substantial concession in the duties on mutton and lamb, while just before the renewal in 1933 the exchange dumping duty on butter was removed by Canada. From time to time during the currency of the agreement it has been suggested that the terms as a whole should be overhauled, but nothing substantial has been done. Even before war came, New Zealand's policy of import control introduced a new factor, and now the overriding influence of wartime economy, especially the intensified need to husband dollar credits, has profoundly modified the conditions existing during the earlier currency of the agreement. In the circumstances it might just as well remain in its present form for the duration of the war, not so much because its terms are necessarily ideal in either peace or war as because the chance of a revision worth anything is so small. That being so there is no reason to have it subject to annual renewal while hostilities continue. After the war there may be many questions affecting trade to decide, and the relations between New Zealand and Canada may be part of a much greater whole.