TRADE WITH GERMANY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 10956, 19 July 1921, Page 6

TRADE WITH GERMANY

SOME SIGNIFICANT FIGURES INTERESTING DETAILS OF AMERICA’S DEALINGS. EQUAL TO PRE-WAR RECORDS. “The fact that wo aie still technically at war with Germany does not seem to bo any bar to increasingly intimate trade relations,” asys a prominent American paper. “Germany is now our third best customer among the nations of the world, and import and export trade is. rapidly approaching, and promising to exceed, pre-war volumes. Whatever may be the general effect of the reparations agreement upon German foreign trade, it is evident to the National City Bank of New York that our .sales to that country in the Ilscal year 1921 will be bigger than in any year in the history of the trade between the two countries.” The hank gives some interesting figures jin a recent newsletter : A MILLION DOLLARS A DAY! Prior to the war we were selling to Germany • about*-300,Cjp0;000dol. worth of merchandise per annum, making the highest record in 1913, 352,000,000d01. having ranged from 258,000,000d01. in 1910 up. to 352,000,000d01. in 1913, while the\ figures thus far received on our trade for the fiscal year 1921 indicate that the total of exports to Germany will reach or perhaps exceed 400,600,000d01. In the nine months ending March, 1921, they were 312,000,000d01., or more than to any European countries excfe.pt Great Britain and France, and were running in recent months at over a million dollars a day, suggesting that tlie total for the twelve nioiiths ending with June 30th will probably exceed 400,000,000d01., as against the high-water mark of 352,000,000dol. in 19131 On the import side the total from Germany in the fiscal year 1921 will probably amount to about 100,000,OOOdol against 185,000,000d01. in the year immediately 1 precediflg the war. While nothing can yet be determined as to the effect of the proposed tax of 26 per cent, on the v;alue of Germany’s exports, there is reason to believe that tlie merchandise which she is sending, to ns will total for the fiscal year 1921 about 1Q0,000,000d01. in value, the total for * the latest available month, March, haying been 7,368,OOOdol., as against only 4,952,(XXk101. in February 1921, thus indicating a rapid growth in our imports from Germany.

THE PRINCIPAL EXPORTS. principal articles forming this newly-developing trade with are, on the export side, foodstuffs, raw cotton, copper, and other manufacturing material, and on the import side, coal-tar dyes, potash chiefly for use as fertilisers, furs, glassware, gloves, mu-. hi cal. instruments, - sugar-beet seeds, a , small quantity of beet sugar, toys, wood-pulp) and certain cotton manufactures. Of raw cotton ‘the exports to Germany for the nine months for which figures are now available wefe greater Sian to any other country except the United. Kingdom, and amount* ed in value to 87,000j00&dok, copper, 91,000,000 pounds, valued at 14,000,OOOdol., • and only exceeded' by the shipments to France, which- were 16,000,000dol. ; while of food her takings were of flour, which amounted, in the nine months ending witff March to 13,0G0.000d01., while of wheat and flour her takings dn tho nine months ending with March were approximately 57OOOjOOOdoI. IMPORTS FROM GERMAIY. Of especial interest are the figures showing the principal articles which vwe are now importing from that country. Figures of the Department of Commerce show that our imports from Germany in the calendar year 1920 included 8,825,000d01. worth of murite of potash, 7,084,000 dol. of manure waits, 3,383,000d01. of kainite, a fertiliser, 5,436,0(Xk10L -t>f beet sugar, 1,565,000d01. worth of coal-tar colours 'and dyes, 3,086,000d01. worth of furs and 4,19Ci.000d01. worth of toys, of which dolls and parts thereof were 1,,051,000d01.