THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, MAY 2, 1927. TRADE AND TARIFFS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20087, 2 May 1927, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, MAY 2, 1927. TRADE AND TARIFFS.

It was inevitable that the advocacy of, and the tendency towards, the raising of the tariff barriers in the dominions against the introduction of British manufactures, as well as .of the manufactures of foreign countries, should excite the unfavourable attention of business firms in the Mother Country. The Times has discounted, as far as it could, the contention that "damage was being done to British trade through the operation of protective duties in the dominions, and it has cited statistical evidence as negativing the suggestion that the tariffs are preventing exports from Great Britain. It has pointed out that last year the Empire took 48.7 per cent, of the total British exports, which is a considerable increase on the pre-war figure. But 48 per cent.—less than half—is hardly a large proportion of her exports for Britain to place within the Empire. It is a proportion that may justly be regarded as lower than it should be, and, if the ideal of a selfsupporting and self-contained Empire is worth striving for, the position is surely none too satisfactory. It is really impossible to ignore the force of the contention that is expressed in resolutions which were adopted last week at the annual meeting of the Association of British Chambers of Commerce, that, while the dominions are anxious to promote the sale of their products in Great Britain—where they certainly find their chief market—they are not sufficiently anxious to see the situation equalised or balanced from t/ie British viewpoint. The preference that is accorded in favour of British manufactures coming into this Dominion does not alter the fact that these manufactures are subject in a great many cases to duties that are of a distinctly protective character, and it is difficult to see how the conclusion can be avoided that the effect of these duties must bo more or lass to weaken the propaganda which aims at the encouragement o{ the sale of the Dominion’s products in the Old Country. It is regrettable, for instance, to be told that the tariffs which are in force, or are proposed, in British dominions threaten an absolute prohibition of the importation of certain British products and a consequent displacement of labour in the Mother Country. No doubt it is the Australian tariff to which objection is mainly raised, but it would be foolish to ignore the fact that there are interests in New Zealand that will be hardly satisfied if the protective tariff in the Dominion is not raised to the Commonwealth level. No country can wisely proceed to build up its secondary industries at any price. Some of the arguments that are advanced in support of increased protection for industries in the Dominion are distinctly onesided in their application. The secondary industri s for which protcct on is sought, should be required to establish their claim on the basis ’of their ability to supply the needs of the community at reasonable prices. If industries cannot turn out and supply goods at prices which make a fair comparison with the prices of imported goods, after those have been subjected to freight and customs charges, the Government must ponder very carefully the effect that would follow from granting increased protection. The British buyers of New Zealand products and the consumers in the Dominion arc both entitled to consideration.