THE FRUIT EMBARGO.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21831, 19 December 1932, Page 8

THE FRUIT EMBARGO.

An embargo on the importation of fruit and vegetables from Australia came suddenly into effect at the end of the past week. Ostensibly and apparently it is a retaliatory measure on the part of the Government instigated by the existence of a prohibition upon th& importation of New Zealand fruit into the Commonwealth consequent upon the presence of fireblight in some parts of the Dominion. The Minister of Customs has stated that the embargo has not been imposed with any thought of- the protection which might be afforded to New Zealand fruitgrowers. Otherwise it might have been regarded as something more than a coincidence that the decision to impose the embargo was formed by the Government very shortly after it had received representations from fruitgrowers in the north who complained that their local market was being adversely affected by fruit importations from Australia. The curiously perverse set of circumstances which has combined to create a position which must be regretted by all who would wish to see commercial intercourse between the two dominions as little restricted as possible has yet other interesting features. It would seem that any hope that New Zealand growers may entertain that the action which the Government has taken will materially improve their situation may not be completely realised, since the embargo does not apply to fruit pulp, which is imported from the Commonwealth in considerable quantities. Moreover, the Government has by its action shut Australian citrus fruits out of the New Zealand market, with the result that the consumers in the Dominion will be temporarily deprived of all supplies of oranges and mandarins, since the home-grown products, which are of less satisfactory quality than the Australian, will not he available till late in the season. Whatever the advantages which the New Zealand growers of small fruits may derive from the embargo, it is obvious that certain disadvantages will be suffered by the general public—all because two Governments have fallen out with each other. The Commonwealth Government has thought fit to prohibit the importation of fruit from all countries in which the prevalence of fireblight is reported. Its prohibition is not aimed directly or exclusively against New Zealand, The assumption that fireblight infection is carried in or by fruit seems to be extravagant and erroneous. The New Zealand Government has, however, been unable to persuade the Commonwealth Government that it is so. The arguments previously employed by it are now being reinforced by one of which the effect, if it is persisted in, will be to cost the Australian fruitgrowers the loss of a trade that is estimated to be worth £200,000 a year to them. There is a persuasiveness about this argument which may induce the Commonwealth Government to reconsider its views concerning the danger of the introduction of fireblight from New Zealand. It is to be hoped it will, because, apart from the lack of respect that is being shown for the spirit of the Ottawa negotiations, the imposition of arbitrary restrictions upon trade between the two dominions is highly undesirable.