BALANCE OF TRADE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21988, 24 June 1933, Page 5

BALANCE OF TRADE

BRITISH IMPORTS AND EXPORTS AN INTERESTING ANALYSIS Seconding the motion for the adoption of the report at the meeting of the Bank of New Zealand in Wellington yesterday, Sir George Elliot gave some interesting figures bearing on the import and export trade of Great Britain, and made a strong plea for the purchase of a greater proportion of our requirements from the Uhl Country than at present. In order to emphasise the point which he desired to make he placed the following list betore the meeting;—

“This is a remarkable return,” said Sir George, “ and shows what a vitally important market the United Kingdom is to every nation on earth, how much she buys, and how comparatively little she sells. Without entering into the merits or otherwise of Freetrade, one cannot doubt there would have been little, if any, improvement in her export trade had she not adopted a protectionist-policy. It is owing to this alteration of policy that she is now being besought to enter into trade agreements with foreign nations whose economic welfare depends absolutely on the United Kingdom. Of all Empire countries,>one only—South Africa —buys more from Britain than it sells to Britain. Of all foreign countries, one only—China—buys more than she sells, although Japan, much accused as she is at present of underselling, buys only slightly less, under 9 per cent, less, -than she sells. “In 1931 New Zealand purchased goods to the value of £11,731,109 from the United Kingdom, and sold goods to the value of £37,775,155 to the United Kingdom. The return I have just read shows that, with the exception of Denmark, Czechoslovakia, United States of America, Soviet Union, and Argentina, New Zealand buys a lower percentage of goods from the United Kingdom, compared with the goods she sells to the United Kingdom, than any other nation on the list. I ask you, in the face of those figures, have we a legitimate claim for any sort of preference? I honestly think we have not, and cannot have, until we drastically change our policy. “It is true,” continued Sir George, “ that we do give trade preference to the United Kingdom, but it is obviously apparent that our Customs duty is either too high on British goods, or too low on foreign goods. To have any tangible claim for Customs preferences for our products on the British market, our imports from that market must-be increased, even if so doing entails a drastic curtailment of our trade with other portions of the Empire that buy less from us than we do from them. New Zealand is entirely dependent on the goodwill of Great Britain. Our products are barred from ] every other market of any consequence j by prohibitive Customs tariffs, or by our j geographical position, and yet, including £8,000,000 interest on loans, which in a sense is au import, we only buy about j half our imports from the United Kingdom, which buys practically the whole of j our exports. j “ The commission recently appointed to 1 report on the question of Customs duties,” ■concluded Sir George, “ generally will no doubt take the whole matter into serious consideration.”

Imports Exports Into U.K. from from U.K. to * Per £ £ cent. Soviet Union .. Sweden 32,285,563 17,342,035 0,203,214 8,463,188 28.51 48,80 Norway 8,630,233 7,860,037 91.08 Denmark .. .. 46 695,558 0,213,420 10.73 Germany .. .. 64,102,625 32,001,703 49.88 Netherlands .. 35,198,580 16,699,078 47.44 Belgium .. 33,189,870 14,572,035 43.91 France 40,921,520 32,019,718 78.25 Switzerland .. 11,301,750 4,991,434 43.93 Spain .. .. 14,248,575 5,516,026 38.71 Italy .. .. 15,147,876 10,043,933 70.27 Czechoslovakia 0,610,588 1,404,403 22.12 China .. 7,773,074 7,973,301 102.58 Japan ., .. 6,952,533 0,332,271 01.08 United States of 26,212,417 25.20 America 104,009,495 Argentina Union of South 52,744,214 15,055,490 28.51 Africa .. .. 13,120,251 22,930,095 174.77 British India .. 36,711,288 33,090,021 90.14 Australia 45,079,237 15,152,823 33.17 New Zealand .. 37,775,155 11,731,109 31.06 Canada .. .. 32,840,520 22,151,044 67.45

•The fl£ ;urcs in the last column show the percentage of United Kingdom exports to, as with Imports from, the various compared countries.