DANISH PURCHASE OF COAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21988, 24 June 1933, Page 3

DANISH PURCHASE OF COAL

BACON AND HAM ARGENTINE CHILLED MEAT. (From Odb Own Correspondent.) LONDON, May 12. Mr Rupciman, President of the Board of Trade, niade a statement in the House of Commons this week on the trade pacts entered into with Denmark and the Argentine. The two trade agreements, be said, were with countries with which England had been in close commercial alliance for a very long time. In the Argentine nearly all the great developments—docks, harbours, railways, and roads—had been done out of facilities provided in this country, The total amount of British invested capital in kind as well as in cash was estimated to have reached well over £500,000,000. In the case of Denmark, a very large amount of her industrial prosperity had depended not so much upon British enterprise as upon Danish enterprise in British markets, and the purchase in this country "of products which were the basis of agricultural prosperity in Denmark had been on such a scale as to have thrown the balance of trade almost out of gear. COAL PURCHASES. The Danes hud undertaken to increase their purchases of coal, to raise the figure nearer to the old level of 1923-24 instead of being down tp the low level of 1931-32. Even as the result of the intervention of the Secretary of the Overseas Trade Department the total amount of coal bought from this country for use in Denmark in 1932 was only 58 per cent. The rest came mainly from Germany and Poland. "The competition we have to face from Poland and Germany makes it impossible for us to expect that we shall ever aaain supply the whole of Denmark’s coal requirements,” he added. Denmark had agreed that the figure, standing at 53 per cent, in 1932. shall be raised to 80 per cent. In actual figures, on the 1931 basis, there will be an increased import into Denmark of British coal of 1,325,000 tons. This was estimated to be equivalent to about 5300 men at the pits. An undertaking had been reached whereby Danish Government orders for iron and steel would be offered first to British firms. PIG PRODUCTS. “On the other side,” said Mr Runciman, “we have given an undertaking with regard to bacon and ham, which also affected the import trade into Denmark from this country, for we have linked up what we have agreed to in regard to pig products with an undertaking that all the jute which comes here round the hams and bacon from Denmark shall be jute of British origin, that the salt and saltpetre which is used for the curing shall be bought in London, and that the parchment paper should be also of British origin, “We dealt with a large number of items on the tariff list, and some on which we have, obtained a definite reduction are: — Printed cotton piece-goods. Certain unbleached cotton piece-goods. Felt hats, carpets, Marmalade and jam. Biscuits and cakes, and Photographic plates.

“ They were items on which their tariff appeared to be unduly high, and we pressed for a reduction because of their importance to manufacturers of this country.” ARGENTINE AGREEMENT.

Turning to the Argentine, Mr Runciman pointed out that the very large sum of British money held up in the Argentine through exchange restrictions would in consequence be released. “ Whatever may be thought of exchange controls,” he added, “one thing is certain —that if they continue they will altogether destroy trade.” The release of money for debenture interest hag already begun, and further summs in cash will be available to clear off obligations to email traders. The remainder would be liquefied through a process of bonds. "I hope,” said Mr Runciman, “this example will be followed elsewhere. Everything willl be done on our part to facilitate such operations.” The reductions of tariffs agreed on behalf of the Argentine should materially assist the cotton and other trades. IMPORTS OF MEAT.

With regard to imports of meat from the Argentine, the principle settled at Ottawa was that the home producer should be put first, the Dominion producer second, and the Argentine producer third. All necessary freedom ‘of action had been retained for this country. There were many discussions and many friendly tussles befote the Argentine representatives agreed to the limitation of meat exports, and the agreement could not have been made, he said, but for the fact that Britain was the largest purchaser of Argentine goods.

Mr Runciman was referring to measures to keep up prices of meat, when Mr Danebury asked: “Who will pay the high prices? '■ Mr Runciman: The consumer. “ J do not take the view,” lie proceeded, “that a high price is a blow to the workers. Without the restoration of the price level there will never be a revival of trade.” Mr Runciman said that if they could increase the purchasing power of those who lived in the countries that produced the meat, wheat, the woo] and other commodities, they would add enormously to the demand, and by that means they would undoubtedly help people here to a degree far greater than anything that could be got by dodging the market. He made no apology for a party to the regulations aimed at raising the level of wholesale prices, as nothing had been more destructive than the way in which prices had sagged during the past six pr seven years when no man dared enter into obligations. They hoped that they had by the agreement turned the tide and that they would now go steadily in the direction of a higher price level. INTERESTS OF THE DOMINIONS. Sir Archibald Sinclair, the Liberal spokesman, declared that the results of the agreements would be insignificant and trivial, but that nevertheless they would be prejudicial to the World Economic Conference. Mr L. S. Amery’s criticism was made from a different angle. He admitted the desirableness of good trading relations with Scandinavian countries and with Argentina, but be declared that the interests of the home and dominion producers had not been sufficiently considered. Why did the Government refrain from putting duties on meat, bacon, and other commodities? He slipped,tyd that this refusal did not arise from the merits of the case but was a concession to certain members of the Cabinet who still clung to some of the Freetrade inhibitions. He did not altogether condemn the quota system, but it was purely experimental, and its difficulties might prove insurmountable. His chief objection to the agreements was that they barred the way to expansion of Imperial preference, that they ran counter to the spirit, though hot to the letter, of the Ottawa agreement, and that they tied the hands of the Government. Major EUiot defended the agreements with vigour. Far from being contradictory to the spirit of Ottawa, he maintained they would put Ottawa into operation. Quantitative regulation would be substituted for anarchic scramble, and it was a much more efficacious method than tariffs, which could be defeated by devaluation of currency. The principle of putting the home producer first, the Dominion producer second, and the foreign producer last had been maintained.