IMPORTS TO NEW ZEALAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22714, 29 October 1935, Page 10

IMPORTS TO NEW ZEALAND

COMPLAINT OF UNFAIR RATIO BRITISH MANUFACTURERS SEEK LARGER SHARE A complaint that New Zealand does not buy enough of its requirements from the United Kingdom is made in the annual report of the United Kingdom Manufacturers and New Zealand Representatives' Association, which is to be presented to the annual meeting in Wei' lington on November 5. " Members are finding it still very difficult to maintain, let alone increase, the volume of their business with New Zealand," the report states. " Statistics show that, while New Zealand buys twice as much from Australia as Australia does from New Zealand, yet from our greatest customer, the United Kingdom, we buy little more than half our usual requirements. " The increase of imports from Australia of many lines which were formerly supplied from the United Kingdom, due mainly to the difference in the exchange rates, is a matter which has caused considerable concern to United Kingdom manufacturers. In some cases they have seen their exports to New Zealand gradually dwindling while those from Australia increase until the whole of the trade has been lost to them. How long New Zealand can continue exporting as much as can be produced to one market and buying in another until at last purely economic laws intervene is a matter of conjecture, but it is apparent that the time is overdue when the problem should be tackled by the Government and it is the intention of the council of the association to approach the Minister of Customs at a suitable opportunity. "Australia, a country noted for its protectionist policy in the past, realised the protective incidence of an artificial exchange rate, and makes allowance for it accordingly in assessing Customs duties, and it appears that this is an aspect of our exchange rate which would repay investigation by the New Zealand Customs authorities, and perhaps one of the gravest reasons for the objections raised by the manufacturers in the United Kingdom could be removed. In fact, the whole question of relationship between our Customs tariff and the currencies of other countries is worthy of consideration by the New Zealand authorities."