BRITAIN’S TRADE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22963, 19 August 1936, Page 14

BRITAIN’S TRADE

AN ENCOURAGING FORECAST MR W. RUNCIMAN’S REVIEW PROGRESS SHOULD CONTINUE (From Our Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) LONDON, July 18. Provided that there is no major disturbance abroad and that industrial peace is maintained at Home, the progress made by Britain towards her trade recovery should be continued. This was the encouraging forecast by Mr Walter Runciman. President of the Board of Trade, when he reviewed Britain’s trade position in the House of Commons on July 15. Britain, he declared, was acquiring an increasing share of the world’s trade, and there had been a marked advance the past year in nearly all her industries, with two important exceptions —coal and cotton. The expansion of export trade had continued but slowed down. MORE EMPLOYMENT In his address to the House, Mr Runciman said that the improvement was best illustrated by the unemployment figures. The number of insured v/orkers in employment last month, excluding agricultural workers, was over 440,000 more than in June, 1935, and the number of unemployed was nearly 300,000 less. “ One of the best tests of the prosperity of this country,” he said, “ is to be found in the railway receipts, and, in spite of competition from the road and by sea, railway receipts were £1,830,000 higher in the first six months of this_ year than in the corresponding period of 1935. Receipts from freight traffic accounted for nearly the whole of this increase. During the same period postal receipts, another good test of prosperity, increased by nearly 4 per cent., and bank clearances increased by nearly 7 per cent.” Retail sales were difficult to ascertain, but he was able to make some comparison with former years, and retail sales might be regarded as one of the tests which could, be applied to the whole country. The sales during 1935 were 6 per cent, more than in previous years, and the expansion continued this year; sales In the first five months being 7i per cent, more in value than a year earlier. Industrial production last year was about 7 per cent, greater than in 1935 in both the export and the home market. In the first quarter of 1936 there was an increase of 9 per cent, over the first quarter of 1935. IMPORTS INCREASE

As to the overseas trade figures, a comparison of the first six months of 1935- and the first six months of 1936 showed that, although export trade had not gone up with the same rapidity of more recent years, it was still increasing. From January to June in 1935 total exports were £206,500,000, and from January to June, 1936, the total was £207,900,000. Imports had gone up to an even greater degree. Food, drink and tobacco showed an increase from £166,000,000 to £ 179,000,000; raw materials and unmanufactured goods had gone up from £103,000,000 to £119,000,000; and articles solely or mainly manufactured from £88,000,000 to very nearly £101,000,000. It was only right to point out, however, when they were considering the import figures, that they were to some extent gauging the consuming capacity of some of the principal industries, for a large proportion of the imports, of which he had just given the figures, were used mainly in Britain’s own industries. “We need not get alarmed,” he said, “by the speed with which these figures have gone up provided that we can use up, year by year, the goods which come in for purposes of consumption by our own industries.” The exports from the United Kingdom, although increasing by only £ 1,400,000, must not be regarded as unfavourable. A very large part of that slowingdown of the export trade was due to the almost complete cessation of exports to Italy, which were over £4,000,000 less than in the first half of last year. , „ , Mr Runciman hoped the trade Britain had lost would be recovered. She was already taking steps to get into close touch with the authorities in Rome so that obstacles to trade with Italy might be removed as rapidly as possible. The excess of imports of merchandise over exports went up from £124,000,000 to £162,000,000, mainly owing to the increase in imports. These additional imports could be afforded, and there was no reason to anticipate any serious .debit balance on payments this year. The decline in international trade appeared to have been arrested at last, but the improvement was rather slight. Britain’s share in world trade was definitely increasing. In 1932 her proportion of the world’s export trade was 9.9 per cent. By 1935 it had increased to 10.8 per cent. In the cotton trade, taken as a whole, the position appeared to be rather less gloomy than it had been. In the export trade all that could be said was that the cotton industry in all its branches was about holding its own and no more. Iron and steel was probably the busiest important industry at present, and there was a gratifying revival in shipbuilding. At the end of June the tonnage of merchant vessels under construction was 850.000 gross tonnage, compared with 560.000 tons a year ago. Builders, especially on the Tyne, Clyde and Wear, were busier, and more slips were occupied than for many years past. TRADE AGREEMENTS Turning to the subject of trade agreements, Mr Runciman said that imports into the United Kingdom from the dominions and India increased between 1931 and 1935 by £38,000,000, and the share of these countries in Britain’s total imports rose from 19.6 per cent, to 27.4 per cent. Exports to the dominions increased between 1932 and 1935 by about £38,000,000, and the proportion of the total exports taken by these countries rose from 26.6 per cent, to 32.5 per cent. These figures must be put down mainly, if not entirely, to the operation of trade agreements.