TARIFF GROUP

Southland Times, Issue 23165, 5 April 1937, Page 5

TARIFF GROUP

A British Lead Urged < SHIPOWNERS’ APPEAL An appeal to the British Government to lead the way in the formation of a low-tariff group of countries is made in the 1936 report of the Liverpool Steamship Owners’ Association. Calling attention to the “failure of the country to re-establish its selling power in world markets,” the report says that the degree of recovery in 1936 from the levels to which overseas trade was reduced in 1931 fell lamentably short. “The association has ever since the war directed attention to the pressing importance of our export trade,” the report goes on, “and has justified its action in so doing on the ground that not only the prosperity of the shipping industry, but that of the nation as a whole, is dependent on the restoration of that trade. “Most of the other nations are able to raise sufficient food to keep their populations from actual starvation, but we are not. In Time of War “That such is our dependency is emphasized by the insistence of the nation as a whole, irrespective of party, on the maintenance of our ships and ports as essential to our food supplies in time of war. But our needs are equally pressing in times of peace. Neither ships nor ports are of use in either peace or war without cargoes. “It is manifest that there is an increasing number of nations now willing and anxious to unite to secure the benefits that can only be derived from greater freedom in trade with each and all of them. In these circumstances the association suggests that the time has come for resolute and immediate action by the Government of Great Britain in giving the lead to the formation of a low-tariff group of nations, giving equality of opportunity in all their ports to ships under all their flags, into which all countries ready to co-operate in the development of international trade would be welcomed.” While the difficulties of'British shipping during the past six years are attributable to two main causes, the shrinkage of world trade and the great increase in foreign competitive tonnage, the report declares that it is the first and not, as is the popular impression, the second, that is paramount. Trade And Tonnage Decline The decrease of 15 per cent in British tonnage between 1929 and 1936 corresponds very closely with the decline in the quantum of world trade and in the volume of United Kingdom overseas trade, both of which declined by approximately 18 per cent. “If the British mercantile marine can, by the restoration of world trade, be kept in employment, and if sufficient additional storage and distributing inland centres be provided,” the report declares, “the association is confident that British shipping will again be available to maintain the imports of foodstuffs and raw materials essential to the nation’s existence.

“The consumption of oil fuel by the Navy, the Army and the Air Force, the mercantile marine and inland consumers has, however, increased so greatly that a careful examination is required of the specialized tanker tonnage available for its transport.”