ALTERATIONS IN POLICY

Southland Times, Issue 23380, 11 December 1937, Page 7

ALTERATIONS IN POLICY

AUSTRALIA’S TRADE RELATIONS

INVESTIGATION IN NEW ZEALAND PLANNED

SYDNEY, December 10. The Sydney Morning Herald’s Canberra correspondent says that Australia’s trade relations will be completely recast within the next few months. The principles that have stood since the Ottawa agreement was signed will be substantially modified and some may even be abandoned. The concessions that Australia enjoys may have to be abandoned so that others may be obtained and the concessions which she now grants may have to be withdrawn and others substituted. . The crux of the problem is a review of the Ottawa agreement and the completion of an agreement with the United States but the bargaining will extend to other parts of the Empire and foreign countries. The announcements that the trade diversion policy is to be abandoned and that Mr T. V. White will leave for New Zealand today are a prelude to the important period of negotiation ahead. That importance is attached to Mr White’s mission is indicated by the fact that he will be accompanied by Mr J. Fletcher, one of the senior officers of the Customs Department and Mr E. McCarthy of the Department of Commerce. Mr Latham Withall, Secretary to the Associated Chambers of Manufacturers will also go to New Zealand to examine the trade position. The Daily Telegraph’s Melbourne correspondent says that Mr White before leaving Sydney to catch the Awatea admitted that pressure from the Dominion Government had dictated his hurried visit.