EXPORTS FROM RUSSIA

Taranaki Daily News, 16 October 1931, Page 7

EXPORTS FROM RUSSIA

GRAIN NOW SUBSIDIARY. A recent issue of the review issued in London by the Bank for Russian Trade states that the nature and charactor of Soviet exports has changed since the war. The U.S.S.R. is no longer primarily a grain exporting country, but has become principally a supplier or timber and minerals; thus raw materials and semi-manufactures have taken the place of foodstuffs in the Soviet export trade. Timber and oil products are the principal items of Soviet export. Anions other goods which now exceed the pre-war exports are chemicals, rubber goods, asbestos, cement, confectionery, °preserves and wines. “Development of the Soviet export trade is not actuated by a desire for profits, but is determined solely by the country’s requirements in imports,’ says the review. “An extension of exports is only aimed at in order to be in a position to pay for the increased imports required in connection with the realisation of the industrialisation programme. The rapid progress of industrialisation did not result in a reduction of imports, but in their increase. The estimates in the Five-Year Plan provide for a constant growth of imports throughout the period. “On the question of the so-called Russian dumping, it should be obvious that the Soviet trading organisations, like all other exporters, are anxious to obtain the highest prices for their goods, and if high prices are impossible to obtain no-one regrets it more than thaw.”