IMPORT DUTIES DISPUTE

Taranaki Daily News, 6 May 1932, Page 7

IMPORT DUTIES DISPUTE

NARROW RANGE OF FOODS HOUSE OF COMMONS DEBATE NO TREATY BEFORE OTTAWA PROTEST BY SIR H. SAMUEL British Wireless. Rugby, May 4. The debate on the order imposing import duties opened in the House of Commons to-day. A feature of the debate which gave it special interest was the exercise of the right of free trade members of the Government to express views at variance with those of the majority of their colleagues. Mr. Neville Chamberlain (Chancellor of the Exchequer), moving that the Treasury order be endorsed, explained the scope of the duties and the advisory committee s course in making the recommendations at this stage general rather than detailed. The committee’s report gave reasons why it had not gone beyond a very narrow range of foodstuffs on this occasion and had drawn attention to the fact that the question of foodstuffs was bound to play an important and perhaps predominant part in the Ottawa conference.

Dealing with the iron and steel industry, Mr. Chamberlain said the purpose of the provisional duties was not so much protection as prohibition of imports to keep the situation stable while the committee was pursuing further investigations. Referring to the passage in the report that the committee did not intend to recommend a reduction in the general level of protection for 12 months, Mr. Chamberlain said that commercial treaties with foreign countries were the function of the Government, not the committee. The Government therefore was not precluded from entering upon and even concluding negotiations with any foreign country with whom it might be desirable, but Ottawa must come first.

Sir Herbert Samuel (Liberal), the Home Secretary, protested that under the proposed procedure the powers of Parliament were surrendered to a small outside tribunal under no adequate control. Tariffs were one factor and the departure from gold another which accounted for the cost of living remaining fairly stationary, but more important than either was the continued enormous drop in world prices, accelerated during the last few months. If the present proposals had been in force in 1930 they would have applied to £409,000,000 worth of British imports. The existing duties would have brought the value of the goods, subject to the- import duties, to £600,000,000. From a revenue standpoint the new duties would be negligible.