CANADIAN BUTTER IMPORT

Taranaki Daily News, 16 January 1933, Page 9

CANADIAN BUTTER IMPORT

FARMERS EXPRESS PROTEST QUANTITY FROM NEW ZEALAND. LESS IN STORE THAN LAST YEAR. DECREASE IN LOCAL PRODUCTION. Protests -against the importation of 250,0001 b of butter-from New Zealand have been received at the office of the Dominion Minister of Agriculture. The protests, which come from an undisclosed source, were. forwarded by the United Farmers Alberta executive without comment. In the absence of the Minister of Agriculture (the Hon. Robert Weir), who is ill, no statement has been given by the department. Statistics covering the butter situation in Canada indicate that the quantity in storage at January 1 last was less by 4,279,000 pounds than on January 1 a year ago. If the butter ’ stored in bond is included, the holdings are approximately 3,833,009 pounds less. The production of butter in Canada has been lower every month from "July until December last than in the same months nf the previous year, but the decrease'Was lessening gradually. However, the' December figures indicate that the production slumped again. Butter consumption has also decreased. SHIPMENT-BY THE NIAGARA SUGGESTION OF “IMPOUNDING.” GOVERNMENT’S WIDE POWERS. Those in the Auckland dairy produce trade who study Canadian conditions are not much surprised at the proposal from Alberta that -250,0001 b of New Zealand butter, now on its way to Canada, should be impounded and further imports prevented. Great 1 numbers' of Western Canadian farmers, it'appears, have turned to dairying since the heavy fall in the price of wheat, and, owing to this fact and the stoppage of dairy produce exports to the United States, the domestic market has been over-supplied. Last season many farmers in the prairie provinces received no more than ajd.per lb for their butterfat, and they are having .a very hard time indeed. The fact that the Canadian dollar is' ata -premium in. London has also affected the situation by bringing down dairy farmers’ returns from the British market.

Evidently- Canadian fanning interests are well informed concerning exports of butter from New Zealand to Canada. The figure of ,250,0001 b mentioned in the cable message very closely approximates the shipment made from Auckland to Vancouver on. Tuesday- by. the Niagara.;The vessel carried, about 6000 boxes,, but 1400 or 1500 boxes were for Honolulu, the balance .for Canada being about the. amount stated. ■ '

A PREVIOUS CONSIGNMENT.

Rather similar opposition, although not of so open a kind, was made to a shipment of 8000 boxes, of butter sent to Montreal by the Canadian Cruiser, which left . New Zealand early in October. While the vessel was' bh the water the Canadian Government, no doubt as a result of pressure, entered a qualified protest against, the shipment, but after negotiations by cablegram with the New Zealand Government ~it was agreed that nothing should be . done to prevent the butter from ;being landed. The greaterpart of it is" believed to be still in store at Montreal, owing to the unfavourable condition of the market to date. But for obstacles that remain in spite of the Canadian-New Zealand trade treaty of May last, there would be a limited-but. fairly well assured sale for New Zealand butter in .Canada toward the latter part of the northern winter. Generally speaking, Canadian butter is much below New Zealand in quality, especially" in ’ the West, where dairying is carried on mainly as a sideline and in a rather primitive fashion. Butter so produced does not improve with storage, and the high-class New Zealand article in the past has commanded a fairly satisfactory premium. Canadian farmers, however, greatly resent its ..entry during the northern winter. : ’ RISK OF DUMPING DUTIES. The quantity of domestic butter put into cold storage is generally no more than suffices'to tide over the gap between seasons, and if aS the result of imports from New;Zealand- any -surplus were to remain l ’.- spring, the would be to sell it in London bn very unfavourable terms- :■- The present duty^oUS/cents per lb is not a ‘serious obstacle .to limited imports of New Zealand but the threat of dumping duties most certainly is. Under the-Honolulu agreement, Canada may not vary the schedule duty on butter until after three months’ notice, but article 4 of the treaty provides that the Canadian Government may invoke the dumping duty section of its Customs Act as regards any New’Zealand goods if in its opinion etheir importation “would prejudicially or injuriously affect producers or manufacturers of similar goods” in Canada. The same right is given to NeW- Zealand. Moreover, goods covered' by the 30 days’’notice may be placed in bond' until stich period has expired. Thus there' is power to hold up any shipment upon arrival of the briefest notice, and apparently this is the “impounding” suggested by the interested parties in Al- . berta. ': .

DRASTIC POWER IN RESERVE.

In'the ordinary way dumping duties are.' restricted to cases where goods are price in' the country of origin. The Canaimported at less than the fair market dian Customs Act, however, ' gives the Government power by Order-in-Council to determine , a “fair market price” for duty purposes in respect of any goods entering the. Dominion. Under this, dumping duties could be imposed on New Zealand butter even if the actual current. market price in New Zealand did not justify, such duties. The powers .possessed by the Canadian Government are a real deterrent to butter, exports, from New Zealand. Recently an Auckland concern opened negotiations for shipping some hundreds of boxes and asked the Minister of Customs, the Hon. W. Downie Stewart,, to ascertain whether the-Canadian Government would give an undertaking that the shipment would not be held up. However, the reply was vague and. unsatisfactory, and, as the consignees would not agree to haying the butter sent at their risk, the smpment was abandoned. It is understood that part of the Niagara’s butter has been sent at the consignees’- risk, and the rest at the risk of the shippers. The view most generally held.us-, that business under such conditions is over-hazardous, especially ■. considering the low prices offering. One exporter was emphatic that there was little hope of an attractive market for New Zealand butter, in Canada until the S®’ l - 3 of wheat; rose sufficiently to ■ lead the prairie farmers to sell their herds Mid give-’W dairying. He saw little hope if this for several years at least. I