PROTECTIVE TARIFFS

Taranaki Daily News, 19 January 1933, Page 16

PROTECTIVE TARIFFS

INQUIRY BY GOVERNMENT. iSTATEMENT BY MR. COATES. Auckland, January 16. A statement that the Government had in hand the matter of inquiring into the protective duties levied upon imports from the United Kingdom, as agreed upon at the Ottawa Conference, was made last evening by the Rt Hon. J. G. Coates. Mr. Coates said the Government was not committed to the appointment of a tariff board but had promised that it would make an inquiry into the present tariffs. . , ~ In his report to Parliament upon the Ottawa Conference Mr. Coates said: “Generally,(.our undertaking is that ‘protection by tariffs shall be afforded against United Kingdom products only to those industries which are reasonably assured of sound opportunities for success.’ We agree to institute an inquiry into existing protective duties—at which inquiry United Kingdom producers will have facilities for expressing their views —and where necessary we will reduce protective duties to such a level as will place the United Kingdom producer in the position of a domestic competitor that is, to quote the text of the agreement, protective tariffs will be reduced to a level ‘which will give the United Kingdom producer full opportunity, of reasonable competition on the basis of . the relative cost of economical and efficient production.’ ”