URGE FOR LOWER TARIFF

Taranaki Daily News, 20 February 1933, Page 7

URGE FOR LOWER TARIFF

DAIRY BOARD SUGGESTION

OBJECTION BY MANUFACTURERS.

HOW WOULD FARMERS BENEFIT?

By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night.

The New Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation in a statement strongly criticises the attitude of the Dairy Board outlined in its recent statement urging the Government to reduce the duty on British goods to the extent of the recent increase in exchange. The federation claims that the dairy industry appears to have drifted blindly into a predicament which threatens to be ruinous, and asks how the dairy farmers in New Zealand could benefit by a reduction in New Zealand tariffs. In its recommendations to the Government regarding the proposal to restrict the export of butter to Britain the Dairy Board stated, inter alia:— “The board is further unanimously of the opinion that the only sound policy for the future welfare of the Dominion is to aim at the attainment of free trade between the United Kingdom and New Zealand prior to the expiry of the term of the Ottawa agreement. To that end the Government is urged at once to reduce the duty on British goods to the extent of the increase caused by the recent increase in the exchange rate. “The impossibility of imposing any restrictions upon production in New Zealand is emphasised. New Zealand is a young country which is still very far from having attained the maximum development. The country has been developed in roads, railways, and hydroelectric facilities by capital borrowed from Britain. The obligations thus undertaken could be met only by unrestricted opportunity for internal development. Restrictions upon production and output would inevitably react upon the Dominion’s capacity to meet - loan obligations, and thus affect the British investor.”