TRADE REORGANISATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 January 1934, Page 6

TRADE REORGANISATION.

The cabled report of the attitude of the Tariff Board of Great Britain to the steel industry is distinctly interesting. It is alleged that the board has warned the industry that its reorganisation is imperative, and unless reforms are put in hand at once a continuance of the protective duties will not be recommended. Many people are aware that the application of a tariff to the iron and steel industry was one of the boldest steps taken by the Imperial Government when it abandoned the “free trade” policy. Justifying its action to those who said that a tariff would slay an already moribund industry, the Government claimed that on the contrary protection would strengthen the industry while it put its house in order, and that when this had been done the higher costs to the consumer entailed by a tariff would be eliminated and the British manufacturer be able to meet his foreign competitors on fairer terms. During the past twelve months the steel industry in Britain has made some solid recovery, but, if the cabled information is correct, it would seem as though with the return of better days the need for reorganisation is not so keenly felt. The Tariff Board’s sharp reminder that a tariff is not permanent protection may have the desired effect. It is evidence also that the “new protection” is something more than a political shibboleth. The application of the tariff is to be considered from the viewpoint of stimulating as well as protecting industries in the United Kingdom, and the cost to the consumer of protected commodities is to be reduced wherever possible by the insistence upon efficiency and the abolition of redundant or obsolete plants. To have raised this issue with so important an industry as steel shows that the Tariff Board is in earnest. It will be interesting to see whether rationalisation will commence and what will be its effect upon the price of steel production.