SHADOW OF THE QUOTA

Taranaki Daily News, 23 July 1934, Page 9

SHADOW OF THE QUOTA

NEW ZEALAND’S PRODUCE

SOMETHING NEW TO THINK OF. OPINION OF CHILDREN'S PAPER. Out of the new conditions of trade, now that wc are a Protectionist Country, has arisen a very important matter for us all to think about (says the Children’s Newspaper). From New Zealand has come a trade proposal which raises anew the whole question of Imperial trade; and it is important that wc should all understand the bearings of the matter on our trade at home and abroad. At the end of October the GovernorGeneral of New Zealand telegraphed to the Home Government: “There is a widespread belief on the part of producers in New Zealand that if we undertook a drastic reduction or removal of New Zealand protective tariffs on United Kingdom goods, the British Government would guarantee the continuance of unrestricted entry of New Zealand primary products.” Here was a plain suggestion of Free Trade, or something near it, made to the Mother Country from a British selfgoverning Dominion. Our Government, after some months of consideration, has said No to New Zealand, its reasons being: 1. British agriculture must be cherished and protected in a planned economy of development. 2. We are an industrial country and must cherish our exports of manufactures. Therefore, we cannot take such steps against foreign suppliers of primary products as would lead foreign countries to retaliate against our manufactures. THE OTTAWA ARRANGEMENT. At the Ottawa Conference, it will be remembered, a temporary arrangement was made by which the Dominions enjoy Free Trade in our Home market until August, 1935. The Dominions look forward anxiously to what policy is then to be adopted. Hence the New Zealand suggestion to offer us better terms if only we will continue to grant her the Free Trade in our ports she enjoys now. The system of tariff protection is bound to raise these acute issues. If Protection is promised to the British farmer it is useless to make vague promises also to the Dominions. It is the cheap and good mutton, lamb, butter, and cheese now pouring in from the Dominions which the British farmer fears. We cannot at the same time give Protection to the British farmer and Free Trade to the Dominion farmer. While England was a Free Trade country the position of the Dominion exporter was clear; now that we have adopted Protection the Dominion exporter becomes a difficult factor. THE POPULATION FACTOR. The Dominions must realise that we cannot cut ourselves off from foreign trade to have dealings solely with them. The total white population of the Dominions are now about: Canada 10,009,000 Newfoundland 300,000 Australia 6,600,000 New Zealand 1,550,000 South Africa 1,900,000 Total 20,350,000 It is quite impossible to restrict the ambit of our exports to about four millipn w’hite families, and we cannot aim such tariffs at foreign nations as would cut us from foreign commerce. The best we can do, after adopting Protection as we have done, and having regard to home, imperial, and foreign markets, is to endeavour to satisfy the home producer, to give the Dominion exporter a marginal advantage in selling here, and to make the best terms with foreign nations that are consistent with the first two objects.

If anyone imagines that these three things can be achieved easily he has not studied the elements of the case. It bristles with difficulties.

Those who advocated Protection for the British manufacturers alone, forgetting that the British farmer would have something to say, now find how much they were mistaken. If there is any truth at all in the doctrine of Protection the British farmer has the best right to its application; yet now, promised the shelter of a tariff, he finds the Dominions overwhelming him with cheap and excellent produce. Enormous increases in output have been made by the Dominion producers in the last few years. Thus, New Zealand in the present butter season is producing 168,000 tons; two seasons ago she produced 104,000 tons. Most of this has to be exported. New Zealand is faced with the problem, if we will not take her butter, of either cutting down production or finding foreign markets. In our view no part of the Empire should seek to delimit the trade of any other part, any more than one member of a 'family should seek to confine the trade of any other member. More important still it is to oppose any permanent policy of cutting down output to put up prices.. The chief problem is one of distribution. Consumption must be encouraged and increased to meet scientific and liberal supply. Plenty must not be checked.

Let the Government set up Boards of Supply, charged with big dealings in the primary commodities. We have done this in war with marvellous success; why not in peace?