CHINA’S FOREIGN TRADE

Taranaki Daily News, 18 October 1934, Page 9

CHINA’S FOREIGN TRADE

DECREASE DURING 1932 AMERICA THE BEST CUSTOMER. ANALYSIS OF THE RETURNS. (To the Editor.) Sii - ,—For the year 1933 China’s imports amounted to 1,345,000,000 dollars in value, showing a decrease of 18 per cent compared with 1932, while exports amounted to 611,000,000 dollars, a decrease of 20 per cent. The balance of trade .is adverse to China, and the excess of imports over exports is calculated at 733,000,000 dollars in 1933. The decline in foreign trade is due to the fact that the three eastern provinces (Manchuria) were not included in the statistics, and that huge field did not reflect any figures on the China’s Proper total foreign trade. It appears, however, that if a .comparison is made after excluding Manchuria Customs figures from the 1932 results, the imports would show a decrease of only 11 per cent., while the exports would increase by 6 per cent. The explanation of these facts rests with economic conditions through which China was passing (luring 1933. Factors, were the war just finished with Japan, commercial boycotts, floods and the enforcement of the new tariff of May 22, 1933, affecting imports. Mr. Ho Ping-Yin, director of the Bureau of Foreign Trade, in analysing the present position of China’s commercial transactions with the world presents very illuminating figures in his last halfyearly report to the Minister of Industry, Nanking. His deductions concerning the results achieved in 1933 are favourable for the interests of China Proper, and speaking about the second half of the year under review, he remarks that much improvement was shown as compared with the first half-year. It can be safely stated that China’s monthly trade ranged from 109,000,000 to 200,000,000 dollars. ON SILVER BASIS. The figures shown are the result of calculations made on a silver basis. The silver stocks held by the banks increased steadily and there had been a

general tendency for funds to be concentrated in the large ports, especially in Shanghai. These funds had accumulated to such extraordinary proportions in 1933 that credits were contracted, interest rates fell and bond prices had risen to a level unjustifiable by the situation, largely because this was the only profitable use for the idle money on the market. Foreign exchanges declined, due to the devaluation of standard currency in Great Britain, Japan and America. Of considerable interest. are the data regarding China’s trade by countries. America again ranked first, followed by Japan (excluding Formosa), Great Britain, Hongkong, Germany, India (including Burma), Dutch East Indies, Annam, Siam, France, Korea, the U.S.S.R. and Italy. The U.S.A, was supplying 23.71 per cent of China’s total buying abroad. Great Britain supplied 12.74 per cent., Japan 10.03 per cent, and Germany 9.26 per cent, of the total imports. ’ Mr. Ho Ping-Yin notes an important development in the trade with America. A year ago that country bought less from China than Hongkong or Japan, but the first half of 1933 she was a larger buyer than Japan, this progress being accelerated until Hongkong was also displaced during the last two quarters. While shipments to America represented 19.4 per cent, of the total, those to Hongkong were only 18.30 per cent., with 15.93 and 9.12 for Japan and Great Britain respectively. Of the 14 principal countries trading with China, a favourable balance for China is shown only in two cases (Hongkong and Korea). REMARKABLE PROGRESS. In spite of the inevitable drop in foreign trade, both in imports and exports (due to the loss of territories, new tariffs, a general economic deflation etc.) two countries have shown remarkable progress in their dealings with China. Taking the 1932 returns as 100, the index of trade of Australia in 1933 is showing 135, and of the U.S.S.R. 157—in imports into China. Their respective index for exports are still 85 and 16. . The following figures show the share of Australia in the trade of China during the five years ending 1933: 1929, 0.31; 1930, 0.40; 1931, 2.67; 1932, 2.69; 1933, 4.43. The foreign trade of China was still centred in big ports. Shanghai occupied first. place among Chinese ports in the volume'of foreign trade handled, representing 51 per cent, of the. country’s total. Next in order of importance came Tientsin, Canton, Kiaochow, Kowloon and Swatow. With the balance of the ports of the three eastern provinces turned to Manchukuo, there was no port in China which could show a credit balance in its foreign trade during the past year. The decline of China’s foreign trade, says Mr. Ho. Ping Yin, apart from general immediate causes and the omission of the figures for the three eastern provinces, is also the result of her economic backwardness. “There are a thousand things which could be done to assist the development of our foreign trade,’* concludes the Director of the Bureau for Foreign Trade, “but the revival of rural economics and a hastening of the process of industrialisation are vitally necessary.” —I am, etc., ALEX. S. TETZNER. Patumahoe, Oct. 16, 1934.