The Daily News FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 1935. TRADE WITH AUSTRALIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 April 1935, Page 4

The Daily News

FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 1935. TRADE WITH AUSTRALIA.

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A further delay appears likely in the resumption of negotiations between the Dominion and Australia for less one-sided trading agreements. Mr. F. T. White, Australian Minister of Customs, who was to have visited New Zealand at the end of this month may postpone his visit because of the absence from the Dominion of-the Minister of Finance and Customs, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates. Since that statement was made Mr. White and the acting-Prime Minister of the Commonwealth, Dr. Earle Page, have received a deputation from Australian growers protesting against the admission of New Zealand potatoes.to the Commonwealth. This naturally raises speculation whether other reasons than the absence of Mr. Coates have made expedient a further postponement of Mr. White’s visit. It may be desirable that inter-Dominion trading difficulties-should be kept in the background while endeavour is made in London to find common cause between New Zealand and Australia in opposing drastic reductions by Britain of imports of their primary products, but if the attitude of Australia in regard to trans-Tasman trading is to continue, it does not enhance the likelihood of the Commonwealth being willing to make any sacrifices for the sake of a sister Dominion in any agreements with the United Kingdom. For four years negotiations have been proceeding with Australia for an agreement that would give New Zealand a less unfair balance of trade than at present. It is admitted that the balance for many years is likely to remain in Australia’s favour, but Dominion exporters claim that the difference "should be much less than at present, and with good reason. The only argument the Australian exporter appears willing to recognise is that of an embargo on the commodities he has to offer. It was not until New Zealand prohibited the entry of oranges from New South Wales and Victoria that her protests against the Australian embargo upon potatoes from the Dominion received any real heed. The consumers in both countries, as well as the producers, have had to bear the cost of this narrow economic nationalism, but the attitude of the potato-growers in Australia seems as discouraging as ever. The truth of the matter appears to be that Commonwealth affairs are dominated largely by the manufacturing and trading interests. It is true Dr. Page is the leader of the Country Party section of the Ministry, and that he has expressed himself in favour of lowered tariffs. But the negotiations of the past five years make it quite clear that so long as Australia has a reasonably open market in .the Dominion for her manufactured goods she is content to ignore reciprocity in regard to the interchange of primary . products, even though lack of this may entail hardship upon Australian growers. The fruit trade in the eastern States with New Zealand has been hard hit; exports from Norfolk Island have been brought to an end, for reasons as a Commonwealth Minister, Sir George Pearce, admitted, that are entirely illogical. But Australia seems in no hurry to remove '‘illogical” prohibitions on imports from ,New Zealand. It was not until the secondary industries were warned that the Dominion’s policy

in future must be to buy from countries in which she could also find a market for her exports that the need for further negotiations was treated seriously by the Commonwealth. Since then, for various reasons, the visit of an Australian Minister and the revision of the Commonwealth’s attitude have been postponed again and again until they appear as far off as ever. The facts comprise an aspect of the Dominion’s search for markets that must not be overlooked when the New Zealand case is argued with the authorities in Great Britain, for if reciprocity is unobtainable from Australia and is obtainable, elsewhere, the law of self-preservation will demand that the Dominion buy where she can also sell. Australia has herself to thank if the conviction grows in New Zealand that only by adopting an unbending attitude in regard .to importations of Australian manufactures will a more reasonable frame of mind be induced at Canberra.