TARIFF COMMISSION

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19513, 12 June 1933, Page 2

TARIFF COMMISSION

EVIDENCE IN WELLINGTON. By Telegraph—Press Association WELLINGTON, June 10. Continuing his address before the Tariff Commission, Mr A. E. Mander, general secretary to the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation, said it was sometimes suggested that a downward alteration in the tariff should be made on account of the recent raising oi the rate of exchange. Tliis view was a mistaken one. If the present rate of exchange was only a temporary expedient, then it would be a mistake to take it into account in framing a tariff which might remain in force for many years. If, on the other hand, the high exchange was permanent, it meant that New Zealand had definitely adopted a new standard of values quite separate from sterling. If that were the position, then it was clear that the tariff should be based upon our own domestic needs in terms of our own new standard of values, xie quoted from an address given by the British Trade Commissioner, Mr Paish, in London, on February 28 \nd said it was sometimes suggested that the increased rate of exchange had afforded New Zealand industries some additional protection. That was not the case. The 125 per cent, exchange meant that the whole community was required to pay 25 per cent on the /alue of exports—roughly £8,400,000, as a subsidy to the exporters, l The additional burden upon New Zealand industries would offset any protective benefits of high exchange. This appears to have been the experience of industries in Australia. Customs duties were assessed, not on the value of imports in terms of the currency in which those duties are to be paid, but ui terms of sterling. ith imports valued for duty purposes £IOO English money, and .subject to 20 per cent duty payable in New Zealand money, the true rate of duty has been lowered to 16 per cent. That is, the ratio of duty to value is now “16 to 100” in English money; or “20 to '25” in New Zealand money.

Mr John Henry Taylor, manager of Thomas Heany and Co. (N.Z.), asked for an increase of 5 per cent, on the duty on imported handkerchiefs, bringing the tariff up to 25 per cent. He also requested that the duty on dutiable art needlework be maintained, and that present non - dutiable art needlework be placed in the same category as that on which duty is charged. Almost the whole of the evidence and the whole of the examination of this witness was taken in private.