EMPIRE TRADE PROBLEMS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19789, 3 May 1934, Page 8

EMPIRE TRADE PROBLEMS.

An interesting announcement comes from London in relation to the attempts being made by representatives of the Overseas Dominions and the Homeland for a better understanding on trade within the Empire. It is stated that negotiations are being opened almost immediately between the Dominion Office and the official representatives of the Dominions in London, concerning the future of Empire trading, particularly in relation to meat exports. This statement was endorsed earlier in the day by the Minister of Finance who told an interviewer at Hamilton Ihat the New Zealand Government had informed the Imperial Government that Cabinet had assumed responsibility for the control of the dairy industry and that thus would be provided a channel through which future negotiations would be directed. The cable messages (his morning suggest that (he Imperial Government will urge the Dominions to accept some form of restriction to cover the period until the trade pacts with foreign countries expire. It is manifestly plain that the leaders of the Empire ought not to hesitate to make bold strokes in the interests of trade reciprocity within the Empire. The questions raised in the recent more or less unsatisfactory negotiations, cannot be pushed aside as unimportant ; indeed, we think it can be said in the circumstances, that the boldest course would be the safest. Heroic measures are justified as necessary to restore the trade relations between the Homeland and (lie Dominions. The reduction of the quantity of our products required on the English markets has been a heavy blow, more particularly in view of the fact that an increasing export trade had contributed substantially not only to the prosperity of the rural interests but the full employment of labour. But there must be reciprocity if intraImperial trade relations are to work out to the mutual satisfaction of all interested; indeed, it remained for President Roosevelt to remind the United States Congress, in language recalling the last speech of President McKinley just before his assassination, that “American exports cannot be permanently increased without a corresponding increase in imports.” If we will not buy we cannot sell. Here is a lesson for the Empire. Both President Roosevelt and his principal advisors Mr George Wallace (Secretary for Agriculture) and Mr' George Peek (Oversea Commerce Commissioner) have been urging the American farmers to lift up their eyes and hehold fields white for the harvest across the ocean. If the old level of purchases abroad could be restored, or a new demand created, it would do more for agriculture than all the schemes of processing taxes and bounties for crop restriction. Instead of sinking timidly within a narrow and self-contained nationalism, involving as it would in the case of the United States, the taking of 00,000,000 fertile acres out of production, the President would, if granted authority by Congress, seek to open new and enlarging markets for America’s staple products by giving in return to foreign goods freer access to their markets. Mr Roosevelt recently spoke of the necessary tariff changes as “within carefully guarded limits,” and he gave an implicit promise that nothing will be done that may inflict injury upon any sound and necessary American industry. But the main thing is that with courage and ingenuity he has indicated a method by which foreign commerce may be promoted, profitable to all who engage in it. It remains for the Empire trade interests to take a leaf out of the American book and boldly tackle the question of more generous trading with one another and thus promote more stable prosperity that would ultimately benefit the whole world.