Market Opened Up.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 938, 7 December 1933, Page 10

Market Opened Up.

NEW tRADE pACT.

Treaty with Belgium Agreed to. (“Star” Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, December 7. trade agreement has been reached, which, it is expected, will provide New Zealand with still another outlet for her primary products. The House last night adopted Customs resolutions which brought this agreement into effect at midnight. The parties are New Zealand and the Economic Union of Belgium and Luxemburg. Under the arrangement each country grants to the other most favoured nation treatment. Belgium will admit New Zealand Cheddar cheese at the rate of 72 francs per hundred kilos net; flax yarns, 10 francs per hundred kilos gross; apples, from April 1 to August 31, 25 francs per hundred kilos gross; wool, hides, tallow and textiles of phormium tenax free. New Zealand will admit the following Belgian goods at the rates shown: Boot laces, other than leather, 40 per centum; carpets and floor rugs, 45 per centum; glassware, 40 per centum; sensitised surfaces, other than postcards, 20 per centum; .22 and .303 calibre rifles, 20 per centum; firearms, n.e.i., 40 per centum. Surtax is abolished on the above Belgian goods and on matches, bicycle tyres,, window glass, lead and zinc in bars, rode, plates and sheets, and cotton or cotton and silk moquettes, tapestries and tickings cf Belgian origin. If the arrangement is ratified, the reduced duties are to be brought into force by proclamation on a date to be arranged. Need of Additional Markets. In moving the adoption of the resolution, Mr Coates, after pointing to the policy of Britain of restricting imports, said it was a matter of extreme urgency that additional markets should be found for New Zealand products. The Dominion sent only 3.3 per cent of its export trade to the Continent, which was much less than other British dominions sent. If New Zealand could get a firm footing on the Belgian market the increase of exports to Europe should be greatly facilitated. Belgium was now giving a new orientation to her commercial policy, added Mr Coates. The new agreement would give New Zealand a free and unfettered market for the goods enumerated in the agreement, which constituted a stepping stone for a more complete agreement where butter and meat were concerned. Although they were not mentioned in the agreement, an assurance had been given that New Zealand would be put on an equal level with the Argentine, Denmark, Holland and other competitors. New Zealand Cheese. Belgium was, relatively, a large importer of cheese, and there was no record of direct exports of cheese from New' Zealand to Belgium, and it seemed, said Mr Coates, that in this product more particularly there was a field to be exploited by New Zealand exporters. New' Zealand also was being given a concession enjoyed by no ether exporter in the Southern Hemisphere in regard to apples. Commenting on the resolution, Mr Savage, Leader of the Opposition, said he was not advocating knocking down tariffs until something better was provided, but increased trade between nations could be based on definite trade agreements and increased trade could only be obtained by restoration of purchasing power to the rank and file of the people. It was time the people got the benefit of the goods and services they brought into existence. As far as tariffs w'ent, the Government seemed to be only fooling w'ith the situation.