MEAT RESTRICTION.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20509, 10 January 1935, Page 1

MEAT RESTRICTION.

Instruction to Exporters in Australia. A THREE MONTHS AGREEMENT. United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. (Received January 10, 12.30 p.m.) MELBOURNE, This Day. The exporters of meat to Britain are being advised by the Department of Commerce that further permits for shipments of mutton and lamb, which would arrive in Britain during the first quarter of this month, will not be issued. No restriction has yet been placed on the export of beef, as the suggested quota has not yet been approached. At Brisbane th£ Minister of Commerce, Dr Earle Page, announced that a cable message had been received from the British Government announcing that Britain had agreed to accept the offer made by the Federal Government about meat exports for the next three months. This means that the British Government would not now impose the proposed restriction on Australian meat, said Dr Page The Federal Government had made a fair offer to Britain to cover exports for the next three months, although at same time maintaining its opposition to the principle of restriction. New Zealand’s Allotment for 1935. LONDON, January 1. The Australian Government has been informed that whilfe British imports of foreign frozen beef, mutton and lamb for the first quarter of 1935 will be cut 35 per cent, compared with the corresponding period of 1932, and imports of foreign chilled beef will be cut 10 per cent, the Dominions’ allotments will exceed the Ottawa levels. For example, Australia, during the first three months of 1935, will be permitted, approximately, 23 per cent above the first three months of 1932 on all meat. New Zealand’s allotment will be less favourable, because in 1932 she heavily exported mutton and lamb. In spite of Australian assertions that Britain is not fulfilling her Ottawa j obligations, it is claimed that Britain I has stimulated Dominions’ meat ex- ! ports and has reduced her foreign iniI ports. . , I The latest figures show that Britain s ; meat imports from Australia for the I first eleven months of 1934 were worth £6,414,000, against £4,205,000 in 1932, j and New Zealand’s £12,515,000, against £10,542.000; whereas imports from the ; Argentine were reduced from £21,290,000 | to £17,102,000. ! It is explained that the progressive | closing of Continental markets has | largely influenced the British attitude | toward regulating imports because Bn- : tain remains the only substantial market for imported meat. It is stated that the 1934 figures will I show that Britain not only absorbed : 97 per cent of the world’s mutton and lamb exports, but that Britain’s share of the world’s beef exports is now 83 per cent, compared with 65 per cent in the years 1926-29. Germany’s meat imports, which last vear accounted for 10 per cent of the world’s exports, are now below 0.1 per cent. The root cause of the difficulties regarding beef in Britain is the reduced consumption, says the “Economist.” It is estimated that the annual per capita consumption has been reduced from approximately 711 b to 691 b. The policy of artificially maintaining beef prices is actually accelerating the ; transference of demand from beef to j mutton, the “ Economist ” states. Any j maintenance of prices by import restriction or levy is dangerous. | It will raise prices but will restrict ! consumption so sharply as to defeat j its own ends. The subsidy policy has i involved the Government in a tangle | which it will find difficult to unravel.