THE AMERICAN TARIFF.

Wairarapa Age, 8 March 1922, Page 3

THE AMERICAN TARIFF.

(To the Editor). Sir, — I wish to thank you for publishing my letter of February 16, and to j state in explanation of my statement that the duty on the class of wool . exported from New Zealand was not ! 100 per cent., that a- s usual I figured the duty as compared with the price I which the consumer in the United States pays for wool, and not as compared with the market price of wool ■ in New Zealand, the same as one i would figure the percentage of New j Zealand duties on products imported | into New Zealand from the United I States, that is, by comparing such duty with the price for which the goods sold here, and not from your point of view as expressed in your leader in the issue of the “Age” of February 20. American buyers in New Zealand pay the market price for wool here m competition with world buyers, no matter what it may be. As stated in my letter, the United States does not produce one half of the wool consumed and no matter what the duty or the market price in the countries where we are obliged to secure our need® we are obliged to pay such market price in order to secure our requirements. As regards the American citizen when buying a suit of clothes, the duty of 15 American cents cuts such"an infinitismal figure in the cost of the same, it really makes little or no difference to him. In the average suit of clothe® there is no more than two to three pounds of wool and the additional cost to the spinner in the manufacture of the cloth would amount to less than 2s, not sufficient reason for the tailor to charge any more for a suit of clothes. However, if he should do so the average American citizen would prefer to pay taxes to the Government indirectly in that manner than to pay the tax collector the same directly out of his pocket. In other words he would be paying indirectly and not know it, which is far more satisfactory to him. It has been stated in the papers of New Zealand repeatedly that the American Emergency Tariff Act was prohibiting the exportation of New Zealand products to the United ‘ States. This I denied at the time and I am pleased to note that my contention ha® been proven by the large quantities of New Zealand products which have been and are still going (forward to the United States since the enactment of that law. —I am. etc., D. F. WILBUR, American Consul General.