A BRITISH KEY INDUSTRY.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 142, 18 June 1932, Page 6

A BRITISH KEY INDUSTRY.

HEALTHY iron and steel industry is essential to British economic progress and national security. That this is fully realised is implied by the Import Duties Advisory Committee’s announcement that the temporary additional duty on iron and steel products be continued for a further limited period. The general scheme of the committee was the imposition of a uniform rate of additional duty on fully manufactured goods, with a lower rate for some products where special considerations arose, and higher rates for luxury commodities. For most manufactured goods the recent additional 10 per cent, brought the category up to 20 per cent. Iron and steel were regarded by the committee as the one important exception from the general scheme. They presented peculiar difficulties, partly because they entered as material into so many other industries and partly because the most intense competition was being experienced in respect of semi-finished goods. The position in Britain was that abnormal importations at very low prices had been taking place, while stocks in the country were substantial. The urgency of some remedial measure is further emphasised by this latest decision of the committee to extend the period of a 33 l-3rd per cent, protection for a key industry.