TRADE OPPORTUNITIES IN INDIA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 250, 21 October 1937, Page 11

TRADE OPPORTUNITIES IN INDIA

The opportunities awaiting overseas manufacturers in India were discussed last month at a luncheon,of the Export Managers’ Club of New York, U.S.A. The speaker was Mr. Carl Hayden, supervisor of the National City Bank of New York branch banks in India. He said that American exporters as a whole were overlooking the many possibilities for profitable and comparatively easy trade with I India. America, said Mr. Hayden (according to the “Export Trade and ■Shipper,” of Brooklyn), could easily expand its volume of exports to that rich country if exporters would only apply the same degree of intensive merchandising as they did in countries nearer home. He cited Indians* increasing purchasing power due largely to improved agricultural methods and conditions and the growing industrialisation. He deplored the paucity of advertising, displays and demonstrations of American goods in India. As a result, with a few outstanding exceptions, notably in the proprietaries and automative fields, the wide variety of American goods suitable for that market were scarcely known to the public or the distributors. Indian distributors’ commercial morality ranked with the highest of any of the world’s trading nations. Mr. Hayden stated that while Great Britain had a strong hold on certain featured manufactured products, Japan, since the conclusion of the trade agreement with India, had lost ground and her rampant competition of previous years in the cotton goods field had been brought under control. Germany did not to-day have the capacity for former long-term deals. He recommended that in selecting agents they should be appointed to the five trade key cities, Calcutta, Bombay, Karachi, Madras and possible Lahore.