GOOD MARKET FOR WOOL IN U.S.A.

Wanganui Chronicle, 15 November 1947, Page 5

GOOD MARKET FOR WOOL IN U.S.A.

(N.Z.P.A.--Special Correspondent.) London, Nev. 12. The “Financial Times” special correspondent, reviewing the possible effects of the decrease in American wool tariffs upon the wool-exporting Dominions and upon the manufactured woollens trade of the United Kingdom, emphasises that while the present high wool prices persist any decrease in tariffs must be appreciable to produce any immediate effect uron United States imports of raw u„ol. Moreover, a clear distinction must be made between any reductions in duties on woollen manufactured goods, since a percentage reduction in tariffs would not have the same effect in both cases

The correspondent points out that, despite the present tariffs, the "United States is already importing 80 per cent of its raw wool requirements, and that her consumption in 1946 was approximaely half the total production of the five leading wool exporting countries.

There appeared to be good reasons for believing that America would continue to import wool on this extensive scale, and there was no sign that a large market for high quality wool goods in the United States was in any way diminishing.

Doctor Edgar Boot, chairman of the International. Wool Secretariat, who has just returned from an extensive tour of Canada and the United States said that all trade representatives whom he interviewed insisted that the present consumption of wool in America—already nearly double that of prewar—would continue to increase. They also considered that wool wa- less likely to be affected by a trade recession than any other item in the American family budget.