MEAT QUESTION

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXVIII, Issue 205, 24 August 1932, Page 6

MEAT QUESTION

TARIFF PREFERABLE TO THE QUOTA SYSTEM AUCKLAND, Last Night. The belief that the quantitative restrictions proposed under the meat agreements at the Ottawa Conference betrayed an error of judgment and that the adoption of the tariff principle would have been soender was expressed by the representative of an Auckland meat exporting firm yesterday. "The British public had 100 muon experience of Government rationing r* war-time to be enamoured of the Quota system,” said the exporter. "Such restrictions depend too much on the arbitrary judgments of political appointees, and act in the direction of causing a series of jolts, which are very disturbing to producer and merchant. Uncertainty takes the place of confidence. The quota system has been tried in France and Germany. It always ends in bribery and corruption, and the public gets no benefits in the form of lower prices. "On the otherhand, a tariff is fair. It is a known process, and works.without disruption of large sections of the World’s produce. A tariff will probably come in due course, but it would have been useful to have established that principle at Ottawa, even if the scale were low for a start. Britain needs time to negotiate sensible bargains with Argentina, and Brazil. Britain has very large investments there and profit and interest have to be imported largely in the form of goods. Those countries are also large markets for British goods.