The Waikato Times. With which Is Incorporated The Waikato Argus. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 1929. MISSING OPPORTUNITIES.

Waikato Times, Volume 105, Issue 17783, 7 August 1929, Page 6

The Waikato Times. With which Is Incorporated The Waikato Argus. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 1929. MISSING OPPORTUNITIES.

New Zealand supplies little more than £IOO,OOO worth of the £12,000,000 worth of wool purchased annually by Japan. Our butter trade with all Asiatic countries two years ago was worth only £60,000; Australia’s was worth £698,000. Although the New Zealand Co-operative' Dairy Company is making efforts to increase sales of its products to the East, it cannot hope for any great increase as long as the present conditions continue. Two great hindrances stand in the way of all our trade with Asiatic countries—the lack of shipping and the Customs barriers. The facts are set out strikingly in the bulletin "New Zealand’s Trade with the East,” which we reviewed in our issue of last Monday. The whole publication, prepared by Mr W. A. McNair, M. Com., and published by Auckland University College, is well worth the study of exporters and importers. Why is it that Australia can sell more than ten times as much butter as New Zealand to the Orient? Simply because she has the advantage in shipping. If New Zealand had a direct service of vessels with refrigerated space, there is no reason why she should not take a far larger share of the trade offering. The present market is not, perhaps,- of the highest importance, but the consumption of dairy produce in the East tends to grow'. We do not wish to exaggerate the possibilities. It is a mistake to speak of the millions of Asiatics—nearly 1,000,000,000 people—as offering an unlimited market. Very few of these people have the means to purchase imported dairy produce, and in China the taste has yet to be developed among the 400,000,000. The Chinese regard milk and all its products as baby food and nothing more. Only in a few of the homes of the well-to-do Westernised people of that country is butter or milk or cheese seen on the table- The people in general are hardly likely to change their habits, for their emergence' from extreme poverty must needs be slow, and the vegetable oils they now use arc very much cheaper than butter can ever be. Even if their taste should become more particular, they would probably mostly resort to margarine. Again it must he recognised that the Japan market is much more readily accessible to Canadian and Siberian butter suppliers than to our own. Fast ships run from Vancouver to Yokohama in nine days, ar.d then is no need for refrigeration on this journey. Turning to wool, Lie use of which is increasing fairly rapidly in Japan and some other parts of the East, optimists in this Dominicr. snould note that Japanese buyers prefer the liner Australian wools to ours. But when all is said, the fact remains that there is a market, and an expanding market, for New Zealand goods in the East. If refrigerated vessels were running direct, we should have a good outlet for our increasing volume of products. The second hindrance—that of Customs tariffs—however, is also of importance. Not only does it make trade difficult, but it prevents such free exchange as would encourage shipping companies to run direct services. Japan is strongly protectionist, as we are, and she imposes such an enormous tariff on butler and other dairy produce as to make the price prohibitive to all but the wealthiest. China’s tariffs are likely to be raised when the Powers give up their control of the Customs service. The only hope of making trade more free would he by agreements for mutual reduction or removal of duties. But such agreements meet with severe criticism from politicians even when the benefits are wholly enjoyed by British communities. We may instance the Canadian outcry against the admission of New Zealand butter under the tariff agreement and the demand of ou" own wheat-producers for protection against competition from Australia. Our manufacturers would be even more hostile than the wheat-producers to any proposal for free trade within the Empire. Politicians of all parties uphold the protection fallacy. Wc can only hope for some slow advance towards freer commerce with British and foreign lands. Meantime our producers are deprived to a large extent of the opportunity of developing the Eastern markets.