U.S. TARIFF INCREASE.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 222, 19 September 1929, Page 31

U.S. TARIFF INCREASE.

CANADA WILL REPLY. TRADE TREATIES WITH OTHERS. DOMINIONS BEING SOUNDED. (From Our Special Correspondent.) VANCOUVER, August 9. Apprehension throughout the Dominion that the Hoover administration in the United States, largely at the instigation of farmers seeking "relief," would seriously increase customs duties against Canada, are proving far from unfounded. Although the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance refused to place a tariff on shingles, which would have been a serious blow to British Columbia, it decided to order a duty of 75 cents a hundredweight on all Canadian potatoes and to raise the levy on flax seed from 40 cents to 50 cents a bushel. In both cases Canadian growers are hard hit. On top of this the same committee; voted in favour of heavy duties against, certain varieties of Canadian fish which, in the past have found a heavy sale in: United States cities. Will Buy Elsewhere. As a result of these decisions, the recent announcements of both the Hon. James Robb, Minister of Finance, ana Hon. James Malcolm, Minister of Trade and Commerce, that when the proper time arrived, the Canadian Government would know what to do to protect Canadians, and would give other nations an opportunity t.o supply Canada with goods now imported from the United States, have taken on added significance. "We will trade with those who trade with us," the declaration- of Mr. Robb, has been supplemented by a semiofficial announcement from the Cabinet that the other British Dominions, as well as a number of other countries, are being sounded a3 to the likelihood of trade treaties. Meanwhile, the Hon. R. B. Bennett, leader of the Conservative Opposition in the House of Commons, has been touring the Canadian West, laying much Btress on the claim that the U.S. fiscal policy has been "crippling" Canadian industry and that this country must immediately adopt a policy of high tariff "protection." "Opportunity for. East." While the Government has refused on every occasion to make a definite statement as to its policy until the United States new tariff legislation has become law, it is learned that the Mackenzie King Ministry has secured much information and leans strongly towards cultivation of trade across the Pacific. The appointment of the Hon. Herbert M. Marler, as first Minister to Tokyo, and the recent announcement of a large Government subsidy for a direct steamship service to Australia, are regarded as a direct bid both for a market in the East for Canadian products which the United States seeks to discriminate against, and for goods from across the , Pacific, which will replace in . Canada the large number, of United States articles now used in Canadian homes.