Tariffs in Great Britain.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20183, 11 March 1931, Page 8

Tariffs in Great Britain.

If it is not whoUy avurpriaing thatAfr J. M. Keynes has become an of tariffs, as a cable me?sagg yesterday, the reason is that he. has lately written much like a man preparing for some act of recantation op conversion than that his proposals ate themselves at once convincing. He hua written -with curious sympathy of the Mosley manifesto, which rests on tariffs; and in a broadcast address be--fore Christmas ho spot© with high enthusiasm about free spending, and'said nothing at all about wise saving, which in a country industrially crippled by State extravagance and sgh costs seems much more necessary, Mr Keynes apparently \ thinks the situation ao critical that the country cannot wait for long-period remedies to take effect. The strain on the Budget must be eased, industrialists must bo given a breathing space, and wages can be more easily lowefed by inducing a small * rise in the price-level than by a direct OUt. All of these purposes and others connected with them would be served by imposing tariffs, and since Mr Keynes proposes flat rates it is clear that hia object is not to protect specific industries, or even to reduce imports sharply, but to help the Exchequer and to diffuse general relief among taxpayers and producers. It is impossible to measure the "insignificant■ effect upon the cost of living, though what a man calls " insignificant" m pleading for fiis theory generally weighs heavier in the result; bjit quite cortamly the cost of living woM go up, with every other cost. If the tariffs had any protective influent, producers for the home market would p in > J" 1 * employment might fall a,hltltboth of these advantages would bo the export-manufacturer's loss, a fresh bandiqop to the trade, on which the whole population depends. It, w arguable, of course, that temporary measures must be judged solely by tlje temporary putposea for which they are designed, and Mr Keynes probably, does atfgue soi. 'There are two objeotiqna t» the: argument, however.: that temporary' tariffs are much .easier to impose than to reinoye, and tm W ill are apt to.' appear, ajmost , as aoon as the good ancj at leajt to cancel them V out. If Mr coot, tturiff oil HiftnufecturGQ . semi'manufactured goods were imposed, it would at onoe affect, according to Board of Trade figures, about £334,000,000 of under that heading. Included are £105,000,000 p£ goods which, are not classed as raw materials only because a certain amount of refining work has been done on them; e,g,, petrol and pig ifon. About £46,000,000 is made up of other materials used in British factory "production, like .flax yaw .And copper sheets. Another* £44,000,000 already pays safeguarding op jMcJfenna duties; Of , the remainder, £139,000,000, , ," miscellaneous ■ items, many requiring 1 further prowling, TOftke -«p £63,000,000; wliila of the ( last £86,000,000 of finished manufactures > £34,000,000 WMixported. It ia evi-.. that * 15 per font, tariff" on the e( manufactured or semi"manufactured" group must at once, no less than the five per cent, duty on classified raw materials,' penalise the British tttfLp^faetwer,, It wqtM he ridiculous to think that Mr Keynes has not examined these £acts, with which his old free-trade notebook must richly supply him. The .question i» how'he-has got over them* . j . -