The Press WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 1935. An Empire Trade Problem

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21415, 6 March 1935, Page 10

The Press WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 1935. An Empire Trade Problem

Interviewed' on his arrival in Wellington, Lord Nuffield spoke very frankly about a matter which concerns him closely—the development of trade within the Empire. After dwelling with; satisfaction upon the trade policy of the New Zealand Government, he confessed that he felt " compelled to forecast a far- " reaching and perhaps tragic trade " disruption between Australia and ■' .he mother country at some future " time, failing an immediate move " to overcome the grave and increas- " ing lack of reciprocity which is " gradually undermining the very " foundations of the trade relation- " ships between us." Though it is u ..ely that anything so catastrophic will happen, it is quite likely that Australia will in the next few years become less and less dependent on manufactured imports. There is nothing necessarily " tragic" in such a development, since the affection of Australians for the mother country and their enthusiasm for the Imperial ideal are not dependent upon their share of Empire trade. Nevertheless, this contrast between the Australian trend towards greater self-sufficiency and the deliberate efforts of the New Zealand Government to develop reciprocal trade between Great Britain and New Zealand raises an issue of Imperial policy which is of the utmost importance and which has not been adequately discussed. It was brought to the notice of the British public recently by a passage in the report of the Dairy Industry Commission:

In addition to any scheme of differential treatment as between Empire and foreign countries that may be adopted by the United Kingdom Government, we may fairly claim that an' equitable scheme of differential treatment of Empire countries should be devised which would give preference, as to both quotas and import duties (if the latter be imposed), to those dominions that maintain low tar fs against goods imported from the United Kingdom and do not dump their produce in the United Kingdom under the shelter of subsidies.

This seems reasonable enough, yet it runs directly counter to the trade policy of the British Government. " Hitherto," wrote " The Times," discussing the passage just quoted, " " claim of this kind has been ad- " vanced by any Dominion because of " the general feeling that it would " be invidious for the British Gov- " ernment to discriminate between " different parts of the oversea Em- " pire." It would seem that the British Government is making a confused attempt to apply to Imperial economic relations the principle, accepted in Imperial constitutional relations, that all the Dominions should be regarded as being in the same stage of development. But whereas a uniform set of constitutional relationships may work well enough, a uniform set of economic relations can only result in hardship and injustice. It must mean that Great Britain's trade concessions to each Dominion will be governed by the average of the trade concessions granted to Great Britain by the Dominions collectively. In consequence, the position might easily arise that, because of her membership of the Empire., New Zealand would receive less favourable terms from Great Britain than some of the Scandinavian countries. Indeed, it is arguable that this position has already been reached. The Dominions are now at widely different stages of economic development; and any trade policy which ignores this reality must do more harm than good. Lord Nuffield would be doing a useful service to New Zealand and to the Empire if, or his return, he put this point of view before the British public.