MUCH DEPENDS ON FREE TRADE

Chronicle (Levin), 27 July 1946, Page 7

MUCH DEPENDS ON FREE TRADE

, ♦ NEW ZEALAND ADVISED TO j | WATCH CONFERENCE I ji WELLINGTON, July 26. j ; The very great interest taken j j through New Zealand in the ofl'ect of! i Bretton Woods and the Internationai j , Monetary Fund, 011 tlie Dominion 's 1 j trade, was understandable, said tlie Doj minion secretary of the Farniers , j Union, Mr. A. 1\ O 'Bhea, iu an addressl ' to tlie Makara-Hutt branch of Feder-' i ated Farniers, but it was unfortunate! J that iu the concentration of interest i J there, the importance of the proposed i ! international confereuce 011 trade and: ! employment, was being entirelv over-! j looked. ! "1 am convinccd," he said, "that' ! the proposed confereuce is of much: | greater importance to New Zolaud than the Bretton Woods agreement or agrce- j j nient set up by tlie International Bank.j Banks do not buy goods. They can i lielp the people to buy them or refrain! such help. If there are, however, trade 1 barriers in tlie forni of import and exj change controis or tariffs, theu intcrnalional trade is hamstrung. That is) ! the position iu the world at presenti ! and if we are to have prosperity thatj attitude must be broken doun. Newi ; Zealand is dependent on overseas trade1 I more than any othcr country except ■ I possibly Bwitzerland. We must see 1 0 j ! it that barriers to our trading witlii j other nations are broken dowu. To doij this we must see we are not oirend- j j ing," Mr. O'fSlioa said. j j It was obvious tlie United Blatesll j Government recogiiised thc need to|J I lower turilTs for u greater voluino ofil j international trade despite a strongjl j internal iiiovemout.for tlioir continu-jl j auce, and it was vitul that New Zea-»| J land should take more than an ordin-lj 1 ary interest in tlie confereuce on trade! I j and employment. Cooperative action I | regarding trade and employment wasil j indispeiisabJo to tlie success of such! j otlior measures as those dcaling with! monetary and excliange stability. | 1 Under the proposals outliued in thei ' memorandum on the confereuce by the! ! American Secretary of State, said MrJ j O'Shea, no nation would seek to main-| { tain employment through measures like- } I ly to create unemployment in other I countries or incompatible with inter-; national undertakings designed to pro- i mote an expanding volume of inter-' national trade. "This means, in effect," he added, "that no nation should seek to produce1 within its borders things which can be| better produced elsewhere, and should1 concentrate on the production of those' things for which it is particularly I suited. This is important to New Zealand with our great advantages inj farni production. Given proper conditions we can expand primary production in New Zealand very considerahly indeed but sooner or later, if we do this, we shall come against the prohlem of selling our produce in markets other I than the United Kingdom. The real I hope for New Zealand 's economic , future, therefore, is an easing of restrictions on the eutry of our produce into other countries and to this end we should take an active interest iu the proposals to free world, trade," i