FREE TRADE OUTDATED

Chronicle (Levin), 1 October 1947, Page 5

FREE TRADE OUTDATED

(N.Z.P.A\-

Reuter .

South Africa's Reply To Customs llnion

Ccuomiaht)

Received Tuesday, 7.0 p.m. LONDON, Sept. 30. The New Zealand Press Association learns that conversations on the Empire Customs Union to which Mr. Chifley referred last week, have been carried on by Australia House, London, oulside the commonwealth financial talks. They were taken up on the Australian' initiative and New Zealand and South Afriea have not participated in them. They are regai;ded as being entirely exploratory and designed merely to clarif y the situation. Certain statistieal information relevant to a customs Union, has been discussed with Mr. Ernest Bevin, but it is emphasised this should not be taken as an -indication that the Customs Union proposal had been ficcepted by Australia. The New Zealand delegation to the Commonwealth financial talks, hopes to conclude its pa-rt in the negotiations this week. Both the balances of payment situation and supply arrangements for 1948, have been carefully examined in consultation with the British Treasury and Board of Trade. The only outstanding subject at tne moment is a proposed alteration in the New Zealand film hire tax. This will be discussed within the next few days at a eonference between representatives of the British Treasury, Board of Trade, Commonwealth countries and representatives of the Ameriean film industry. Negotiations between the British Government and Ameriean film industry are still proeeeding and it is intended that Commonwealth representatives should be given an opportunitv to hear both the Ameriean and British points of view. South Africa's attitude to the Empire Customs Union proposal was outlined by Mr. Heaton Nicholls, South Afriea High Commissioner in London, in a speech at Birmingham, when he said: ' 1 The bones of Empire free trade are lying in the ground and cannot be resurreeted. We cannot, at this day, recreate conditions of which Joseph Chamberlain wished to take advantage. The opportunity for doing so iias gone. "If the term customs union, applied to the Commonwealth, means what is normally meant by the term, that is to sav, a geographical area of 'free trade, then it is conipletely out.of date. Tne Doniinions are now' independent sovereign nations concerned with building up their own economies and an Empire customs union is as impracticable a suggestion as the establishment of a House of Comnions in Moscow. " Empire cooperation, however, was an entirely different matter, continued Mr. Nicholls. All the Doniinions believed in imperial preference and it was not their fault that its abolition has been discussed. Cooperation was vital not only to the Mother country but also to the Dominions. Military strategy alone denianded the dispersal of Britain's population and mueh of Britain's war potential.to the less populated and less developed Doniinions which could be come Britain's support bascs if the Commonwealth had ever again to fight for its existenee.