TRADE RISKS PUT BRAKE ON DRIVE FOR DOLLARS.

Chronicle (Levin), 12 October 1949, Page 5

TRADE RISKS PUT BRAKE ON DRIVE FOR DOLLARS.

(N.Z.P.A.—

-Reuter.

CopyrigJit )

Received Tu-esday, t p.m. LONDON, Oct. 11. Many British businessmen with prolitable niarkets already established in the sterling area, are unwilling to accept the risks of competition in the American market despite the high ■sterling prolits which they might eaiu, says the special London correspondent of'the New York Heraid-Tribune when revievving the reactions of British industry to demands for increased dollar sxports. Three weeks after devaluation British busmessmen stiil seem to regard tneir task of expanding Britain's dollar exports, vvitli a mixture of hope and despair, ' '■ says the correspondent. '•There seems to be more despair than hope. To businessmen who have never ventured into the American market, the whole procedure of high pressure com- j petition, advertising, selling and service, is bewildering and sometimes terrif ving. For inaiiy of them the risks oi' ttie American market are more than they are willing to take." The correspondent adds that manv British industrialists who have long established connections in Commonwealth and European markets are reluctant to antagonise their old customers and d> not trust the durabilit\ of the American market. This attitude is not universal but so far there seems little evidence of a new drive in dollar exports the British Government hoped to encourage bv devaluation. Price readjustments are still continuing, says the report, but it now seems evident that British woollen exporters will have to eut their prices in Ameiica if they want to increase their trade to the required volume. Whisky and fine china are selling so well that it will not be necessary to reduce their piices. British car uianufacturers and diesei engine makers have now high liopes ot greatly incerasing their American tuinover. . . Major-General Philip Flennng, chairman of the United States Maritime Commission, said that the American shipbuiijiing industry was seriously threatened by British devaluation. He would urged increased Government subsidies to offset this. Statements that it is showing laCK of enterprise in developing dollar markets, are strongly repudiated by the Yorkshire wool trade, says the Yorkshire Post. It points out that the Bruish wool textile industry is at present the largest dollar earning trade in the country, selling no less (han 26 pei cent o f its total output in dollar markets compared with the avet'age of 7 per cent on the part of the majoritv of other British industi'ies. "It is possible in any trade to fincl the occasional individual who may nox be alive to his responsibilities but an industry which is sending to dollar maikets nearly four times as large a proportion of 'its export as the a^'erage for other trades, is under no necessitv to apologise for its record," says the Post.