The Dominion WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1943. OVERSEAS TRADING FIGURES

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 9, 6 October 1943, Page 4

The Dominion WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1943. OVERSEAS TRADING FIGURES

A noticeable feature of the overseas trade returns during the past? few months has been the apparent rapid growth in the value of imports. The figures released yesterday provided a marked illustration. In August, 1942, our imports were valued at £3,599,000, but last August they were stated to total £10,818,000. The aggregates for the first five months of the current financial year show that they have more than doubled when compared with the totals for the corresponding period of 1942-43. Ihe increase shown is quite misleading for purposes of comparison because the more recent figures, now in- ' elude supplies under the lend-lease agreement with the United States. When our overseas trade figures from January 1 to August 31 are compared’ with those for the previous year it will be seen that increased imports, to the 1 value of £31,100,000, and a decrease in the declared value of exports of £12,200,000 have turned an excess of exports, as at August 31 last year, amounting to £24,467.000 into an excess of imports totalling £18,778,000 this year. . This would be a very serious matter if the imports all came to charge, but things obtained under the lend-lease agreement do not —at least at this stage—create any demand upon our overseas funds. And that being so there appears to be no reaspn whatsoever why these goods should be included in the import totals. As things ate the monthly returns, that formerly were of distinct value because of the light they threw on the trend of trade and so on demand foi funds overseas, are now of little, if any, service. The imports are swollen by the inclusion of lend-lease supplies, but the expoits do not reflect in any way the reverse flow of goods and sei vices which partly offset the lend-lease transactions. If, as the Minister of Finance and some of his colleagues so emphatically stated during the election campaign, there is not to be a strict accounting of lend-lease transactions and that the whole purpose of" the arrangement was the avoidance of debts between the Allied countries after the war,” then why should the goods obtained in this way be used in such a manner as to make it appear that.the Dominion faces a large adverse balance in its overseas trade. Had the trade figures just issued actually represented items to be met out of London funds, then our reserves of sterling would have virtually disappeared. But they do not come to account, so’ far as lend-lease dealings are concerned. . . r What is behind this change in the method of presenting the figures of our overseas trade? Why should not the returns be presented in such a way that they will serve a really useful purpose, as they have done in the past? They should show the exports that will, among other things, provide overseas credit, and the imports that will be available to the community, to be paid for out of overseas funds. Ihe lend-lease transactions should be givenseparately, both the inward and the outward provision of goods and services. Today the official leturns do not present a complete or accurate picture of the overseas trade of the Dominion. If our imports increased in value by over £31,000.000 in the first eight months of the current year, then there should be no shortages of consumption goods at all, but the increase was purely nominal. It represents lend-lease supplies and defence materials, and its inclusion in the import totals is, as stated, misleading fudging solely by the official figures it would appear that in the matter of its overseas trade New Zealand in the first eight mon is of 1943 has, when compared with the corresponding period ot the preceding year, suffered an adverse movement of over £43,OJU,UUU —from excess of exports totalling £24,400,000 to an excess of imports of £18,700,000 and that is not the .position Ihe returns should be brought back to the former basis by the exclusion of endlease transactions in every form, and made to show, as accurately as possible, the real overseas trade of this country.