PACIFIC TRADE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 157, 31 December 1931, Page 10

PACIFIC TRADE

ADVANTAGES: HANDICAPS

MR. STEWARTS REVIEW

The influence of shipping advantages aud of.- shipping handicaps upon the interchange of Pacific commerce is emphasised by the Minister of Customs (the Hon. W. Downie Stewart) in his paper upon New Zealand's Pacific Trade aud Tariff, which was read at the recent general session of the Institute of Pacific Relations. He discusses the well-known influence of the American subsidies, which for the three-weekly service between San Fraucisco and Sydney alone amount to £140,000 annually, and refers to the serious factor of different scales of wages. The crews of New Zealand ships receive double the wages of those of Swedish and Norwegian vessels, with which they are competing, and 25 per cent, more than those of American ships. Loading regulations are another factor. New Zealand regulations limit dock loads to the height of a ship's rail, but there are practically no limitations for competing vessels. "All these handicaps seriously reduce our invisible exports,' says the Minister. "The value of shipping service to and'from the Dominion vitally affects the balance of trade, even though their value is not included in the statistics of exports and imports. The advantages our shipping competitors enjoy increase the value of the service for which New Zealand has to pay and, conversely, lessen the value of our exports, including shipping services. HANDICAP TO TRADE. "It is clear, therefore, that differences in shipping regulations constitute a serious handicap to the trade of New Zealand, and the effects of such differences may be likened to the effects of differences in tariffs and, consequently, affect the distribution of trade and the channels through which it passes. Any fruitful discussion by the Institute of Pacific Relations on the growth of Pacific trade must therefore clearly take into account the effects of shipping regulations, as well as. the effects of the tariff policies of individual countries in the Pacific." Concluding his paper, the Minister says the general tendency during this century has been for New Zealand trade in the Pacific to open out in a widening circle. "The growth of trade with America and Canada has been the main feature of the change that has taken place. This has been chiefly due to the amazing development of the use of motors and motor fuel, and also to the growth of Canadian manufactures for export. But a serious check on.the expansion of commerce has been the rapid increase in tariff barriers jn all Pacific countries (including New Zealand), more particularly since the war. It is idle to speculate as to what would have happened had the movement been toward free trade instead of in the opposite direction, for even in New Zealand many, if not most, classes of primary producers rely on the tariff as strongly as do the manufacturers. OUR "MODEST" TARIFF. "It is true that the New Zealand tariff is modest compared to the .Australian, American, and Canadian tariffs. But as in Europe, so in the Pacific, the main characteristics of the struggle between nations is the attempt by governments to influence the course of frade by customs duties. This is the central and most significant factor in modern commerce. '"But another factor of importance '.s the growing practice on the part o{ America of subsidising her own shipping lines to fight for Pacific trade. When to this is added the great handicap to which New Zealand shipping interests are subjected in shipping regulations and restrictions, the prospects of any expansion of New Zealand-owned shipping in the carrying trade of the Pacific are very shadowy. This is regrettable when we remember how much pioneer work New Zealand did in Pacific shipping. It is all the more regrettable if, as Captain Dollar, of San Francisco, said last year, 'The day is fast approaching when the world maritime commerce will be on the Pacific and not on the Atlantic' POOR OUTLOOK FOR SHIPPING. . "To be sure, we cannot hope to- subsidise and help shipping on the_ same princely scale as America i.s setting out. to do. But, apart from subsidies, the restrictive conditions under which New Zealand shipping operates are tending rapidly to throw the- carriage of our trade into foreign hands. One day we find that no longer can our phosphates from the Pacific Islands be carried in New Zealand ships as heretofore. Another day we find a Japanese line opening up trade, not only between New Zealand and the East, but even between New Zealand and Australia. "Moreover, although we have under our charge the Ross Sea Dependency, which is comparatively speaking, at our own door, we see annually a ricb harvest -worth millions of pounds reaped thence by whalers who come from (Scandinavia, on the other side of the world. If New Zealand could have enlarged • and developed her carrying trade in the Pacific on terms that enabled her to compete successfully ■with foreign nations, she would have drawn to herself a great and splendid revenue, as England did in the Atlantic and the seas of the Old World. But to an onlooker it appears as if she is slowly being driven out of the deep-sea trade and "being forced back on to the narrow confines of her own coast."