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Hokitika Guardian, 18 November 1932, Page 4

The removal of the general tariff on certain ol asses of goodls at Ottawa was not a condition of the Ottawa Agreement, which dealt only with the British preferential tariff. It had been decided upon by the New Zealand Government as a policy measure under the powers conferred by an enabling clause (Article 10) of the agreement. It was pointed out for the future guidance of manufacturers, that the discussions at Ottawa showed tli) it the Government regarded the rates of duty under the general tariff as already sufficiently high, if not. indeed, too high, having regard to their effects on the cost of living in ,N'e>w •Zealnind. This was quite definitely the mse where there were certain suggestions for diverting trade to British sources by increasing the duties on the corresponding foreign (products. These' teuggestjons found no favour from the official New Zealand delegates, and it might be -well to realise that any future adjustments of foreign duties would apoarentlv tend downwards rather than upwards, at least as a general policy. It would he noted, however, that the general principle involved in this policy was departed .from to some extent in connection with the items specified in schedule E of the agreement. This provided for certain 'agreed preferences on .some of 1 he products of non-self-governing colonies and (Protectorates; and in ,applying this clause the Government had found it necessary to amend the general tariff in an upwards direction. It was found, however, that the United Kingdom delegates

were particularly desirous of securing those margins of preference for the non-self-governing territories. The final decision of the official New Zealand delegates, after a careful study of our import statistics, was that these requests could be granted without serious detriment to New Zealand industries; and that as the concessions asked for in other directions were admittedly moderate, it was not desirable to oppose the requests for preferences on raw products included m schedule E.