Untitled

Hokitika Guardian, 29 November 1933, Page 4

Tne denouncement of the tariff truce and effective measures for dealing with discrimination against British trade were urged in a memorandum sent to the British Government by the Grand Council of the Federation or British Industries. “It is essential,” says the memorandum, ’’that immediate notice should be given to denounce the tariff truce in order to free the hands of the Government for negotiations with foreign countries designed to benefit British trade.” The proper structure of the British tariff, with special reference to foreign treaty negotiations, should, it is suggested, he a threecolumn taiiff—an Imperial preference

tariff to bo granted' to -the Empire an intermediate tariff to b<- granted to countries which are prepared to reciprocate, and a general tariff, .substantially higher than the intermediate tariff, to lie applied to countries whose treatment of British goods is unsatisfactory. The memorandum asks that notice should be given to terminate' any existing agreements involving the grant of most-favoured-nation treatment by Britain to those countries which do not tie facto grant to Britain full most-favoiired-na tion rights, and that, pending the possibility of entering into full negotiations with countries whose products arc to a great extent competitive with those of Britain, the Government should be provided with such weapons, either in the form of tariffs or otherwise, as are necessary for dealing effectively and at short notice with such attacks ffn trade as have become increasingly frequent of late ,as evidenced by arbitary increase of duties and restrictions on the special classes of goods exported by Great Britain, special exchange duties imposed on sterling prices, subsidies and other similar forms of discrimination.