TRADE WITH BELGIUM

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 94, 11 December 1931, Page 5

TRADE WITH BELGIUM

(rress Assn.-

TREATY SIGNED MOST FAVOURED NATION TREATMENT FOR DOMINION RATIFIGATION BY PARLIAMENT

-By Telegraph — Copyright.)

WELLINGTON, Thursday. A tariff treaty was concluded at Parliament House this morning between Belgium and New Zealand. The two countries have agreed to aecord to one another "niost favoured nation" treatment, and it is provided that prohihitions or restrictions on the importation or exportation of goods are not, with certain special exceptions, to he imposed unless they are similarly imposed on the products of other countries. The treaty is the first to be negotiated directly by New Zealand with a foreign country under the latitude given to the British Dominions in that respeet by the deeisions of the 1926- Imperial Conference. The only similar arrangement was entered into in 1928 when by an exchange of notes, "most favoured nation treatmfent" was mntually agreed upon between New Zealand and Japan. That agreement, however, was not in the form of a treaty. The treaty, which has been the subject of negotiations for some

months past, was signed in the Prime Minister's room at Parliament House at about 11 o'clock this morning, and is signed on behalf of the Belgian Government by the Consul-General for Belgium in New Zealand and on behalf of this Dominion by the Prime Minister and Minister of Customs (Hon. W. Downie Stewart). The document is written both in French and English. The tariff agreemgnt consists of seven articles. It is provided that on certain goods the duties both in Belgium and New Zealand shall not be higher than those fixed in the schedules. .Goods passing in transit across the two countries are reciproeally free from all transit duties. The treaty is to be ratified by both Parliaments, and will come into foree I on the fifteenth day after ratification by the parties. There has been an increasing demand in the Belgian Parliament that the duty on butter under the minimum tariff should he increased. It has been arranged under the treaty that the maximum shall be fixed at about 7 per cent. The ad valorem duty on fresh fruit has been reduced from 3s to ls a case. Tallow, hides, skins, greasy wool and phormium tenax entering Belgium from New Zealand are to be admitted free of duty. The duty on frozen lamb has been fixed at an equivalent of about 11 per cent.