BRITISH TARIFFS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 150, 17 February 1932, Page 5

BRITISH TARIFFS

(British Offieial Wireless).

MEETING DISCRIMINATION FROM COUNTRIES ABROAD EXCEPTIONAL INTEREST

RUGBY, Tuesday. Exceptional interest was displayed in the House of Commons on the Imports Duties Bill, which with the proposals for dealing with agriculture as outlined last week, constitute the main part of the Cabinet's scheme for meeting the national emergeney. Maj or W. E. Elliot (Financial Secretary to the Treasury), in moving the second reading, said the Government sought by this measure to correct the balance of payments, to check the depreeiation of the. pound, to secure freedom by offering advantages to other countries in return for advantages they might give Britain, to have an^instrument to meet discrimination against the British, to encourage the British people to secure a reasonable share of their own markets, and to fortify the finances of the country by a not unduly high but widely spread revenue duty. Advisory Committee Referring to the advisory committee to be set up, the speaker said its duty would he to consider the position of consumers as well as producers. It would recommend duties additional to 10 per cent. ad valorem which might or might not he subject to drawbacks. Part II. of the Bill gave power to the board to add supplementary duties to he imposed in case of foreign discrimination. The Government believed that Britain with its huge markets had a more powerful lever under the Bill than any other country, and it would be used to bring down duties. The Government fully recognised the necessity of preserving the country's great entrepot trade, and this was provided for in Part III. of the Bill, which contemplated dealing with it not by a single specific proposal but by proposals applied to the needs of each case.