TARIFF POSITION

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 593, 26 July 1933, Page 4

TARIFF POSITION

It is not expected that the Government will have tHe recommendations of the Tariff Commission until well on in the session. The commission is due to report at the end of September, but judging by the rate of progress it has been able to make, it will probably ask for an extension of time. It is due to opeii its Auckland sittings on August 1, and from there it goes to Christchurch and Dunedin and back to Wellington again, hearing further evidence. After the puiblic sittings have been concluded, it will take two or three weeks to prepare its findings. When it comes to the actual framing of the Customs schedule, every item has to be considered, and on some there have been several representations viewing the position from different angles. The commission is bound by the Ottawa agreement to place the United Kingdom manufacturer on the basis of a domestic competitor, and the task is a much more difficult one, when one gets down to facts, than it appears to be in the form of an abstract resolution. Another problem that is going to give the commission a

great deal of trouble when it comes to deliberate is the influx on to the New Zealand market of cheap goods from the East. During the hearing of one case recently Professor B. E. Murphy said that the more he looked at the problem the more difficult it Ibecame. Under conditions which would not be tolerated in the United Kingdom, the Japanese for example are producing a wide range of goods and landing them in New Zealand at j much below the English factory | prices. No ad valorem tariff j (that is a tariff which is fixed j i at a percentage of the cost) can | deal with this situation. Not | only have the Japanese an advantage in production Costs, but their currency is also depreciated. England recently had to increase her tariff against Eastern o-oods and Australia has imposed

i specific tariff (that is duty of 30 much per dozen, per pair, per yard, etc.) on Japanese products. New Zealand might follow the same example, but there is an additional danger. If a virtual tirohibitioii is placed on Japanese goods, there is nothing to prevent Japanese industrialists from setting up factories in British possessions in the East. In fact this is already being done for the purpose of regaining those markets which have already excluded Japanese commodities. Under article 12 of the Ottawa agreement, New Zealand and the other Dominions is bound tO accord to the non-self-govOrning colonies and protectorates of the British Empire the same tariff facilities as those accorded to the United Kingdom. This gives the Japanese industrialist a loop-hole. He may establish a factory in Sin'gapore for instance and frustrate any embargo which has been "placed on the commodities coming from his own country.

It is in the interests df New Zealand "trade that she buy as j largely as possible from the : Motherland, as every British product imported into the Do- 1 miiiion gives a British workman | a job and iilakes hihi a possible | buyer of our produce, but the flood of Japanese goods from British colonies or protectorates : ihay easily prevent such a Mow of trade. The pfoblem seems to be one for negotiations between the Dominions and . the United I Kingdom rather than tariff policy.