TRANS-TASMAN TRADE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 311, 23 March 1928, Page 13

TRANS-TASMAN TRADE

“KEEP MONEY IN BRITISH FAMILY” MR. PRATTEN ON TARIFF (From. Our Resident Reporter J WELLINGTON, Thursday. “The solution to some of the economic problems confronting us can largely be found in a greater interchange of Empire products. Any and all proposals to this end that allow for each other’s political problems should, and, I am sure will, be welcomed on both sides of the Tasman Sea.” The 'Commonwealth Minister of Trade and Customs, Hon. H. E. Pratten, speaking at a luncheon given in his honour this afternoon by the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, gave ah interesting outline of the principles of the Australian tariff. Mr. Pratten said Australia had developed, in the same way as New Zealand, substantial tariff preferences to Britain. “Summarised, the effect of the tariff of November, 1927,” he said, “is to attack approximately £24,000,C-f I worth of trade, of which £6,000,000 is British and £ 18,000,000 foreign. It is anticipated the result will be that an additional £6,000,000- worth of trade will come to Australian factories. Half of this trade will be British and half foreign. Britain should also be able, eventually, and without any detriment to any present Australian industry, to capture half the remaining trade in our market, so that the net gain to Empire trade will be over £10,000,000, of which half will come to Australia and half to Britain. “Our tariff legislation requires, as a preliminary to any Parliamentary action, that, evidence must be given before the Tariff Board, in public and on oath, for and against any application for a tariff revision. “There is, however, one thing above political party interests that has developed in Australia in recent years, and that is a growing national sentiment to prefer the goods made in our own country. “The number of people who believe that Australia can he best developed by tlie creation of more employment is rapidly increasing. This is the quickest way of populating our comparatively empty - country, and we are, therefore, increasingly giving a practical preference in our purchases to the goods made by our own people. “In Australia we believe in taking practical steps toward an Empire economic unity. We believe in keeping money in the British family, and are watching the development in New Zealand with interest and sympathy, as your problems were much the same as ours. “With the development of Australian population and wealth,” he went on, “our aggregate trade with Britain still increases. So might it be with you. Governments are always criticised, but the great Parliamentary business of to-day is to keep the equilibrium of the people’s progress.”