FREE TRADE SCHEMES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 904, 22 February 1930, Page 10

FREE TRADE SCHEMES

CRITICISM OF EMPIRE CAMPAIGN BRITISH EXPERT’S VIEW From Our Own Correspondent GISBORNE, Today. “I am sorry to see a proposal to draw the Empire closer together labelled “Empire Free Trade,’ said the British Trade Commissioner in New Zealand, Mr. L. A. Paish, during an address to Gisborne business men yesterday. “I do not think there is the slightest chance,” he continued, “of any proposal being put through whereby the industries of the Dominions would be open to unrestricted competition from any nation in the world. England has been a free trade country for nearly a century, but the only reason for that is essentially that she is a country which cannot support and feed herself and 50 per cent, of her foodstuffs must necessarily be imported from abroad. “The only way England can sell on the world’s markets is to make goods as cheaply as possible and sell them at the cheapest price. If we had a duty on our imports of raw materials the price of the manufacturers would inevitably rise and the prices of the exports would do likewise. Consequently we would have little chance of competing in the markets of the world. That Is why, of all nations in the world, she is the outstanding example of free trade. It is not due to foolishness or .stupidity, but to common sense. “It is true that America Is not a free trade country and is prosperous, hut America can feed herself, and England cannot. If the American export trade ceased the country could still live. But if Britain lost her export trade she would starve in five weeks.”