AMERICAN TARIFF.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 April 1922, Page 2

AMERICAN TARIFF.

EFFECT ON NEW ZEALAND TRADE. WOOL AND MEAT. The new American tariff has not reached its final stage, ahd its effect upon trade between New Zealand and the United States cannot yet be gauged. The duties that interest New Zealanders most are those imposed upon wool and meat. They are exceedingly high in the draft tariff, but they can be regarded without much anxiety on this side of the Pacific in view of the fact that New Zealanders will not have to pay them. These duties are entirely protective in intention, and if the American farmers can produce enough wool and meat for their home market, there will be no importations. If the Americans have to import to cover deficiencies in the home supply, as seems likely, then their consumers will have to pay the duties. Speaking on this point, the Prime Minister (Mr. Massey) said that a duty of about 93 cents on scoured wool, representing perhaps half that amount on greasy wool, would be very heavy. But the available information went to show that the Americans had to import Australasian wool, and since they must pay in lopen competition with the rest of the world, the duty would be an additional charge against their own consumers. It would be the price they paid for the encouragement of their own woolgrowers. The proposed duties on mutton and lamb were also very high, but it did not appear that the United States was a buyer of New Zealand meat under normal conditions. Some frozen mutton and lamb had found its way into the United States in recent years, and had received very high praise from the American consumers. But the conditions had been exceptional. A point to be remembered was that the Americans had a demand for the lamb, but were not Jceen about the mutton. New Zealand could not afford to market the two articles separately. The unequalled quality of the New Zealand lamb created a demand for it wherever it was placed, and experience had shown that it ought to be sold with the mutton.