OUR TRADE POLICY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 December 1938, Page 8

OUR TRADE POLICY

OUTCRY BY BRITISH MANUFACTURERS VIOLATION OF OTTAWA » ALLEGED. THREAT OF REPRISALS. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. (Received This Day, 1.5 p.m.) LONDON, December 15. “If New Zealand carries out import restrictions on January 1, we shall go bald-headed for the denouncement of the Ottawa Agreement. I think we can make it very difficult for the Government to refuse,” declared Mr Moir MacKenzie, Director of the British Industries Federation, commenting on a letter from the federations president, Mr Peter Bennett to the Board of Trade, in which grave apprehension was expressed of the results of the policy on Anglo-New Zealand trade. The letter declared that if these fears i were substantiated, the position would be a breach of the Ottawa Pact, on which the federation would have no option but to press for Britain to abrogate the Ottawa Agreement and substitute by negotiation an agreement in which the' advantages of New Zealand on the British market would be more commensurate with tne treatment accorded to United Kingdom exports. The letter continues that while objection to the reasonable' development of secondary industries is not raised should they occur in consonance with the Ottawa terms, it is claimed that recent instances, particularly where projects are Government sponsored, show that the policy is preference to local industries even to the extent of the exclusion of United Kingdom manufacturers. The letter urges the United Kingdom producer is not given the opportunity for reasonable competition provided under the Ottawa Agreement and adds that New Zealand apparently has ample funds to meet commitments and to pay for the existing volume of exports from the United Kingdom. It appreciates Mr Savage's desire to buy as much as possible from Britain, but is unable to disguise the fact that the secondary industries established and projected may damage the trade previously carried on. Mr MacKenzie adds that exports to New Zealand are bound to dwindle. “We are expected to continue buying eight-five per cent of New Zealand’s produce,” he says. “There can be Socialist experiments, but not at the expense of Britain.”