TRADE WITH BRITAIN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 July 1939, Page 7

TRADE WITH BRITAIN

i NEW ZEALAND’S IMPORT RESTRICTIONS DENIAL OF RETALIATORY I ACTION. i MR SULLIVAN DISCUSSES ; POSITION. I (By Telegraph—Press Association.) i WELLINGTON. This Day. j Statements suggesting that restrictions on imports into New Zealand were responsible for retaliatory action by the United Kingdom against this country's exports of primary' produce were- denied by the Minister of Indus- ! tries and Commerce. Mr Sullivan, durI ing the Address-in-Reply debate in the ; House of Representatives last night. In the statement issued last week concerning the London negotiations, said Mr Sullivan, it was specifically stated that no exception was taken by the British authorities to the principle ■ adopted by New Zealand. ’ "It has peon suggested that the ■ introduction of import restrictions by this country has had something to do | with, and will have something to do I with, the placing of restrictions on our i exports to the United Kingdom." said Mr Sullivan. "Anyone who has read the speech by the present Minister of Agriculture in England. Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith, at the producers’ conference in Sydney last year, will realise that is not so. Sir Reginald said on that occasion that all political parties in Great Britain were determined to maintain British agriculture, and further to make no mistake there would be some regulation of imports.”

REGULATION & RESTRICTION. Mr Polson (Opposition. Stratford): "Regulation and restriction are two different things." Mr Sullivan: “Immediately after Sir Reginald returned to England from that conference he was made Minister of Agriculture.’’

Mr Polson: "He pledged himself before he left Sydney' to avoid restriction if New Zealand agreed to regula tion."

Mr Sullivan said that when one read the statements of responsible men in the United Kingdom concerning the necessity for developing British agriculture in the interests of the national defence of Great Britain as well as from the general economic viewpoint, and then listened to some members suggesting that import restrictions in New Zealand had some effect on restrictions on New Zealand’s export of primary produce, it. was obvious that the latter statements were not consistent with the facts.

PROMISES TO BE KEPT. "In view of Sir Reginald’s statement. I hope it will not be suggested that the introduction of import restrictions in New Zealand has any relationship to the adoption of a restrictive policy in the United Kingdom.” said Mr Sullivan. "The agreement made bteween the British authorities and the Minister of Finance. Mr Nash, is qualified by the statement relating to the obligations entered into with manufacturers in New Zealand. That qualification is specifically mentioned in the agreement, and it has to be honoured. To the extent that commitments have been made to manufacturers in New Zealand they will be honoured.”

An Opposition member: "Pledges were also given to British manufacturers.”

• Mr Sullivan said that New Zealand had given an undertaking not to establish uneconomic industries. So far as the establishment of new industries was concerned representatives of the United Kingdom would be invited to discuss the position as to whether the industry concerned was uneconomic.