Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 1943. POST-WAR TRADE AND INDUSTRY.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 June 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 1943. POST-WAR TRADE AND INDUSTRY.

PEARS expressed by the member for Tauranga (Mr Doidge), when lie spoke in the Financial Debate in the House ol: Representatives, that New Zealand is likely to find itself m trouble after the war over a world demand for the abolition of trade tariffs and embargoes, .seem to be rather iar-tetened. On the other hand, it is possible to agree unreservedly with Mr Doidge that ideas on the subject of post-war tiade anc incus trial policy should be developed in free Parliameu aiy anc public discussion, in order that they may be in the ceaies’ possible shape by the time the war comes to an encl.

In spite of all that is being said about the necessity of removing barriers to trade in the post-war world, it seems w 10 improbable that there will be any general and widely supported demand for the abolition of tariffs and other restrictive < eTices. Effort is much more likely to centre, and indeed it' it is to be practical will be bound to centre, on the modification 01. hairiers of this kind.

Statesmen and others in the United States have had as much as any to say about the necessity of removing_ restrictions on trade, but it does not follow that the United States is prepared in any circumstances to adopt a policy of straightout free trade. There is much to suggest the contrary. _Ol the British Dominions. Canada and Australia have made it c eai that they have no idea of allowing a halt to be called in t icii remarkable development of secondary industries a development greatly stimulated by the war —and New Zealand, in 111 s matter as in many others, is more or less definitely aligned wri her sister Dominions.

The actual post-war problem to be faced is that of removing restrictions on trade without imposing restrictions on the development of individual countries. There is no obvious reason why a satisfactory adjustment should not be reached in these conditions. The primary condition of unhampered trade is that every country should agree to buy and sell in equal measuie. With the proviso that any country which is borrowing or has borrowed externally must be allowed to discharge its debt obligations in process of trade, this balanced exchange obviously is in the interests of all countries. Broadly speaking, no country possessed of available oversea credits can turn them to profitable account otherwise than by the purchase of goods, the discharge of debt obligations, or oversea investment. This last is a factor which has bulked much larger in the past than it seems likely to for a considerable time to come.

That a country is bound in its own interests to buy as much as it sells in external trade (account being taken ol debt payments or investments as the case may be) is not more important than that it can or should buy only as much as it sells. To buy imports on credit obviously is a spendthrift and unsound policy. Buying the volume of imports it is able to pay tor, any country has everything to gain from an enterprising use of factors 01. production at its disposal internally in adding to its supplies of useful goods. The undoubted right of all countries to build up in this way their internal production- and trade may complicate problems of international trade adjustment. It need not, however, stand in the way of what is vital to that adjustment—an unhampered exchange of goods on even terms.