New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-19
British Exporters More
Eager for Canadian Trade
American Manufacturers Must Be on Alert
to Meet Competition Fostered by Sen
timent in Favor of Mother
Country After the War
By S. ROY WEAVER
Toronto, February

must be prepared for more
- serious competition from
Great Britain in the Canadian mar
ket. An attempt will be made to Sc
cure removal of certain disabilities
by which the British exporter has
been handicapped in the Dominion.
There is reason to expect that gov
eminent and private agencies will
strive to develop trade between Can
ada and the Mother Country after
the war. Such a development may
be at the expense, in part, of United
States companies which now supply
the Canadian demand for various
manufactured products.
Mr.. C.. Hamilton Wickes, who for
four years has been British Trade
Commissioner in Canada and New
foundland, has just left Canada for
the United Kingdom, where he will
make an official tour of industrial
centres in order to meet British
manufacturers and discuss with
them the opportunities for trade
with the Dominion. Before sailing
from Canada, Mr.. Wickes issued a
statement, in the course of which he
said:
IL feel there is here a valuable
market for the consumption of an
increasing quantity of British manu-
features and products of the empire,
as well as for the consumption In
Great Britain and within the en-
pire of the products of Canadian in
dustry. Development in British
trade, however, has been held up and
ascribed as conservatism, to want of
enterprise, to lukewarmness, on the
part Of the Britisher, with an alb
sence of imagination in respect Of
the great developments that have
occurred and are taking place in
this market. The truth, however,
should be faced. In my opinion, the
Britisher is not as well situated for
developing trade in Canada as the
Canadian is in England, and this
disadvantage is, | am confident, not
the wish of Canadians. The disad-
vantages referred to are not mat
ter of duties per Sc or of the physi-
cal proximity of the United States.
They have to do with the following
conditions of which the Canadians
themselves have frequently COM
planned, and the first four are mat
tiers for legislation:
"(a) Insolvency and bankruptcy.
"(b) Companies and their incor-
poration.
"(c) Trade marks, designs and
copyrights.
"(d) Tariff anomalies, e. g., the
clauses relating to valuation, pack
ages, dumping and clearance from
bond.
"(e) The favoring of United
States advice in many directions
in particular the advice of architects,
engineers, accountants and con-
tractors.
"All these conditions urgently re-
quire amelioration in the national in
terests."
Despite the tariff preference, by
which importations from Great Brit
ain to the Dominion are encouraged,
such importations have not increased
to the extent that was hoped. Be-
fore the war imports from the
United Kingdom represented only
about 20 per cent of the total mer-
chandise imports of Canada, while
those from the United States aggre-
gated more than 90 per cent of the
total. The following table shows
the percentages which the imports
from the United Kingdom and those
from the United States bore to total
imports for consumption for the
years Immediately preceding the
war:
Fiscal yr.
ending Imports from Imports from