PROTECTION FOR THE MOTOR INDUSTRY.
Page 13
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Mr. David Beecroft's Expressed Opinion.
IT SEEMS to be quite impossible to get any reliable opinion as to the intentions of those who are coming back into Parliamentary control on the matter of a protective tariff for the motor industry. It has been freely bruited about that there is a possibility that one of the terms on which the United States of America came into the war was the establishment of the policy of the "open door" for all wares into British and Dominion markets. The opportunity has presented itself of. getting a reliable opinion of what. is expected by the American manufacturers. Visiting this country at the moment are a number of editors of American technical journals, and included in the party is Mr. David Beecroft, the managing editor of "The Commercial Vehicle," "Automotive Industries," "The Motor
Age," "The Motor World," etc. Mr. Beecroft called at our offices, and in the course of an interesting talk the question was put to him as to whether American manufacturers expected the door to be open, thus giving them a free market in motor exportation to this country. Ile replied " Oh, no. We expect that the American motor manufacturers will have to face a tariff of from 30 to 40 per cent. on their vehicles for a period of at least five years."
Coming as it does from such a source, this opinion may certainly be regarded as representative of the views of American manufacturers, and it may serve to allay. some of the fears we have heard expressed concerning the competition that would have to be met when the present prohibition against imports is removed.