Soviet Dumping

28

Soviet Year Book enumerates eleven groups composed of 228
items of commodities subject to heavy import duties when
conveyed to the U.S.S.R. via European frontiers, seventeen
items of commodities conveyed through ports of the Pacific
and overland, sixty-six items of commodities conveyed
through the port of Murmansk and twenty-eight items of
commodities conveyed through Asiatic frontiers.
The existing tariffs average 334 per cent. ad valorem, but
in many cases (even when it is obvious that protection has
not been the real objective) the tariffs are absolutely prohibitive.
 For instance, knitted goods such as stockings and
socks pay a duty of £6 10s. a Ib., and straw or textile
hats pay £5 a Ib., whilst women’s hats are subject to a
duty of £10 a Ib. Boots and shoes pay a duty of £1 10s. a Ib.
and double this amount for fancy grades. Toilet soaps
are taxed at 7s. 6d. a lb., whilst general toilet preparations
 pay at the rate of £8 15s. a lb. Among industrial
commodities, pig iron castings pay a tax of 24s. a cwt,,
nails £3 a cwt., and wire netting £25 a cwt. General machinery
 is taxed at £11 a cwt.. whilst typewriters pay a tax of
15s. a lb.
These few examples are enough to show that there is no
need for the Foreign Trade Monopoly to protect Russian
industry. (They also show, en passant, the impossibility of
normal trade with Russia.) The plea that the monopoly as
such protects Russia from foreign competition as regards
imports is thus seen to be absolutely false.
Examining the same plea in connection with exports,
since it is put forward in all seriousness, it is found equally
false. The argument advanced is that:

“The Capitalists used to trade freely in our country,
buying our produce and products. and they made huge
profits by it.”

The monopoly has, it is true, eliminated the capitalist in
Russia, but Russian produce and products are sent abroad
and dumped regardless of price by the monopoly. In consequence,
 the Foreign Trade Monopoly fails hopelessly to
function in the interests of the Russian peoples : it neither