EXPORT OR DIE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 38, 9 January 1945, Page 4

EXPORT OR DIE

POSITION OF BRITAIN

POST-WAR TRADE PROSPECTS The revival of the export trade is a matter of such vital importance to the United Kingdom that it seems obvious that the British Government must not only accelerate the removal of all but -wherever possible grant special preference to firms engaged in export. This conclusion is reached by one of the larger merchandise houses of Britain following an analysis of the effect of the. depletion of Britain's; overseas credits. The therefore, boils down to this ? namely } that those countries who wish to continue to export to the United Kingdom must not only but. increase 5 their purchases from her. Before the war the United Kingdom had already an unfavourable balance of frade with the majority of countries with whom she was trading. In out of the 70 larger countries trading with the. Unit-* ed Kingdom—we use the word "larger" in connection with the volume of trade done.—only 14 purchased more from her than they sold to her. Now it will be, perfectly clear that whilst the United Kingdom was able to some extent to make good the deficiency before the war by interests on loans, and by services in the form of insurance and shipping the same conditions will not apply in the future. The financial burden of the war lies very heavily on British, shoulders. Canada certainly helped to ease the position with generous dollar gifts. America has rendered inestimable assistance under lease-lendj but it must not be forgotten that this did not come into operation until March 1941. Prior to that date, although the British Empire was fighting the. world's battles by holding out. alone until Russia and the United States were successively attacked, we had to pay cash for all our overseas purchases. In this connection it should be recorded that lease-lend also operates in and it may not generally be known that for welt over a year the United Kingdom has supplied more under lease-lend to the United States, than she has although the debit out-, standing against, her is still veryhigh. The effect of all this is that the United Kingdom has become a debtor nation. She has had to sacrifice a large proportion of her overseas credits. Anything which may be left will be counterbalanced by heavy liabilities. The loss in interest on investments alone amounts to £200, «- O'OO 000 per annum. In addition *to this she has suffered colossal shipping losses. Britain cannot return to the prewar system of debit balances in trade —the gap must be brridged.