FIGHT OVER TARIFFS

Chronicle (Levin), 10 September 1949, Page 5

FIGHT OVER TARIFFS

(N.Z.P.A,

—Reuter.

Britain Wants Another Big Dollar Loan

Copjjriant )

Received rriclay, e.ou p.m. WASH1XGTOX, &ept. 8. The iiglit over foreign tariffs in the United States Senate today entered its second round with a bloc of Republicans pledged to resist any move to lower Ameriean tarift's on British goods. Senator Eugene Milliken leading the Republiean bloc, warned the Senate that suggested curreney deflations in Europe would lower the cost of European exports and cause a heavy flow of goods into the American market. "Those currency deflations will work in the ihterests of foreign exporters and against the exporters of this eountry. They will radically lower the cost of European exports and thus ease and expedite their heavily increased flow into our markets. " N Senator Milliken said Britain among other countries had engaged in State trading and bilateral trade agreements which strangled the opportunities of United States -exporters to enter world markets on a eompetitive basis. He said American small businesses employi ing. half of the country's wage-earners would be imperilled by a flood of foreign produc-ts if the tariffs were lowered. • ' -The United Press says it is reportecl unofficially that Britain dCsires a .600,000,000,000 dollar loan from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation wholly outside the current three-uatiou dollar conferenc-a. The United States has rejected the British proposal to waive Article Xine of the Anglo-American loan agreement prohibiting discrimination against United States exports for the beneflt of tho^ of the British Commonwealth or Western Europe, reports the Xew York Times. United States insistence ou the non-discrimination principie was based on the Treasury Department 's reasoning that its andonment would encourage the creation of a "soft currency" bloc that would retard the universal objective of multilateral trade and exchange convertibility. In taking this firm stand the United States delegation, ' however, left the way open for the consideration of specific bilateral trade negotiations by the British Government which might be eounfenanced here as expeetations to the non-discrimination rule, in furtherance of Britain 's "policy of necessity. ' ' The position taken by the United States means that the United Kingdom may not cut its purchases of a particular class or kind of import from the United States while maintaining or expanding its purchases of ■ the same commodity in other areas without regard to price differences. The establishmont of special working groups for specific topics indicates that Ministers have reserved to themselves a number of items, including the availability of re.sources of the International Monetary Fund for helping Britain bridge her short-term dollar gap, and what each .Government might do to return to multilateral trade and exchange convertibility. The Ilerald-Tribune says the British may ask permission to resume their purchase of dollars (at the offieial exchange rate) from the fund. Permission was suspended over a year ago when, the fund deeided to ban dollar buying by any momber receiving Marshall Plan aid.