BRITISH TRADE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 123, 26 May 1937, Page 11

BRITISH TRADE

POLICY STATEMENT

TREATY WITH AMERICA THE TAPJFF SYSTEM (British omclal Wireless.) (Received May 26, 1.10 p.m.) RUGBY, May 25. Trade policy was discussed by the President, of the Board of Trade (Mr. Walter Runciman) in a speech in. the House of Commons tonight, in which he made reference to the negotiations for an Anglo-American trade agreement. Defending the tariff system introduced in 1931 and 1932, Mr. Runciman said that he would like to emphasise his view, firstly, that if you carry tariffs too far they become madness, and, ' secondly, that if you attempt to dispense with them in a world which has adopted them as a fixed policy you reduce your bargaining facilities and you are bound to suffer—and the United Kingdom, in this respect, would suffer more, perhaps, than any other ' country in the world. He was prepared to agree that any form of preference' adopted might be subject, if necessary, to alteration to suit changed conditions. "In making a new survey of the world as we are doing,", he said, "we will not overlook the fact that there is more than one way. in which preference can be applied, but we must not be asked to abandon the preference system which is now an essential part of our Imperial policy. ' We cannot abandon it and do not seek to abandon, it." | ■ j VISIT TO STATES. Speaking of his American visit, Mr. Runciman described the frank exchange of views which he had had with President Roosevelt, whom he ] called one of the most remarkable men of the age, and the American Trade Secretary (Mr. Cordell Hull). | Since then, he said, they had been trying to find the foundations >on which a trade agreement with the United States could be built. It was a laborious process—examining the whole ground bit by bit and reviewing each of the hundreds of items appearing in the schedules. He could not make any statement at present beyond repeating that' so far as the British Government was concerned it wished to reach an agreement, and it sincerely and consistently felt that no greater contribution could be made by Government action to an extension of -world trade. Mr. Runciman added that discussions this week within the Imperial Conference would tarn on some economic questions, with direct bearing on the negotiations for,an Anglo-American trade agreement and on British relations with the' United States. The Minister concluded his speech with an optimistic review of conditions in leading industries.