ANGLO-AMERICAN TRADE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 111, 27 May 1937, Page 5

ANGLO-AMERICAN TRADE

(Britiab Official WuelesaJ

£ritaii) Wishes to Reach Agreement PROBLEM UNDER REVIEW

(Reeeived 27, 8.45 a.m.) EUGBY, May 26. l^rade policy was discussed oy the Pregident of the Board pf Trade, Mr. Walter Runciman, ia a speech in the House of Copimons tQ -night, 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: "I would like to emphasise my view, first, that if you carry taniffs too far they become maduess, and, seeondly, that if you attempt to dispense with them iu a world which has adopted thpm as a fixed policy you reduce your bargaining facilities and you are bound to suffer." The United Kingdom, in this respect, would suffer more, perhapg, than any other cpuntry in the worlfl. ' ' He was prepared tq agree that any form of preference adopted might be

subject, if necessary, to alteration to suit changed conditions. "Iu making a new survey of the world as we are dcing, ' ; he said, "we will not overlook thq fact that there is more than one way in whi.ch preference can be applied, but we must not b.e asked to abandon the preference system which ia now: an essential part of our Imperial policy. We cannot abandon it and do not eeek to abandon it. ' ' Speaking of his American visit, Mr. Runciman described the frank exehange of views which he had had with President Roosevelt, whom he called one of the most r,emarkable men pf the age, and with thq American Seeretary of State, Mr. Cordell Hpll. 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 reyi.ewing eapb of the hundreds of items appeaxing in the sehe.dules. He could mpt make any statement at present beyond repeating that so far as the British Government was concerned it wisbed 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 turn on some economie questions, with direct bearing on the negotiations for an Anglo-American trade agreement and on British relations with the United States. The Minister coneluded his speech with an optipustic review of conditions in leading industries. V