TRADE AGREEMENTS FOR PEACE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 212, 23 September 1937, Page 4

TRADE AGREEMENTS FOR PEACE

ic is said that as often as not wars arise out of commercial and economic considerations. That was certainly not the case with respect to ihe Great War, which had its origin in the insane ambition of heavily armed Germany to secure a place of domination on the European Continent. No doubt, however, these factors do enter very seriously into the war which Japan is now waging so barbarously against China. Her narrow and over-populated country, her lack of raw materials for her so rapidly . developed arid still expanding industries and her practical exclusion from so many of the world's markets for their products have all, no doubt, had a very great deal to do with#her desire to secure a controlilng position on the Asiatic. mainland. As to the methods she has adopted for attaining this object being at all justified is, of course, quite another question. In any event, Japan' s resort to war in order to achieve purposes of the kind cannot but stir thought as to the need for bringing about some readjustment of the world's trade which has been thrown so badly out of gear by the world war and conditions arising directly and indirectly out of it. There is therefore considerable importance to be attached to the approach which is being made between Great Britain and the United States with a view to removing some of the barriers that stand so badly in thcWay of a resumption of the freedom of international trade that marked pre-war days. It is, of course, of all the more signiftcance since, even in those days, America pursued a singularly self-centred hightariff policy which to a very great extent barred her markets to the products tff other countries, excepting only so far as doncerned the raw materials necessary to her own industries. For this change in the American attitude towards foreign trade we are undoubtedly very much indebted to the broadness of mind which President Roosevelt's Secretary of State, Mr. Cordell Hull, has brought to bear on the problem. ' Almost ever since taking office he has been steadily moving in the direction of relaxing the virtually exclusive trade policy which American industrialists had come to regard as somethmg like a protective right established for all time. He has met with strenuous opposition from them and has even * suffered checks from the President himself, as, for instance, when Mr. Roosevelt, with the promotion of his internal New Deal plans in mind, suddenly withdrew his delegation from and so practically wrecked the big international economic j ccnference convoked in London some few years ago. Even by this, however, Mr. Hull was not deflected from his purpose and, with rare persistence, he has succeeded in converting his chief to his own way of thinking. Not only this, but he has also brought a very great proportion of the American people, including not a few of the previously obstructive industrialists, to his side. As a result Congress was some little time back induced tcb pass a law conferring upon the President authority, within fairly wide limits, to moderate tariffs and negotiate reciprocal trade agreements with foreign countries. That power has already been exercised in a good few directions, and for some considerable time tentative negotiations have been in progress with Great Britain to a similar end. But it can be readily understood that as between two so intensely industrialised countries negotiations of such a nature have to proceed with great caution in order that their ojitcome may prove acceptable not only to their Governments but also to their peoples, and so have some chance of permanence. However, recent cable messages seem to suggest that the more recent discussions that have been going on show more likelihood than ever before of bearing practical fruit. But most important of all is it to note that the arrival at a bilateral trade agreement is not the end-all of the AngloAmerican policy. -What is hoped for is that such an agreement jyill provide an example andoa lead so impressive as to induce other couritries to follow them, with evehtually some still more comprehensive international understandings that will make for the restoration and preservation of peace and goodwill «on earth.