TRADE POLICY

Hokitika Guardian, 31 October 1933, Page 8

TRADE POLICY

BRITAIN AND THE WORLD Last moiit.li, Glasgow celebrated the loUth anniversary or the' rounding of its chamber of commerce, And probably none will have tlie hardihood to suggest that Glasgow would have supported a. chamber for 150, years uiness it had rendered services of r'eal value, (says the “Tunes Trade Suf piemeat”). Among her guests Glasgow has entertained the Association of British Guam her s of Commerce, and since there have been numerous opportunities for the expression of sentimeucs of amity and good will by delegates from other British centres of trade, commerce, and shipping, it is unnecessary to say more here than to cSsure our Scottish friends that members of the British race throughout tne world admire and respect their steriiuig qualities and are proud of their iriendship. Appropriately euouglr the president of the association this year cxempiiuis in his own person many of .those qualities that have come to he regardtu as characteristic of tne Scot. Sir Alan Garrett Anderson has hammered out his own economic theories and ,& tenacious m defence of' the principles he upholds. In his address to tne delegates he was revealed as a tree-wader who lias been forced by the hard logic of events to modify his views on the .practicability or free imports in a world where the ether nations refuse .id recipropate. He said with typical caution that he supposed we were now employing people at home to produce the goods we formerly imported, “which seems most of our readers would probably not have demurred had' he said that it was the only practical answer to foreign tariffs and lack of exchange facilities.

lr we had been asked six months ago, he said, how the world would begin to' revive its trade we should have replied that the nations must agree to observe the .principles on which world trade wds built up over the last 100 years. The' observation seems somewhat cryptic, because clearly world trade was built up. neither oh free imports nor on protective tariffs'; the rival policies were adopted in different countries and at different periods, and even Great Britain was not a free importing country a century ago. Probably Sir Alan was thiuikng less of fiscal policy than of the necessity for creditor nations to play .the part: of buyers, which is, obviously to the condition precedent to collecting ! payment for exports unless they prefer to invest credit balances as. this country did. .He reminded the delegates that Mr Ropse.ve.lt himself only a year ago | said that the position of the RepubU- • can. platform was' "absurd because it] demanded payments and .at/ the same time made payment impossible, while the policy of the Democratic Party was for payment but at the same time for lowered tariffs and resumption of | trade, which open the way for pay- | ihent. Sir (Alan Anderson ekpreesel | no as to the probable outcome of ' the President’s ’ direct action to restore prosperity, though he took the fair and reasonable view that “a great democracy, accustomed to and organised far prosperity which suddenly finds fourteen millions of its citizens unemployed without any insurance against unemployment ,o r even any. organised trade union system, lias practically no choice —it is forced to act in a hurry and to face inevitable risks.” At the same time Sir Alan Anderson, sees that we must .not. expect the United States t 0 co-operate to restore -world trade, iand he admitted, tihat the world gave no encouragement on those lines at -recent Monetary and Economic Conference. Commenting on the failure of 64- nations to give .a determined lead or even to stale the principles on which they would seek salvation, he .vigorously combated the idea thrt each country should isolate itself arid allow the edifice of world trade to crumble until “after decades of misery we live the primitive life of the Middle Ages. He insisted that “as traders we must always go forward with faith” and . expressed * satisfaction that the Govern ment “first at Ottawa and then by its recent trade treaties has started u s on ■our forward march away from the cross-roads of despair.” He maintained that the British Empire 'wag showing the world the way out of its troubles and submitted that /'The notions of the British Empire can not only afford to .welcome kindred nations to reciprocal trade, but by enlarging their group will strengthen the advantages of the band of trade they made at Ottawa and hasten its result.” He did not indicate which nations would he the first to join us, but Said that “the same principles of mutual concession and support which underlie the Ottawa agreements are already recognised by many nations outside the British Empire with whom on those principles we might extend our trade to the common advantage. Indeed, ffoiri the bilateral treaties recently, made with several nations, it seems a natural s*ep to a general bond of mutual support in trade between those nations who desire to maintain their liberties, their standard of living, and their trade and who do not claim to. be self-sufficient.” He pointed out that Great Britain has twice the white'population of the six British Dominions, a little less than twice that of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, and Holland, but man for mian, these nations support the world market almost equally as buyers and depend upon the market almost equally as sellers, whereas the great population of the United States is by .comparison much le&i interested in j