BRITISH-DANISH TRADE

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5280, 17 December 1946, Page 4

BRITISH-DANISH TRADE

TT has been officially announced in Copenhagen that the British food mission's talks have ended without result; and a correspondent, elaborating -the announcement, says that Denmark argued that she could get more economical prices for food from Belgium, France, and Finland, who were willing to sign an • agreement immediately. Last winter, the Danes were quick to admit their luck in emerging from the war With hardly a scar of battle and with most of their industrial machinery intact and their biggest expoft commodity — food — the 'most sought-after itexn in Europe. To-day, however, the Danes are bewjldered by the impoverishment of their " country during a period when- at least partial prosperity was to 'be expected. ^ In general, most observers, among them government officials, blame two factors: first, the hasty lifting of import and export controls last year; second, Britain's dominance over their economy. It is noted that a few weeks earlier a Danish ship sailed for England Ioaded with Danish farm produce ; it returned with 40 tons of roller skates. Other ships- had broughit Denmark several' million kroners' worth of desperately need.ed textiles from Britairi, and both price and quality provoked protests which caused anxiety in Britain. Immediately after the liberation, Britain owed Denmark about *£20, 000, 000. To-day the indehtedness is the other .way, and is growing at the rate of nearly £5,000,000 a month,' so

that the failure to renew or revise the coutract will bear more heavily on the Danes than the British. Nevertheless, Britain must sell in any markets if she is to restore her trade, not all of them the traditionally friendly markets that Denmark has been, and the difficulty here is evidence that suggests how multifarious are the problems to be solved before a reconstructing industry knows and & satisfies its customers. *7