“Taranaki Central Press” WEDNESDAY, MAY 26, 1937. NEW TRADE AGREEMENT

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 443, 26 May 1937, Page 4

“Taranaki Central Press” WEDNESDAY, MAY 26, 1937. NEW TRADE AGREEMENT

The trade agreement between Britain and the United States which has been the subject of conversations since the New Year is apparently now ready for signature, for an outline of it is to be submitted to the Imperial Conference this week. It interests the overseas Dominions very closely, because it involves an abandonment of certain provisions of the Ottawa agreements and brings America into the competition in the English meat market. The possibility of such an agreement was mentioned in September when the currency agreement between Britain, America and France was negotiated, and at the end of the year the two governments were beginning to think of the details. Mr Runciman’s visit to Washington, ; concerning which some mystery was made, was undoubtedly at the invitation of the President, who. was anxious to see some progress made toward freer trade; and Mr Norman Davis, the President’s Am-bassador-at-Large, went to London a month before the Coronation to have time for the discussion of the subject. There is nothing to be gained by trying to forecast the provisions, because it has been indicated rather strongly that the President has been more anxious to have the principle of reciprocity recognised than to obtain any very material concessions. The initiative in the discussions came from the United States. Britain in 1924 took 19 per cent of all her imports from North America, but by 1935 the proportion had dropped to 5 per cent, in which year the United States took just 5 per cent of all British exports. As Mr Runciman said, when he was in New York, the possibility of a reciprocal agreement depended lon concessions from the American side rather than from the British, but the point that interests New Zealand particularly is the fact that the proposed agreement must make the United States a formidable competitor in the British foodstuffs markets.