STATE-AIDED TRADE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 December 1938, Page 7

STATE-AIDED TRADE

CHALLENGE TAKEN UP BY BRITAIN INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION PLANS. AGREEMENT ON FAIR TERMS DESIRED. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, December 12. The President of the Board of Trade, Mr Oliver Stanley, said in- a speech today that he would regard a real agreement with Germany as “the greatest guarantee we could have for peace in the world.” He did not regard as an agreement a method whereby one side did all the giving and the other side all the taking. If the people of this country were prepared to pay a heavy price for peace they were entitled to expect that Germans, in their turn, should be prepared to pay their price. A GREAT PROBLEM. Referring to the trading methods ol the totalitarian States, wnich put the wnole force of the State behind their exporters, Mr Stanley said that this raised a great problem. In the old days British manufacturers could compete on level terms with the foreigner. Today they had to compete firm against industry, or possibly firm against country. That was a form of competition which no longei was fair.

"We are determined,” said the Minister, “that our traders in the neutral markets of the world shall have a fan deal from those countries. If they, will not meet us by methods of peace or by means of negotiation, then we shall have no alternative but to fight. “We are organising ourselves to light, and, if it comes to a trade and commercial fight, between the organised industries of Britain and those of the other countries of the world, there is no doubt .whatever what the result will be.” EXPORT GUARANTEES. In this connection the second reading of the Export Guarantees Bill, which will be moved on Thursday, will probably provide the most important House of Commons debate of the week. The section, of the new Bill which provides that the Board of Trade shall be permitted to guarantee up' to a limit of £10,000,000 at any one time for export transactions which might not be insurable on the ordinary commercial basis adopted by the Export Credits Guarantee Department, but which are deemed to be expedient in the national interests, continues to attract attention.

The proposal is regarded as an important first move toward assisting British exporters to meet the competition of the totalitarian countries in the overseas markets.

The newspapers state that the proposal has been accepted in principle by the Labour Party, which, however, will press for assurances that the scheme shall be kept under specially strict supervision.