TRADE BARRIERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 March 1940, Page 7

TRADE BARRIERS

DECLARATION OF AMERICAN POLICY MADE BY MR SUMNER WELLES. CONDEMNATION OF AUTARCHIC ECONOMICS. By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright PARIS, March 10. Mr Sumner Welles, President Roosevelt’s envoy to Europe, suddenly broke the silence he has so far maintained to condemn autarchic economics. In a memorandum to M. Reynand, Minister ot. Kina nee, he declared the essentials of the Pnited States economic foreign policy to he as follows: — First, sound international relations arc indispensable for lasting peace. Each nation should have normal access to the world's resources and issue for excess production. Secondly, international trade cannot prosper under bilateral, exclusive agreements under barriers of excessive tariff regulations and exchange control. These barriers are instruments of economic war and recent events have proved their power to create international hostility and conflicts. Thirdly, the post-war reconstruction must eliminate barriers impeding traffic of goods beyond international frontiers, must apply non-discrimination and must create the necessary exchange and credit conditions for multilateral trade.

M. Reynand, after consulting M. Daladier. said France completely agreed with tlie principles which are expressed in the Anglo-French wartime economic and financial agreements (which appear in another column), in which there was a foundation for a post-war European regime of economic liberty.

Mr Welles also conferred with General Sikorski, Prime Minister of Poland, for an hour. A British Official Wriless message says that Mr Welles was due in London by air from Paris on Sunday and during his brief stay will make contact with loading official and unofficial personages. Informality will be the keynote of these contacts and of the visit generally. The visitor's own wishes alone will be consulted regarding the interviews he desires in order to present President Roosevelt with a balanced picture of the situation in Britain. It is expected that on Tuesday Mr Welles will be received by the King at Buckingham Palace.

Il was announced in a Daventry broadcast late last night that Mr Sumner Welles had arrived at London. Three French fighters and one British reconnaissance plane accompanied the plane in which Mr Welles flew from France to London.