BEATING AMERICA

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 120, 23 May 1928, Page 7

BEATING AMERICA

EUROPE'S RECOVERY.

Improved Production Leaves U.S.A. Standing. TARIFF STABILITY. l"Ximeß" Cables.) (Received 0.30 a.m.) LONDON, May 22. The Geneva correspondent of the "Times" reviewing Europe's economic recovery, says the report of the League's Economic Committee points out that Europe's improvement in production in 1927 was the best since the war, whereas the United States was at a standstill. Similarly Europe's trade advanced more than America's. The comparative stability of the tariffs and exchanges is largely responsible for this, but it is not sufficient that Europe, ten years after the war, should at last have recovered the pre-war standard. The committee expresses the opinion that the conference's influence has substantially checked the upward trend of tariffs which was in full swing in May, 1927. The leading feature of the year has been increased trading between the nations of Europe compared with Europe's trading with oversea countries, especially the United States.

In view of the low volume of world trade, it is urged that an effort should be made to reach a general agreement for the reduction of tariffs.

TARIFF REDUCTION. COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT. (Australian and N.Z. Press Association.) (Received 10.SO a.m.) GENEVA, May 22. The Australian Press Association understands that the Tariffs Committee of the League of Nations suggests that continuous effort should be made to reach a collective agreement for a general reduction in tariffs commencing with particular groups of commodities, especially those articles most important to economic life. Agreement should cover as many stages of production as possible, having regard to the fact tliat if reductions are limited to duties on raw material or semi-finished articles, such reductions would increase protection for these products in the later stages of manufacture.