TRADE OUTLOOK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 303, 23 December 1939, Page 9

TRADE OUTLOOK.

U.S.A. AND JAPAN.

Better Understanding After Talks In Tokyo.

JAPANESE STATEMENT.

(Received II a.m.) TOKYO, December 22. A Foreign Office spokesman indicated that Japanese-American trade relations will continue unimpeded after the expiration of the commercial treaty with the United States, on January 26 next, assuring that there will be no increase in wharfage charges for Japanese ships, no penalty duties on Japanese goods or inconvenience to Japanese residents in the United States. The indications to this effect were given following an hour's conference between Admiral Nomura, Japanese Foreign Minister, and Mr. Joseph Grew, United States Ambassador at Tokyo. The Commissioner of Customs has confirmed the Tokyo etatemeiit, and the Lnitcil States is invoking President Grant's 1872 proclamation, suspending the 10 per cent penalty tariff against Japan. It is believed that President Roosevelt, if he wished, could revoke the proclamation. The United Press correspondent at Tokyo reports that the Douiei news agency said the Foreign Office was instructing the Japanese Ambawador at Washington to seek an early appointment with Mr. Cordell Hull, Secretary of State, to discuss an agreement to replace the expiring commercial treaty. Admiral Nomura is reported to have said that he was most favourably impressed by the United States' action in not-imposing a tariff penalty. Early in the present month the Japanese Foreign Minister presented to the United States Ambassador a formula for the settlement of the outstanding questions between Japan and the United States, and promised compensation for damage done to American interests in China. He also gave an undertaking to avoid future damage, but stated that Japan was not prepared to go as far as to agree to an "open door" for America in China. Early in November, America warned Japan that unless relations were improved before the American-Japanese commercial treaty expired on January 26, 1940, Congress would place an embargo on exports to Japan. It was stated that Japan's actions in China had been in total disregard of American rights. Towards the end of November a further warning was given, and it was stated that conditions in China revealed that Japan had continued to ignore American" rights.