A Fiscal Tangle.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20413, 7 December 1931, Page 8

A Fiscal Tangle.

That the results of the British Government's imposition of tariffs cannot be awaited without anxiety is shown by the debate in the House of Commons, reported in this morning's cable news. It reveals an unhappy situation. Mere rumours of what the National Government intended to do brought a French decree imposing a 15 per cent, discriminating duty against all imports from Great Britain and ended the " most favoured nation" treatment which has been accorded for a long period. Realising that they are drifting into a profitless tariff war, the two Governments have decided to open negotiations for a tariff agreement; but the prospects of this conference appear to havo been compromised by a rash speech of Mr Runciman's and by tho insistence of a section of the House of Commons that the British representatives at the coming Imperial Economic Conference shall not be hampered by foreign commitments. It is not the least of the misfortunes of the present crisis that it forces countries—temporarily, at least—into measures which must in the long run increase the general depression. Great Britain has had to restrict imports arbitrarily in order to balance her accounts and prevent the pound from depreciating further, a policy which restricts world trade, and has already proved that its advantages must be paid for. The situation is now a dangerous one, for whatever .may be the virtues of tariffs, considered from any one nation s point of view and fixed to suit it, there can bo no two views about the effects of a tariff war in Europe, which might easily" be the final blow to an already shaky edifice. The immediate difficulty in the way of ftny rational arrangement is the uncertainty of the existing situation. No one knows how far the protectionist inclinations of the National Government are going, to take it, and Europeans arc puzzled to know how much reality there is in the talk of a tariff wall round the Empire. It would greatly improve tho world outlook if the Imperial Economic Conference could be hold within the next few months. Most intelligent Englishmen know just how much importance can be attached, to schemes for an Imperial economic union; Frenchmen and Germans—and they can hardly be blamed—do not. The Imperial Economic Conference ought to show the world where the Empire stands on matters of fiscal policy, and the Home Government will then be free to declare its own policy and assist, it is to .be hoped, in freeing world trade from the restrictions that arc paralysing it.