REMOVING TRADE BARRIERS

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21975, 26 December 1936, Page 7

REMOVING TRADE BARRIERS

INTERNATIONAL ACTION URGED THREAT OF SELF SUPPORT BY ECONOMIES (EROM OCB OWB CORHB3POBDEXT.) LONDON. December 2. “The mad system of restrictions, barriers, and quotas which have upset the economic structure of the world ’ should be stepped as a duty to British commerce and industry, and to civil.sation. This was the plea of Mr C. M. Weir, of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, made at the autumn meeting of the Association of British Chambers of Commerce thig week. It was not, he said, a question of protection or free trade. It was one of finding soon a means whereby nations recognising the harmfulness of present policies could show that then currencies might be put on a stable basis, and their goods again become readily exchangeable. Nations who believed in the advantages of two-way international trading should get together and set up a system open to others to join—in ether words, an international club always on Lie lookout for new methods. Mr Weir submitted a resolution, subsequenl’y carried, which congratulated the Government on the steps it was taking to bring about stabilisation of currencies, and urged that these arrangements should be followed by negotiations “to examine the reduction of the barriers to internal trade which have been largely responsible for currencies’ disequilibrium, and the lemoval or reduction of which is an essential step in world economic recovery.” . This view was referred to by the president of the association (Sir Geoffrey Clarke), in his presidential address. He sai dthat ia anticipated the report of the economic committee of the League of Nations. The committee. whose report was "almost an economic Sermon on the Mount,” did not believe that any attempt at monetary adjustment could succeed unless accompanied by relief from quotas and trade barriers. “These are noble sentiments,” he continued, “but in practice is there any sign of a general reduction in tariffs, and is it not almost certain that any such policy would be most strongly opposed by the manufacturers in every country? On the other hand, what do you see happening in the world? The leaders in Germany and Italy have decided that in a few years (heir countries will be self-supporting for almost all their primary products, and if other countries adopt n similar policy international trade will cease and our foreign trade will be dependent on the Empire for the exchange of commodities, for we cannot afford to go on buying from countries which refuse to buy from us. It is a strange situation.” Official statistics released on December 2 by the Queensland Government statistician, show that in 1935 no fewer than 4,488.006 sheep died in Queensland, or 21 per cent, of the state’s total at January 1, 1935. The loss is ranked next in severity to the losses in 1915 and 1926. 6,121,358 and 5,335,207 respectively. The heaviest losses occurred in most cases in those districts showing the poorest lambings. In Burke 40 per cent, of the sheep held at the beginning of 1935 were lost.