INTERNATIONAL TRADE

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25244, 24 July 1947, Page 6

INTERNATIONAL TRADE

POSSIBILITY OF BREAKDOWN

BRITISH OFFICER’S VIEW (P.A.) WELLINGTON, July 23.. The possibility ol a breakdown in international trade unless the present course of events was checked was indicated by Mr H. F. British trade commissioner, in an address to the annual meeting of the United Kingdom Manufacturers’ and New' Zealand Representatives’ Association. Mr Stevens emphasised that Britain and most other countries were short of dollars, and said the ultimate solution lay in the restoration, to pre-war levels, at least, of the productive capacity of the world. . He said that none doubted that Britain, with a properly balanced trade, would emerge, “and I am also sure that our faith is well/ justified,” he added. All reports of the last 18 months of industrial development in Britain had built up an impressive picture of a revitsHised industrial structure in the making, ip spite pf manpower, coal, and steel shortages, Mr Stevens said. The recent acceleration in the drain on dollar funds was due only tp a limited extent to the slow-down in industry caused by shortages. It arose fundamentally from the failure of traditional sources of supply to recover from war dislocation. Because the old sources of supply of many foodstuffs and raw materials had not recovered their flow of exports, the United Kingdom and other countries were compelled to depend heavily upon the western hemisphere for supplies. Competition for western hemisphere products had driven prices up sharply. . . . It was this combination of hjgh prices, and the necessity of cpptimiing to buy a very high proportion of the requirements from the “hard” currency countries that was mainly responsible for liquidating United Kingdom dollar funds at such an alarming rate.