JAPAN’S ENTRY TO G.A.T.T.

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27150, 21 September 1953, Page 9

JAPAN’S ENTRY TO G.A.T.T.

Move To Be Opposed By Britain

GENEVA, September 18. Britain would not participate in any move to admit Japan to associate membership of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the British President of the Board of Trade (Mr Peter Thorneycroft) told the G.A.T.T. conference in Geneva today.

He said it was debatable whether admission would even be in Japan's own interests. “I feel bound to say I wish this issue could be postponed until after the difficult transition stage through which G.A.T.T. is now passing,” he said. Britain would continue to support G.A.T.T., but the agreement’s aim would never be attainable while the present “chronic unbalance of trade” continued.

Mr Thorneycroft said any attempt to cure this unbalance was doomed to failure while the United States maintained high tariff barriers against many potential imports, the “Buy American” Act, and the discriminatory shipping policy. The problem of obstacles between freer trade payments was not one the United States could solve alone. The debtors had obligations as well as the creditors. There was no surer way to a balance of payments crisis than failure to preserve a proper balance in internal economy.

Earlier the American Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (Mr D. C. Waugh) told the conference his Government would be prepared to undertake a basic review of the G.AIT.T. framework in the coming year, and consider other nations’ plea for changes. America was “in the business of international co-operation to stay.” ‘ * Common Goal”

Calling for an all-round reassessment of economic policies, Mr Waugh said that the common goals were effective multilateral trading, convertibility Of currencies, and adequate flow of international capital and the development of under-developed areas. The Leader -of the Australian delegation (Mr V. A. Clark) said Australia considered a general revision of G.A.T.T. during 1954 was urgent. The original agreement of 1947 had never been intended* for anything definite. He said some of G.A.T.T.’s chief sponsors were 'finding increasing difficulty in living up to the obligations of the agreement, and Australia believed that with G.A.T.T. as it was now written new and increased difficulties were in store. Dr.' Ludwig Erhard, the West German Minister of Economic Affairs, advocated serious action regarding trade barriers, quantitative restrictions, and all other kinds of discriminatory commercial practices. He said they must get nd of the illusion that a protectionist and nationalist policy could be of benefit to a country. He also emphasised the importance of establishing free convertibility of currencies. It would be necessary to review the whole question of authority within the framework of G.A.T.T. and even its constitutional powers. G.A.T.T. would not prosper if its efforts were strictly limited to the fields of tariffs and quotas. Mr Clarence D. Howe, the Canadian Minister, of Commerce said the Canadian Government considered the “freezing” of the G.A.T.T. tariff schedules for another year the most important task facing the present session. “As long as it is known that negotiations are being arranged for the latter part of 1954 it should not be too difficult for the governments concerned to rebind the existing schedules until then,” he said. The time was clearly approaching for a constructive reexamination of the whole of the agreement.

New 1000 Metres Record.—Auden Boysen, the Norwegian Olympic runner. broke the world record for the 1000 metres with a time of 2min 20.4 sec in Oslo today.—Oslo, September 18.