BAN ON CHINA TRADE

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27860, 7 January 1956, Page 9

BAN ON CHINA TRADE

U.S. Opposes Plan For Relaxation (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) WASHINGTON, January 5. A British proposal to relax the Allied trade embargoes against Communist China is now being re-examined by United States officials preparing for this month’s conferences between President Eisenhower and Sir Anthony Eden. Britain has been pressing for a relaxation of restrictions oi> trade with the Chinese mainland by adopting the less stringent rules applied to trade with the Soviet bloc in Europe. But informed officials in Washington said it was unlikely that the United States would agree even to consider a revision of the present tight embargo against Communist China until a general political settlement between Peking and Washington had been reached. These officials said that a relaxation of the trade embargo would amount to surrendering a major bargaining point in negotiations which the United States and Communist Chinese Ambassadors were now holding in Geneva.

An extension of the United States argument against the British suggestion was that the trade restrictions, which initially were imposed as a result of China’s intervention in the Korean war. should not be relaxed until there was a final settlement on Korea and some agreement on the status of Formosa. The United States maintains a complete trade embargo against the Communist mainland. Britain and other Allied nations bar strategic exports but permit non-strategic trade. The British proposal is based on the fact that the non-strategic list applying to trade with the Soviet Union is much larger than the list agreed upon for Communist China. While the United States press and public, generally supports the United States position, considerable sympathy has been expressed for Britain’s trading difficulties recently. The "Washington Pbst” agreed that the timing of the proposal was bad. but it added that it was unrealistic to expect other countries to adhere rigidly to the ban in practice.