Commonwealth Anxiety On Free Trade Plan

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28321, 5 July 1957, Page 11

Commonwealth Anxiety On Free Trade Plan

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, July 3. Britain today assured the Commonwealth Prime Ministers that she would continue to press for the exclusion of agricultural products from the European free trade project, according to conference sources.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr Peter Thorneycroft) is understood to have told the conference that Britain had already made clear to the European nations concerned that she believed agricultural products must be left out. She would continue to press the point.

The European free trade project is of special interest to the Commonwealth.

The statesmen approved today that officials from the 10 Commonwealth delegations to the conference should examine this question in detail at meetings next Monday and Tuesday. The Prime Ministers decided also today to enlarge the scope and functions of the permanent Commonwealth Economic Committee in London. This committee, which includes technical representatives from the various Commonwealth High Commissions in Lcndon, has now been asked to: Examine and -report, on the various resources and raw materials and other products of the Commonwealth area. Advise on how capital can be encouraged to flow for general expansion and economic development. Report on the advisability of setting up a Commonwealth development agency. The Prime Ministers, earlier in their week-long conference, discussed the question of how Japan’s trade with the sterling area could be increased to strengthen her position as a bastion against communism in the Far East. Today they decided to leave this question to be considered in greater detail by officials and experts.