COMMONWEALTH TRADE

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28618, 21 June 1958, Page 8

COMMONWEALTH TRADE

Charges Against Britain (N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, June 19. Britain was under' heavy fire from the Commonwealth for “dragging her feet” on plans for expansion of Commonwealth trade, the “Daily Express’s” political correspondent said to- | day. The attack came at the meeting of officials drawing up the full agenda for the Commonwealth trade and economic conference opening in Montreal on September 15. Australia. New Zealand, South Africa, India and Pakistan had told the British Government that its economic policies, above all the credit squeeze, were damaging Commonwealth trade in a Way which could be irreparable, the correspondent said. They charged the Prime Minister (Mr Macmillan - ) with “too much talk and too few results.*’ Britain was also accused of nutting Europe and the scheme for a 17-nation Free Trade Area before the expansion of trade inside the Commonwealth. It was understood the British delegates had conceded that the credit squeeze was straining the resources needed to keep Commonwealth trade at a high level. The Government was also charged with naving Un service to the cause of exnanding Commonwealth trade while buying at the lowest prices from the world at large, the correspondent added The countries making those charges were New Zealand, over butter dumping. Australia which complained about British purchases of Argentine wheat and wool and Pakistan, which said Britain had been buying large -iiiantities of subsidised ’-aw cotton from the United States and neglecting Pakistani producers, he said.