BELGUIM AND CANADA

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 194, 12 May 1924, Page 8

BELGUIM AND CANADA

BETTER COMMERCLIL RELATIONS. It is announced from 'Ottawa that, following negotiations which have been taking, place for some months an Order-in-Council from the Canadian Government, dated Alarch 12 has granted to Berlgian goods imported into Canada the whole advantage of the intermediate tariff. Considering the treatment to which Belgian merchandise were submitted previously, it will be a considerable amelioration, affecting an. export trade of approximately fifty, million francs. Canada, like Australia, possesses a tariff with three columns. A preferential tariff reserved for British goods, an intermediate applicable to countries to which Canada reserves a favourable treatment-, and tho general tariff, the highest, to which are submitted the goods originating from countries with which Canada has no treaty of commerce. Such was tho case of Belgium since the denunciation in 1897 of the Anglo-Bel g.ian Treaty of Commerce of 1862. That situation was most detrimental to Bclgain industries which found tliemselve s on tho Canadian market in an inferior position compared to other foreign competitors enjoying the advantages of the intermediate tariff. The Canadian decree has put an end to that situation ; by it the Canadian Government recognises the extremely liberal treatment which Canadian products have always received nt their entry in Belgium. It constitutes a serious step towards a satisfactory continuation of the negotiations which are still proceeding at Ottawa with a view of concluding a treaty of commerce between the Belgo-Lnxembourgeoise Economic Union and Canada.