NEW TRADE POLICY ESSENTIAL

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 94, 14 January 1939, Page 9

NEW TRADE POLICY ESSENTIAL

British Government Urged To Act

UNHEALTHY STATE OF EXPORTS

Plea To Use Nation’s Great Bargaining Power

By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright. (Received January 13, 9.30 p.m.) LONDON, January 13. Arguing that the unsatisfactory state of the British export trade was not the result of a temporary depression but of new economic conditions and new national policies, the Committee of the Association of British Chambers of Commerce urges the Government to exert the bargaining power of Britain as the world’s greatest import market. The Government, says the committee, should, first, review world markets with a view to ascertaining the minimum export trade at which it must aim; secondly, it should swing the markets available; and, thirdly, it should wake the changes necessary to achieve this result. Countries unwilling to increase their imports from the United Kingdom would be faced with a reduction of their exports to the United Kingdom. As regards an Empire trade settlement on quantitative lines, the committee says that this would be more rational than a grant of free entry regardless of the volume of imports to which it might lead. Thus the share of British markets which the Empire countries may enjoy would be settled with Cue regard to counter-concessions and the position of home industry. The report concludes: “A new British trade policy is essential, and quantitative discussions are most likely to promote an amicable settlement.”