Evening Post

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 76, 1 April 1910, Page 6

Evening Post

FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 1910. FISCAL WAR AVERTED. The maximum rates of the Payne Tariff were appointed to come into operation yesterday, but th 6 result of negotiations which have only been concluded just in the nick of time is thai Canada will not be affected by those rates any more than any other part of the British Empire. President Taft rras placed in an exceedingly difficult position, and he has faced it with dignity, and escaped from it with success. The clause in the new tariff under which he had to act provides that on all articles imported from any fore'gn country into the United States there shall be paid the rates of duty prescribed in the Schedules to the Act, together with an additional 25 per cent. These augmented rates are declared by the Act to constitute the "general tariff," which is really, however, a penal tariff designed as a weapon for forcing the hands of other tariff-protected countries. Though" the clause acts automatically, it empowers the President to suspend its operation in favour of any foreign country as to which ho is satisfied that its Government imposes no terms or restrictions on the trade of the United States. The wordof the clause is not the happiest imaginable, and as a lawyer, and a lawyer who is reputed to have a conscience, Mr. Tafb may well have doubted whether the clause really gave him the necessary authority to give Canada the benefit of th« minimum tariff, while she continued to favour the other States of the British Empire by her preferential tariff, and to favour a foreign Power by her commercial treaty with France. When the Tariff Bill was still before Congreps, some doubt was expressed as to the possible effect of the clause in question upon tho preferential tariffs of the British Empire, and the doubt was revived when the troublo between Canada and the United States was being brought to a head about two months ago. In the absence of any authoritative communication on the subject from Washington a sort of "eauve gui peut" was issued on the subject from Downingptrect to- the daughter States of the Empire. The matter was said to be one for each State which had a preferential tariff in force to adjust with the President of tho United States on tho best terms that it could get. At that time the probable necessity of a settlement on a reciprocal basis was freely mooted, but we may thank the Canadian Government and President Taft for having between them settled a problem of special concern to Australia and New Zealand without involving them in negotiations or requiring them to make concessions. A message from Washington informs us to-day that the President has issued a proclamation which extends to Australia and New Zealand the benefits of the minimum tariff of the United States. Though Canada has been in the thick of the battle, it is clear that on this point she has had no heavy fighting to do. Mr ,Taft is not the sort of politician that seeks to make capital during an election, or at any other time, by twisting the tail of the -British lion. He has just as little faith in that policy as Mr. Roosevelt, and he is just as anxious as Mr. Roosevelt to cultivate the friendliest possible relations between the two great branches of the English-speaking race. This sentiment disposed Mr. Taft not to make the preferential tariff of Canada or any other British colony a cause of quarrel, while his constitutional caution influenced him in the same direction. The result is a recognition of the right of tho British Empire to give a preference to its own members through its various local tariffs, and after this settlement the question will not be easily reopened by any future Government of the United States, or by the Government of any other foreign Power. The more difficult question of the preference given by Canada to France has been got over by the undertaking of the Canadian Government to "extend by Order-in-Council the international rate of a dozen items of American exports which compete with French products entering at reduced rates, including cotton seed, oil, manufactured silks, some wives and fruits." We do not quite understand the exact purport of this message, but three points appear to be clear — that Canada gives no exclusive concessions, that she gets the advantages of tho minimum tariff of her neighbour, and that she maintains her general right to make reciprocal treaties with other coun. tries. An arrangement for the mutual reduction of duties on articles of national exchange is also included in the agreement, but as this will requiro legislation at Washington the prospect is very uncertain. This solid result has, at any rate, been obtained — that the • Payne Tariff is in full operation to-day, and that there is no fiscal war.