BARRIERS AND QUOTAS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 99, 23 October 1936, Page 10

BARRIERS AND QUOTAS

GLASGOWMAN'S VIEWS

"MAD RESTRICTIONS"

(From "The Post's" Representative.) ■ '■■ LONDON. October 3. "The mad system of . restrictions, barriers, and quotas which have upset the economic structure of the world," should.be stopped as a duty to British commerce and industry, and to civilisation. This was the plea of Mr.CM: Weir, of the' Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, made at the autumn meeting of the Association of British Chambers of Commerce this week. It was not, he said, a question of ■'. protection or free trade. It was one of finding' sobri a means whereby nations recognising the •harmfulness of present policies could show that their currencies might be put on a stable basis and their goods again, become readily" exchangeable. Nations that believed in the advantages of two-way international trading should get together and set up a system open to others to jojn—in other words an international club always oh 'th 2 lookout' for- new" methods. "We welcome,"'he said, "the arrangement come to by Britain, France, and the United States, and the, sequels in other countries, if they may be taken, as the precursor of a general effort,to restore -to a restless and distracted ' t world the boon .of economic equili-i brium:",

Mr.''Weii: submitted a resolution, subsequently carried, which' congratulated the-Government on-the steps it was taking to bring about stabilisation of: currencies, and urged that these arrangements should be followed toy negotiations "with a : view to examining'the question of reducing the barriers to international trade which have been largely responsible for currencies disequilibrium, and the removal or reduction of'which is an essential step in world economic recovery." ■This view was referred to by the president of the association, Sir Geof-frey-Clarke^ in his presidential address.. He remarked that it anticipated the report of the Economic Committee! of the League of Nations. The com-1 mittee, whose, report was "almost an economic Sermon on the Mount," did not.believe that any attempt at monetary adjustment could succeed unless accompanied by relief in respect of quotas and trade barriers. . ."These are noble sentiments," he continued, "but in practice is there, any sign of a. general reduction of tariffs, arid is it not almost certain that any such policy would be most strongly opposed by the manufacturers in every country?. On.the other hand, what do you.see happening in the world? The leaders in Germany and Italy have decided that in a few years their countries willbe self-supporting for almost all their primary products, and if other cpuntries-adopt a similar policy international trade will cease and our foreign trade will be dependent on the Empire for the exchange of commodities,- for we' cannot afford to go on buying .from countries which refuse to buy from us... It is a strange situation."