ATLANTIC TRADE

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 7, 10 January 1938, Page 12

ATLANTIC TRADE

BRITAIN AND U.S.A

AGREEMENT PROCEDURE

The formal announcement by the United States Secretary o£ State (Mr. Cordell Hull; of his intention to negotiate for a trade agreement with Great Britain, which is reported in today's cable news, is similar to the announcements made simultaneously in London and Washington in November on the same subject in that it can be taken to mean that Mr. Hull has already accomplished much more of the task he has embarked upon than his bare announcement would indicate.

The British Prime Minister (Mr.! Neville Chamberlain) briefly told the House of Commons in November 'that "the informal and exploratory discussions with a view to reaching an agreed basis for the negotiation of an Anglo-United States trade agreement have now reached a point at which the Governments of the United Kingdom and the United States feel able to announce that negotiations for such an agreement are contemplated. The need for an announcement drafted in terms of conspicuous under-state-ment arises out of the. procedure laid down by the American Trade Agreements Act. of 1934, pointed out the "Economist" in discussing the November announcements. ACT'S LIMITATIONS. This Act delegates to the President some of the tariff-fixing prerogatives of Congress, and agreements concluded in accordance with its terms do not require Congressional ratification. But Congress naturally imposed certain limitations of period, scope, and procedure—and it is the lastnamed which are responsible for the otherwise illogical distinction between formal and informal negotiations. Under the Act the joint announcement in November had to be 'followed by a period of four weeks in which the representatives of American industry could make suggestions about the matters to be included in the agreement. The next stage is the publication of the lists of goods on which tariff concessions are under contemplation. Finally, there are three further statutory periods of six, three, and two weeks respectively for the submission of comments, the hearing of evidence, and the amendment of schedules. Thus the minimum time which could elapse 'between the initial announcement and the conclusion of the agreement is fifteen weeks. The earliest date for signature is March 3, 1938. "CERTAIN OF SUCCESS." The primary purpose of the November announcement was to set this procedure in motion. But it is virtually out of the question that the two Governments would have committed themselves in this way unless they were substantially certain that the formal negotiations would lead to eventual success. In other, words, the announcement could be taken to mean that -the preliminary questions of principle had been satisfactorily disposed of, leaving only for discussion their practical and detailed application. The main decision on principle (concludes the "Economist") which had to be taken has been inter-Imperial rather than Anglo-American. An agreement by which Great Britain merely bound herself not to increase the tariffs' on American goods, in return for a few American concessions, could have been obtained long ago. But it is doubtful, whether such an agreement would have been reciprocal within the meaning of the American Act, and, in any case, the two Governments were undoubtedly right m deciding to aim far higher. Any proposals for actual reductions in British tariffs on American goods, however, inevitably ran up against the Ottawa Agreements.