UNFAIR TRADING

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 143, 14 December 1938, Page 9

UNFAIR TRADING

GERMAN METHODS

BRITAIN PREPARED FOR ECONOMIC FIGHT

AGREEMENT WANTED

(British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, December 12. The President of the Board of Trade, Mr. Oliver Stanley, said in a speech today that he would regard a real agreement with Germany as "the greatest guarantee we could have for peace iri the world.' He did not regard as an agreement a method whereby one side would do all the giving and the other all the taking. If the people of this country* were prepared to pay a heavy price for peace, they were entitled to expect that the Germans, in their turn, should be prepared to pay theirprice. Referring to the trading method* of the totalitarian States, which put the whole force of the State behind their exporters, Mr. Stanley said that this raised a great problem. In the old days British manufacturers could compete on level terms with the foreigner. Today they had to compete firm against industry, or possibly firm against country. That was a form of competition which no longer was fair. "We are determined," said the Minister, "that our traders in the neutral markets of the world shall have a fair deal from those countries. If they will not meet us by methods of peac6 or by means of "negotiation, then we shall have no alternative but to fight "We are organising ourselves to fight, and if it comes to a trade and commercial fight between the organised industries bf/Britain and those of the other countries of the world, there is no doubt whatever what the result will be." MOVE TO HELP EXPORTERS. In this connection, the second reading of the Export Guarantees Bill, which will be moved on Thursday, will probably provide the most important debate of the week in the House of Commons. The section of the new Bill which provides that the Board of Trade shall be permitted to guarantee up to a limit of £10,000,000 at any one time for export transactions which might not be insurable on the ordinary commercial basis adopted by the Export Credits Guarantee Department, but which are deemed to be expedient in the national interests, continues to atS tract attention. The proposal is regarded as an important first move towards assisting , British exporters to meet the competition of the totalitarian countries in the overseas markets. : The newspapers state that the proposal has been accepted in principle by the; Labour Party, which, however, will press for assurances that the scheme shall be kept under specially strict supervision..