TRADE TREATY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 92, 20 April 1939, Page 5

TRADE TREATY

RUMANIA AND GERMANY

EXPLOITING RESOURCES

NEW CONCESSIONS

The trade treaty between Germany and Rumania was signed this afternoon, said a Bucharest message to the "Manchester Guardian" on March 23. It will come into operation after ratifications have been exchanged in Berlin and will remain in force until March 31. 1944.

The terms of the treaty, published to-night, are as follows:—

With a view to collaboration beI tween the contracting parties there is arranged, as a completion of the present regulations for Rumano-German economic exchanges, an economic plan of several years' duration, having as its I basic principle a balance of reciprocal economic exchanges. The economic plan will take acount, on the one hand, of Germany's needs for imports and, on the other, of the potentialities for increasing. Rumanian production, Rumania's internal necessities, and Rumania's need for economic trade with other countries. The plan will comprise in general— la. An increase and orientation of Rumanian agricultural production. In this sphere, after a preliminary exchange of experience by the competent bodies of both countries, the cultivation of new agricultural produce as well as the intensification of those products already cultivated, especially of fodder and oleaginous and textile plants, will be introduced. AGRICULTURAL. OUTPUT. lb. An increase of existing agricultural industries and the creation of new agricultural industries. 2a. The development of Rumanian forestry and wood economy. 2b. The establishment of forest exploitation and measures for the defence of forests. 3a. The delivery of machines and plant for the exploitation of mines in Rumania. 3b. The foundation of mixed Ruman-ian-German companies for the opening up and exploitation of calceopyrites in Dobrudja, chromium ores in Banat, and manganese ores in' the Vatra Dernei-Bresteni region. Moreover, the exploitation of the bauxite I deposits and the eventual creation of an aluminium industry will be studied. 4. The setting up of a mixed Rumanian-German company to work petroleum and arrange the distribution of its products. 5. Collaboration in the industrial sphere. 6. The creation of a free zone containing industrial and commercial undertakings, and the construction in this free zone of equipment for transhipments between the two countries. 7. The delivery of armaments and equipment for . the Rumanian Army, Navy, and Air Force and the armaments industry. 8. The development of communications by land and water. 9. The construction and installation of public utility companies. FINANCIAL COLLABORATION. 10. Collaboration between Rumanian and German banks in the interests of both countries, in particular for the financing of these various undertaktag, ft In the carrying out of this treaty a Governmental Commission, under the terms of Article 32 of the Treaty of Stabilisation of Commerce and Navigation of March 23, 1935, between the Rumanian and German Governments will be set up. 111. These two Governmental Commissions will communicate with each other on their intentions in connection1 with this treaty. They will arbitrate on the carrying out of the various projects. Both Governments will grant the necessary means for the organisation of the firms, which will concern them-, selves with the preparation and carrying out of the projects contemplated in Article I and will assure the carrying through of projects approved by the Governmental Commissions in accordance with their powers, which are necessarily in conformity with their laws. IV. The payments to be effected by Germany and Rumania respectively by virtue of this treaty will conform to the general terms of the existing payments agreement between Rumania and Germany. The Governmental Commissions will have power to decide on the percentage of the counter value of deliveries stipulated in Article I, sections 7 to 9, or the counter value of deliveries stipulated in sections 7 to 9 of Article I, or the counter value of other deliveries of goods to finance the projects contemplated in Article I. AN INDEFINITE TERM. V. The treaty will enter into force a month after the exchange of deeds of ratification, which will take place in Berlin as soon as possible. The contracting parties will apply it provisionally from the date of signature. The treaty remains in force until March 31, 1944. If it is not denounced a year before that date it will be indefinitely prolonged, but in such case may be denounced at any time, provided that a period of notice of one year is given at the end of any calendar quarter. The point of the first sentence of Article IV is that the commercial exchange rate between the lei and the mark is to remain at 40 to 41 lei to the mark as in the previous trade agreement. The Germans had originally demanded 50 to 55 lei to the mark, and the retention at the lower figure is a considerable victory for the Rumanian negotiators. The fact that it is a skeleton document and ranges over a wide number of subjects has caused an impression in certain political and business quarters that it is an unfortunate bargain* for Rumania. Official quarters, however, insist that in no sphere does it 'give a monopoly to Germany, and that Rumania is willing to sign similar treaties of equal scope with any : other Power.