WOOL ONE OF THE STUMBLING BLOCKS AT GENEVA

Evening Star, Issue 26154, 16 July 1947, Page 5

WOOL ONE OF THE STUMBLING BLOCKS AT GENEVA

(N-K.p.A. Special c„T r <' ? p<m < Mt.). (ißec., 10 a,m.) LONDON, July 15, The caution exercised by Sir staf ford Gripps at his Press conference had to be heard to be believed, reports the ‘ Manchester Guardian’s ’ Geneva correspondent, who adds that if Sir Stafford had been able to say anything definite about the trade talks without doing more harm than good he would no doubt have said it, His' .caution was qn indication of the critical. stage which the - discussions have reached. Sir Stafford said good progress had been made with the trade charter If the few major points still outstanding could be cleared up, as he thought they could, then the charter ought to be ready very nearly by the date which 'had been' arranged’. 1 ■ The-dates fixed fop completion of the talks are July 31 for the charter and August 15 for the tariff negotiations. According Ho ’ the, time-table, therefore, the conference should have completed more than three-quartes of its work by now, * f Sir Stafford, Gripps, ’ ’ con a» ues the correspondent, ‘f would say nothing about wool, but it is one of. the stumbling blocks which has been holding up the conference, Ip the offitiftl Britislf view the wool question is a matter between Australia and the United States. Jn fact, however, it concerns the United Kingdom and allCommonwealth countries in a direct and obvious way, “ What the Americans want from the British Commonwealth is the cutting of Empire 'prefer* enees. Rut these preferences/ to long as the Ottawa agreements stand, can only be changed with the concurrence of the Common* wealth countries. The British Government js certainly net prepared to reduce any preference margins without the concurrence of the dominions. Australia is • not inclined to concur unless she gets some satisfaction on American wool tariffs. “But the circle of frustration does not end there. The basic rule on which these negotiations are conducted is that any concessions granted by one country to another shall be granted ‘ immediately and unconditionally ’ to all the other participating countries, “ It is a grandiose conception, but it means that the pace of the army is the pace of the slowest soldier. If Australia wants to withhold a concession from the United . States, she must withhold it from everybody else. It should not be thought that Australia’is alone in this position, There are others. But the wool onation is an .important one, and quite enough by itself to produce an extensive deadlock.”,

This is the stage which the conference has readied. It has achieved the good prospect, though by no means the certainty, that an International trade organisation will, at any rate, be formed.; that is not a little, Whether it achieves more than that the bare fact must be decided within the next 10 days or so.