TRADE AGREEMENTS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 274, 17 October 1933, Page 6

TRADE AGREEMENTS.

It is reported from London that a delegation of British producers and exporters will, after investigating trade conditions in Spain, visit Finland. Their object, in so far as the latter country is concerned, is to take advantage of the provisions of the trade agreement signed between Great Britain and Finland at the end of September. Concessions were made to British products by reducing the duties on a wide range, and Finland also promised to take not less than 75 per cent, of its coal imports from Britain: these once reached the substantial figure of 95 per cent. Coke, imports from Britain are a subject reserved for discussion with the delegation. The agreement followed a British Week in Finland, conducted on lines similar to the one held in Stockholm after the British Exhibition in Copenhagen last year. More than ten thousand shops in the capital (Helsingfors) and other cities placed their windows at the disposal of the, British firms, some of whom had not previously traded with Finland. The unsatisfactory state of Britain’s trade with Northern European countries provided the reason for these displays. In I inland s case, in 1931 it sold goods valued at £10,300,000 in Britain, but took only £2,200,000 worth in return, and though an improvement was recorded in 1932 the disparity is still pronounced. The challenge to British manufacturers and exporters ‘in the state of Britain s trade with the countries of Northern Europe has been taken up keenly, and where agreements have been concluded the object has been to keep within the Ottawa decisions. Finland’s agreement is the seventh of an important chain, the othei’ countries being Sweden, Norway, Germany and Denmark (in Northern Europe), Iceland and the Argentine. These agreements are assisting Great Britain in her trade recovery.