MORAL VALUE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 302, 19 November 1938, Page 10

MORAL VALUE

NEW U.S. TREATIES. NO VITAL TRADE GAINS. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) WASHINGTON, Nov. 17. Amidst the scenes of justifiable satisfaction surrounding the signing of the Anglo-American, and CanadianAmerican Treaties, while happy since the “most-favoured” nation provisions apply to her equally and she was continuously consulted concerning the writing of the agreements, nevertheless it remains somewhat anomalous that Australia’s direct interests are yet to be dealt with at some future time, and when that is to be it is hardly easy to predict. No one in Washington knows, and the position is beset with great difficulties. The Associated Press learns from the source best able to speak on the question that there is little prospect of the immediate opening of negotiations between Australia and the United States. It is, of course, -well-known that the Australian Government has not changed its position. It is ready and willing, and has been so almost for two years, to negotiate, but the American Government, unfortunately, is not.

The Associated Press informant put it: “It would be unfair to say the State Department does not intend, or is unwilling. “Obviously the purely trade elements in the treaties are not a shadow of what had been expected. Nerves were pretty taut after the long negotiations. The expectations of vital trade gains by either party to both treaties were long ago abandoned, but the international or moral significance of the document cannot be over-esti-mated. It is a token to the world that goodwill between the English-speaking nations is still the most vital force in international affairs. To that degree all who belittle the agreement do so at their peril, and all who acclaim it will live to see great good arise from it.” STABILISING INFLUENCE. The State Department forecast of the agreements is that they will bring substantial benefit To American farmers and industrialists, and act as a stabilising influence in the world of commerce. The department, in a statement, lauded the pact as the most important of the nineteen signed under the New Deal policy. The Anglo-American Agreement, particularly, is important from the standpoint of agriculture, the United Kingdom, by far the largest foreign market for American farm products, taking a third of our total exports. The department estimated that the agreements embrace over a third of the world’s foreign commerce. “The United States supplies well over half Canada’s imports. The United States is also one of'the largest markets for exports from the United Kingdom, which imports more goods from the United States than any other country.” Tariff concessions under the pacts are to become effective on January 1, 1939, and the agreements will run initially for three years and continue indefinitely thereafter unless they are terminated by either Government on six months’ notice.

The department 6aid the significance of the agreements, which were not onesided concessions to the United States, should be viewed in the collective sense, since they dove-tailed into a broad programme that should “stimulate a mutually profitable expansion of trade.”

The department added that the agreements would mark the liberalisation of Anglo-American trade policies. “That should have an important bearing on the commercial policies of many other countries, quite apart from the fact that under the ‘most favoured’ nation practice of both the United Kingdom and the United States most countries will benefit directly from the concessions provided in the agreement. Moreover, it marks a most important step in the development of the commercial policy of the United Kingdom. Although for decades Britain had maintained a substantial freedom of trade, in 1932 the import duties marked the abandonment of this historic policy so far as countries outside the Empire were concerned. The United Kingdom modified its protective preferential policy in some trade agreements with other countries. This agreement with the United States represents a further mark of modification of that policy.”

NEW ZEALAND’S VIEW

HOPE FOR BENEFIT

LONDON, Nov. 17. Mr W. J. Jordan (High Commissioner), in a statement, said the New Zealand Government had always favoured an agreement on the widest possible basis, therefore it was gratified at the progress achieved by ‘the AngloAmerican Pact.

He added that the general gain would give some compensation for the loss of New Zealand’s preferential position in the United Kingdom market. He pointed out that New Zealand’s apples, pears, and honey have a smaller preference than they are entitled to hold under the existing agreement with the United Kingdom.