U.S. Demands End Of Empire Preference ?

Northern Advocate, 24 January 1947, Page 3

U.S. Demands End Of Empire Preference ?

(Received 10 a.m.) . LONDON, January 23, DESCRIBING American manufacturers’ demand for elimination of all Empire preference as humiliating, Mr L. S. Amery (president), speaking at the annual meeting of the Empire Industries Association, said submission would mean abandonment of protection for domestic industries and agriculture.

Britain would have to face unlimited | competition in the home market, “We are living in a world of sheer delusion if we think there is a ghost of a chance of our paying our way in a world of open cut-throat price competition,” he said. i Lord Woollon said he believed the j Government had under consideration J a Note from the United States Govern, ment asking that- preferences on import duties between countries of the British Empire should be abolished.

He told the association that he was, therefore, even more apprehensive concerning Britain's ability to repay the American loan. •‘We must not be prepared to surrender the right of economic mutual tariff arrangements,” he said. “Changes must come with changing circumstances, but I am certain it will be a bad day for Britain when it abandons the right to trade with the Empire under conditions which it determines.”