Free Wool Trade Wanted By Secretariat

Northern Advocate, 14 June 1947, Page 5

Free Wool Trade Wanted By Secretariat

(Rec. 11 a.m.i PARIS. June 13. The International Wool Conference has ended a two-day session, after adopting resolutions favouring free trade and the greatest possible interchange of scientific information on wool.

The director-general of the United Kingdom Wool Disposals Group (Mr F. S. Arthur) assured delegates that he would do everything possible to put Britain’s wartime extra stocks of wool on the market without disturbing world price stability. The conference passed a unanimous vote of confidence in the Wool Disposal' Group’s policies and also passed a resolution demanding that all Governments recognise international contracts as binding. The chairman of the International Wool Secretariat (Dr Booth), in presenting his annual report, called for lower wool tariffs throughout the world. He revealed that Australia had collected over &£90.000,000 in foreign exchange annually from wool exports, and added that the International Wool Secretariat had gathered member nations from all the world.

It was now truly international and had become a world service for wool. He called for an increase in wool production and consumption throughout the world and for more facts, figures and a better scientific understanding of all scientific processes involved and for governmental policies favourable to increased consumption. “The amount of wool consumption per head is really the test of economic wellbeing and the standard of living of a country,” said Dr Booth. CAUSED PRICES TO RISE Mr Arthur said the joint organisation. comprising members of the British Empire, had disposed of 10,000,000 bales of wool, representing stocks accumulated during the war, and thereby had satisfied the strong consumer demand and also stabilised prices. French and Belgian delegates suggested that the joint organisation, in recent months, had not released enough wool and had caused prices to rise unnecessarily. They admitted, however, that transport and storage bottlenecks, besides the higher rate of the pound sterling, might unavoidably have caused higher rates.

Maurice Dubrulle (Franco; was reelected president.

The 1948 conference will be held in Switzerland.