Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 1932 LAUSANNE AND OTTAWA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 22 June 1932, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 1932 LAUSANNE AND OTTAWA

THE Conference at Lausanne, which began with the discussion of war-debts and reparations, seems to have included the intricate question of tariffs in its agenda, with the result that there lias been a distinct indication that the delegates of a number of European countries have expressed approval of a general reduction of tariffs with a view “to dispelling the world crisis,” while the delegates of certain important countries have indicated a willingness to favour “a movement towards international free trade.”

Of course it is too early to gauge the effects which these discussions will ultimately have upon the development of international trade, but it seems quite clear that the European nations generally have awakened to the fact that the economic crisis, from which all of them are suffering, has been in part created by the prohibitive tariffs which they have erected. The word “prohibitive” is to bo emphasised, for it has been sufficiently shown that the moderate tariff which Great Britain recently erected, has greatly improved her commercial position, without seriously affecting those European countries whose tariffs are prohibitive. Though it seems that the British Premier proposes to ask the Conference to set up an economic commission which shall consider the best means for effecting a general reduction of tariffs, it is to be noticed that the

preparations of the British delegation, which shortly will bo proceeding to Ottawa, have not been curtailed. Therefore it seems that while adhering to the original programme for the improvement of inter-Empire trade by means of reciprocal agreements, which will confer fiscal privileges on nations within tho Empire, the British Government is paving the way, at Lausanne, for the resuscitation of Britain’s trade with European nations. But between the new international fiscal policy which seems to be taking shape at Lausanne and the policv ra *which has promoted the Ottawa Conference there is this difference, that whereas the former is as yet embryonic, the latter has been accepted in principle, and is ready to assume concrete form so soon as its details have been agreed upon. No doubt Mr MacDonald’s internationalism has created for him an almost unique position at Lausanne, where his influence in relation to war debts, reparations, tariffs, and disarmament is great, hut he is still Premier in a Government which has endorsed the policy propounded by the Canadian Premier. That policy has as its object the increase of inter-Empire trade by means of fiscal preferences, which postulate discrimination between the nations of the Empire and those outside of it. For it. must be remembered that the Ottawa Conference was first thought of when the Empire found itself almost excluded by the tariffs of foreign nations from trade other than within its own borders. The conversations at Lausanne may, or may not, alter that position, but in any case the Ottawa Conference should be fruitful of result. It should increase trade within the Empire, and it should not be concluded until it has provided machinery whereby the nations of the Empire can speak as a whole, instead of individually, with foreign nations in respect of concessions in relation to fiscal preferences.