TRADE PROMOTION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23112, 10 August 1938, Page 13

TRADE PROMOTION

EMPIRE AND AMERICA SIR EARLE PAGE'S ADVOCACY CANADIAN TALKS CONCLUDED RELATIONS WITH AUSTRALIA By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received August i), 5.5 p.m.) TORONTO, August 8 The Australian Minister of Commerce, Sir Earle Page, departed for New York and Washington after addressing the Club at Toronto in favour of the trade treaty between Britain and America, and conferring with the Minister of Trade and Commerce, Mr. W. D. Euler, regarding a revised treaty between Canada and Australia. Although neither Sir Earle nor the Canadian Government would comment, it is believed that his talks with the Prime Minister, Mr. Mackenzie King, and the Ministers of Customs and Trade, have laid the basis for a revision of commercial relations between the two Dominions after the conclusion of the Anglo-American negotiations. In addressing an audience of Toronto business men. Sir Earle stressed the importance of closer relations,' not only between the United States and Britain, but also between America and the entire British Empire. He praised the 19.'i2 Ottawa Agreements as an extension of comparative free trade throughout the Empire. "That co-operation should be extended to cover bargaining with the United States," Sir Karle added. "A trade treaty between Britain and America would be very good, but one between the United States and the whole Empire would be a great step toward world peace. Such a treaty, if wide in scope and liberal in terms, must have repercussions on the whole of world trade." In order to achieve the best results, he thought negotiations should be conducted simultaneously between the United States, Britain and the Dominions. Only the combined strength of common action by all Englishspeaking nations could rescue the world from the welter of disorganisation in which it found itself. "If it were possible for the Empire and the United States to pursue a planned co-operative policy to start the wheels of trade again by a resumption of international lending and the removal of commercial impediments, we might look forward to a better world," he concluded.