ECONOMIC WAR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23618, 30 March 1940, Page 12

ECONOMIC WAR

TRADE AGREEMENTS GERMANS HANDICAPPED LACK OF COMMODITIES By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright British Wireless LONDON, March 28 The: realisation of the importance of trade agreements with neutral countries as part of the war conipaign against Germany is expressed by the news of such activities from several quarters. The announcement has been made of early negotiations in London for the purpose of replacing the present treaty with the Venezuelan Government by a new commercial treaty. A British Treasury official, Mr. E. W. Plavfnir. who has arrived in Rome to resume the interrupted talks on the stabilisation of trade between Britain and Italy, had his first meeting with a representative of Italian foreign trade and the Ministry on Tuesday. The full text is to be issued of the British trade agreement with .Spain concluded earlier this month.

When agreements exist the work of contraband control is lightened, and delays to neutral shipping are diminished. Such agreements are now operating with Sweden, Belgium, Greece and Norway, and negotiations have been concluded with Denmark and Iceland, and are well advanced in the case of the Netherlands. One essential feature of the British war trade agreements has been the guarantee to restrict, within narrow limits, the flow of certain raw materials from a substantial number of neutral European countries to Germany, with the result that Germany has been forced increasingly to import essential commodities by more expensive, slow and limited routes.