OTTAWA PRINCIPLE MODIFIED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23706, 13 January 1939, Page 9

OTTAWA PRINCIPLE MODIFIED

The signing of the Anglo-American trade treaty means that the principle of modifying the Ottawa agreements of 1932 has been conceded, says the Spectator. Ottawa, creating the British Imperial “Zollverein” (Customs union), of which Joseph Chamberlain dreamed, had good effects and bad. It increased trade within the Empire. It to some extent decreased the trade and to a considerable extent increased the suspicions and antagonisms of States outside the Empire, particularly the United States and Germany. Since then, and to some extent in consequence, Germany has developed a closed economy based on trade by barter, which makes the prospect of any beneficial commercial agreement with her remote. But that fact, unfortunate in itself, has had some favourable reactions, in producing the recognition among States which still prefer free interchange of the need for increasing trade among themselves. The AngloAmerican agreement has gone far to meet that need, for through the operation of the most-favoured-nation clause it means that the tariffs of both countries are lowered, not merely in relation to one another, but to all countries with which they have signed most-favoured-nation treaties.