WORLD TRADE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27505, 27 September 1950, Page 7

WORLD TRADE

Torquay Conference AIMED AT SIMPLIFYING CONTROLS NZPA —Special Correspondent Rec. 7 p.m. LONDON, Sept. 26. The international conference on tariffs and trade, which will open at Torquay on Thursday, will be the fourth major conference held since the war with the object of removing or simplifying the many complex forms of trade restriction and control stemming back to the 1930 depression, and intensified' by the Second World War. The first was the conference at Geneva in October, 1947, which concluded what was known as the General Agrement on Tariffs and Trade —now alphabetically known as GATT. The second was the conference establishing the International Trade Organisation in 1948, and the third was the conference at Annecy in 1949, when the 23 countries participating in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade added nine more to their number. The basis of all these negotiations is the Havana Charter which gives formal approval to the breaking down of trade barriers and exchange and other controls. The Havana Charter, however, although its formal establishment was recognised’ by 54 nations, has been ratified by only three of them— Australia, Sweden and Liberia. Interim Measures The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was really an interim measure designed to encourage those countries who were willing to make immediate tariff concessions and to proceed with them while awaiting the formal ratification of the Havana Charter. In all 23 countries signed the original GATT agreement at Geneva and between them they concluded 123 separate sets of trade agreements comprising over 45,000 separate items on which concessions were made in the form of reductions of tariffs or undertakings not to increase the existing rates. The United States, which has taken a leading part in sponsoring GATT, granted concessions or undertakings on 3400 items. . The Annecy . conference which carried- on the work begun at Geneva led to the conclusion of another 147 bilateral trade agreements and brougnt the total number of countries participating up to 32. New Members The Torquay conference will be attended by all of these with the addition of Indonesia, which has subscribed to the agreement since Annecy, and Austria, the Western German Federal Republic, Peru, the Philippines, Turkey and Uruguay. In addition, Mexico and Guatemala will probably be represented by observers. These countries, amounting in all to 39, together with their dependent territories, accounted for about fourfifths of the world’s trade in 1948. The only major trading national not now included is Soviet Russia, which has boycotted the International Trade Organisation from its inception. Task of Conference The conference will be in two sections, both quite distinct though closely related. The first will be a meeting of all countries at present participating in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade together with countries which are likely to become new recruits to the agreement; and the second will be negotiations on general problems between the original contracting parties at Geneva. The first conference is expected to last until early in November, and the second to extend into February or March of next year. A good deal of the work of the first conference will be concerned with the renegotiation of tariff agreements made at Geneva and Annecy and which are binding only until January 1, 1951. It will be proposed • at Torquay to make all agreements arrived at there binding until January 1, 1954. The United States has listed more than 2500 items on which it is prepared to discuss concessions while the introduction of Western Germany into the discussions will considerably- widen their sphere, particularly in the field of chemicals of which Germany is still an important world supplier. Fewer Concessions Expected

Some 400 sets of bilateral agreements are likely to be considered at Torquay but whether or not they will ail be concluded is, of course, uncertain. Some of the participating countries appear already to have reached the limit of practical concessions they are able to make, and even the United States, after cutting the general level of its tariffs by about 10 per cent, after Geneva and Annecy, will have fewer new concessions to offer than at the two previous meetings. New Zealand will be represented at Torquay by Mr J. P. D. Jottnsen, Assistant Comptroller of Customs, and Mr G. J. Schmitt, of the Treasury.