FAILURE TO FIX PRICES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27570, 12 December 1950, Page 7

FAILURE TO FIX PRICES

Commonwealth-American Wool Talks WASHINGTON, Dec. 10. The failure of the recent British Commonwealth-United States wool conference on the issue of producers tying themselves to fixed prices was cited today as a typical difficulty for the defence effort of the democracies. Sir Edmond Hall-Patch, chairman of the executive committee of the Organ* isation for European Economic Cooperation, told a press conference. Some producers had expressed reluctance to agree to fixing the prices of their own products until they had assurances that the prices of goods they had to buy also would be regulated. He added that OEEC had asked the United Kingdom to call another meeting of the principal wool-produc-ing and consuming countries to “deal more urgently ” with the allocations problem. It might also be necessary to call conferences on timber and nonferrous metals. Sir Edmond said it did not make sense for powerful nations to “hog all raw materials and leave smaller partners without them.” The lesser partners must get their share or the Western industrial system would get into trouble. Sir Edmond heads the OEEC delegation which opened a series of conferences with ECA officials. The group will discuss problems of common interest in regard to the rise in prices of raw materials and the shortage of some of them. He declined to say on which commodities price and supply allocations would be placed first, but he said there were some ferrous metals, some textile s and chemical products. Other OEEC sources said the latter included copper, zinc, nickel, aluminium, tin, sulphur, natural and synthetic rubber, wool, cotton, sisal and timber.