AMERICA’S TRADE

Southland Times, Issue 22898, 25 May 1936, Page 7

AMERICA’S TRADE

Adverse Balance For Four Months

AN ELECTORAL FACTOR (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) (Rec. 7.30 pm.) New York, May 22. The Washington correspondent of The New York Times says that the Administration’s foreign trade policy is likely to become one of the important issues in the coming campaign, as the report of the Department of Commerce, published to-day, revealed that the unfavourable balance for the previous three months continued in April. During that month imports exceeded exports by 202,000,000 dollars to 193,000,000 dollars. For the first four months of the year the unfavourable balance totalled 12,000,000 dollars, compared with a favourable balance of 21,000,000 dollars for the corresponding period of 1935. Both exports and imports have materially increased, however. In a luncheon address at a meeting of the Foreign Trade Association to-day the Secretary of State (Mr Cordell Hull) defended the Administration's programme, insisting that the adverse balance resulted from the necessity of abnormal importations of animal products because of the drought and the enlarged need of manufacturers of raw materials.

The Administration has, in effect, admitted that its position as creditor to ' n makes an excess of imports over exports imperative, but the Republican opposition has naturally accepted no such thesis and is expected to use the trade situation to the best possible political advantage.