CLOSER AMITY

Southland Times, Issue 23377, 8 December 1937, Page 9

CLOSER AMITY

FUTURE OF TRADE BRITAIN AND AMERICA NEW YORK, November 10. Events of the past two years, notably the wars in Abyssinia, Spain and China, have vastly strengthened the movement in the United States for closer trade relations in the Middle West, hitherto lukewarm, if not hostile to British tradition, that Britain’s cause and Britain’s interest in the three theatres of conflict are almost identically America’s. Events in Shanghai have crystallized this sentiment. Thoughtful Americans are becoming outspoken in the views that Britain and the United States are an “empire,” by historical background and common language, cultural, political and economic interests. It is especially pleasing for a British observer of many years’ standing to record that this yearning for closer relations was never so strong as at present. UNSEEN AMERICAN AUDIENCES The recent Empire Conference had a larger unseen American audience than any of its predecessors, chiefly because of the discussion between the Motherland and the Dominions of the former’s expressed intention to negotiate _ a reciprocal trade treaty with the United States.

Economists on this side of the Atlantic, while agreeing that a large share of American trade was lost through the operation of the Empire trade agreements signed at Ottawa, acknowledged that America had no cause for complaint. Inter-Empire trade was as much a domestic matter among the nations of the British Commonwealth as the American tariff was among the States of the Union.

That negotiation of an Anglo-Ameri-can trade agreement will be difficult does not affect the conviction that it is held to be practicable here. The present “exploratory” conversations will be succeeded by much backing and filling before a formula is discovered. At the moment, experts are examining a list of requests submitted by each Government as a basis of negotiation. How they will affect inter-Empire trade concessions, and established American fiscal policy, will be closely surveyed. It is granted that there will be strong opposition on both sides. Foreign traders in the United States have, for some years, stressed the importance of securing a series of trade agreements with Britain and the Dominions. The agreement with Canada is the only one consummated to date. STABILIZATION FACTOR The effect of an Anglo-American agreement in stabilizing international trade is the chief factor in its favour, in the view of American economists and trade leaders, who point out that the extent of the concessions is not so important as agreement on discriminations, quotas, preferences and other matters that disturb the general equality of treatment in the flow of goods and services. Recovery in trade, industry and social well-being, now becoming more apparent, is felt here to furnish an atmosphere favourable to success. In fact, at no time in the post-war period has the ideal of closer intercourse between the two branches of the AngloSaxon family gained greater support in the American mind.