ANGLOAMERICAN TRADE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 55, Issue 3940, 16 August 1937, Page 6

ANGLOAMERICAN TRADE

TARIFF WALLS INEFFECTIVE. “Volumes have been written and and spoken in Britain and Europe about the grave hurts which the world has suffered from the Smoot-Hawley tariff. This was the Tariff Revision Act, passed in 1930, which raised import duties on nearly 900 articles and lifted substantially the average level of American tariffs on imported goods to nearly 42 per cent. This blow to European exports to America helped to make it finally impossible for Europe to continue payment of debts to America,” writes Mr L. J. Reid in the “Daily Telegraph” (London). “But if all that was said against the Act were true, then equally it is true that America’s offer to reverse her trade policy holds out the hope of immeasurable benefits to the world at large. To allow minor fiscal difficulties >o obstruct so great a world project would be akin to making a toothache the excuse for not contracting a brilliant marriage. Nor can there be any doubt that the time factor is of urgent importance. Difficulties, if they are to be overcome at all, must be overcome quickly. Public opinion in America changes rapidly. This recent birth of economic liberalism isamicacle. Unless its growth is fostered by genuine welcome from this side the mood may easily chahge.”