TRANSITION TO PEACE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 90, Issue 12, 15 January 1946, Page 7

TRANSITION TO PEACE

GOOD PROGRESS IN CANADA PROMOTION OF EXTERNAL TRADE Ottawa, Jan. 4. Significantly with the New Year, the Department of Munitions disappeared as a separate entity, says a statement just issued by the Department of External Affairs in Ottawa. Its few remaining branches are now merged in the new Department of Reconstruction and Supply, with Mr. C. D. Howe, the same Minister in charge. Broadly speaking, it is officially announced that the new department is charged with the responsibility for co-ordinating the activities of the other departments and agencies of the Government, “so that the transition from war-time to peace-time economy will be effected as quickly and smoothly as possible, and a high level of income and employment maintained.” SUPPLY CONTROLS REMOVED Taken as a whole, the reconversion of Canadian industry is proceeding without the development of substantial unemployment. Trade figures are encouraging. Of 300 supply controls which existed at war-effort peak, only about 30 remain. Almost 145 supply controls were revoked during 1945. Price controls, however, remain. “It is still necessary to continue price control if inflation conditions, which exist as a consequence of war, are to be held in check,” comments Mr. Donald Gordan, chairman of the Wartime Prices Board.

“The problem of price control,” says the Montreal Gazette in its 1945 financial review, “promises to become one of sharp interest and some difficulty over the coming year. While there is general agreement as to the need for curbing the continued, if not intensified, threat of post-war inflation, there is an insistent clamour for the removal of production, distribution and price controls as rapidly as conditions may warrant. The Government has shown some tendency to yield to this clamour by removing production and distribution controls, though so far not price controls, in advance of actual justifying conditions such as the abatement of scarcities.*'

The Government trade policies contemplate the general reduction of barriers and the encouragement of two-way trade. The import division has been established in the Department of Trade and Commerce as part of its trade promotional activities. The Minister of Finance. Mr. J. L. Ilsley, announces the creation, under Mr. Hector MacKinnon, chairman of the Tariff Board, of an informal committee to hear representations on trade and tariffs. As emphasising the urgency, Mr. Ilsley’s statement observes that appointments should be arranged and briefs submitted before the end of January. EXPANSION OF TRADE The statement significantly adds: “In view of the proposals put forward by the United States for a conference directed to the reduction of trade barriers and the expansion of trade, and the acceptance by the Government of Canada of the invitation to participate in the negotiations in anticipation of such a conference, it is desirable that representations by Canadian industries and groups should take account of these proposals, and therefore should not have as their objective the raising of tariff barriers, and, further, that particular attention be given to the possibilities of enlarging'the access of Canadian industry to external markets.”