LONG-TERM PLAN FOR CO-OPERATION AMONG MARSHALL AID AREAS

Wanganui Chronicle, 1 December 1948, Page 5

LONG-TERM PLAN FOR CO-OPERATION AMONG MARSHALL AID AREAS

LONDON. Nov 30 (Recd 7.15 pm). —The European Edition of the New York “Herald-Tribune” gives some details of a long-term plan for economic co-operation between the Marshall Aid Countries. It shows considerable discrepancies between the various national programmes which must be settled before the combined plan can be put into operation. Compared with 1938, the countries participating in the organisation for European Economic Co-operation hope to increase their production by 20 ner cent, by 1952-53. when the Marshall Aid is expected to end. In particular, the output of bread grains is expected to rise by seven per cent., coarse grains and fats bv 17 per cent., and meat by six per cent. Expansion of 28 per cent. In production steel is expected. 11 per cent, in textiles, and 21 per cent, in aluminium. The timber production Is expected to decline compared with the pre-war output. Altogether by the time Marshall Aid ends it is anticipated the O.E.E.C. countries will be importing 10 per cent, more than before the war and will be able to cover 82 per cent, of the cost of such imports bv their exports. Imports from North America would he reduced to 30 ner cent, of the total, compared with 60 per cent last year. Imports from the sterling area, on the contrary, would be 20 per cent greater than the pre-war level. Exports to North-America are expected to reach 42 per cent, to (he sterling area 62 ner cent., and to South America, S 3 per cent, above the prewar levels. The United Kingdom is the only one of the 19 participating nations planning a nett surnlus in its balance of payments bv 1952-53. Sweden, Denmark, France and Iceland. hone to have balanced their accounts. but Italy, the Benelux countries, Ireland, the Anglo-American zone of Germany. Norway. and Greece, all exnect net deficits