International Trade Talks
The question of the regulation of international trade is inseparabl.. from the policy of full employment to which the Government al.. committed. We cannot pursue an expansionist policy at homk while leaving overseas trade movements either to unilateral pro- tectionist measures or to the winds of chance. The right policy is something between the two. It is with the object of defining just what that something is that this country is entering upon a series of three conferences. These were announced, though no dates were fixed for their, by Mr. Morrison in the Commons on Monday. First there will be a meeting to concert issues between the members of the British Commonwealth. Then there will be a conference called at the invitation of the United States Government, whose revived interest in exports dominates the whole question. This second meeting will also be of a preliminary nature and will be attended by at least fourteen countries, including the United Kingdom and the Dominions, but not so far including the U.S.S.R. Finally, there will be a full world conference called by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. The old questions of protection and Imperial Preference will come up at the first meeting, and will no doubt be sharpened by the argument that the United States, which now occupies the position held by this country in the nineteenth century of exporter number one, stands to gain more by free trade than anybody else. This argument will want watching. The British representatives must clearly realise that, whatever grain of truth lies in it, the first interest of the Dominions, and of Canada and Australia in particular, is that Great Britain and the United States should agree on international trade matters.
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