Lancashire and India Any news that promises assistance to Lancashire
is wel- come, for the drop in cotton exports has gone to alarming lengths. The new trade agreement with India which was signed this week and which is to replace the Ottawa Agree- ment makes large concessions in favour of cotton goods. Duties on United Kingdom cotton piece-goods are to be reduced in the first year from 20 per cent. to 15 per cent. ad valorem, and on printed gods from 25 per cent. to 171 per cent. with proportionate reductions on grey goods. After the first year the duties to be imposed on cotton piece-goods from this country will depend on the volume of our exports of such goods to India and on the quantity of Indian raw cotton which we import. If our imports of cotton reach the stipulated figures our exports of cotton piece-goods to India will not incur any increase in duties until they surpass an annual total of soo,000,000 yards. That is roughly twice the amount which was exported in the last twelve months. The long negotiations (which have taken nearly three years) could not have made any agreement possible unless many of the tariff preferences accorded by India to United Kingdom goods at Ottawa had been dropped ; this is being done now in the case of many goods, of which rubber, hardware, woollen and paper goods, chemicals, iron and steel pipes and ale and beer are the chief. The concessions which have now been obtained for cotton goods should help to restore the balance and the arrangement has naturally been received with satisfaction in Lancashire, as affording some relief in her distresses.
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