Trade Agreement Delays It was expected that the Anglo-American trade
agreement would be ready for signature by the middle of September. The negotiations have been held up, apparently, by American demands for tariff concessions which are hard to grant and in any case require discussion and decision by our Cabinet. At this date it is not necessary to emphasise what value is attached to the agreement by public opinion not only in this country but throughout the world, and the high hopes which have been raised will not be satisfied unless there is a genuine reduction of tariffs on both sides of the Atlantic. No doubt it is difficult to make concessions which may place some British manufacturers at a disadvantage, even though only temporarily ; yet in one sense, at least, such sacrifices are inherent in the very conception of the agreement. It is impossible to judge the questions now reputed to be at issae without fuller information ; it is possible only to reaffirm the broad principle that concessions must be made by both countries, and however serious they may be, it seems hardly possible that they can hold up the negotiation of an agree- ment which throughout the world will be taken as evidence of closer co-operation between the two great Anglo-Saxon democracies.
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