America Must Buy
American protectionism is not a subject on Which the British Government, with its vital interest in dollar-earning exports, should pull its punches, and the President of the Board of Trade, in his speech to the American Chamber of 'Commerce in London on Tuesday, quite rightly spoke his mind without fear or favour. British goods have to pierce plenty of barriers before they reach the American consumer-3,000 miles of ocean, an obstructive Customs procedure, the Tariff Act passed in 1933 and still reflecting the panic of the Great Depression, the Federal Buy American Act, the vested interests of American producers, and the unfamiliarity of Americans with British products. Many British manufacturers have got through all this, shouldering aside many difficulties on the way. It is this purely commercial achievement that entitles them to fair play from the American Government. There is no need to fall back on the American interest in the economic strength of Europe, or even on the responsibilities laid upon the United States through its dominant position in the world economy. Americans, we are frequently told, believe in free enterprise. And it is stretching that term rather far to include in it the right of any group of American business-men to ask for the protection of the United States Tariff Commission against the enterprise of competitors from abroad. It is becoming increas- ingly clear that the President and his advisers are aware of -the rights and wrongs of the case. Only a few days ago President Truman dealt faithfully with the Tariff Commission for advancing the claim of a handful of farmers in California who wished to keep otit imports of Italian garlic in order to protect a side-line of their own. But the argument for freer trade must get through to the thousands of American business-men who are the real builders of the barriers that face British firms who want to break in to the American market.
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