Better than Tariffs .
The Imperial Economic Committee does a useful service in pointing out, in the annual report it has issued this week, that there can be better -bases than high tariffs for Empire trade. Tariffs, it is observed pertinently, disturb the economic balance whenever they are imposed and in most cases increase prices to the consumer substantially. The committee therefore outlines a scheme for the co-operation of individual industries in two or more Empire countries with a view to the division of the market in such a way that a less developed local industry should supply simpler or standard articles and the more highly developed industry overseas specialized commodities of the same kind. Standard boots and shoes, or textile goods, for example, might be manufactured locally, and those of better quality, or of some specialized type, imported from overseas, preSumably from Great Britain. The agreement might, it is suggested, be reinforced (though there seems no great need for this) by a tariff on the standard article, the more elaborate, which the local manufacturer had agreed not to produce, being left exempt. The arrangement would need revision from time to time as the newer country developed its industrial capacity and manufacturers would, of course, have to organize themselves to enable agreements to be made covering the industry as a whole. There is very definitely a constructive idea here which ought to be followed up. The cotton delegation that left Lancashire for Ottawa on Tuesday might make the first attempt.
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