Evening star., 1933-02-24
Reciprocal Tariffs.

1t is an interesting circumstance that
on almost the same day on which Presi-
dent-elect Roosevelt announced the ap-
pointment of Senator Cordell Hull as
his Secretary of State Prime Minister
Bennett of Canada signaled the Domin-
ions readiness for a reciprocal tariff
arrangement with the United States
That announcement at Ottawa has the
elements of coincidence because the
main reason for the selection of Senator
Hull for the State Department portfolio
is understood to lie in the fact that he
is the country's foremost authority on
tariffs, and the further fact that the
negotiation of reciprocal treaties is to be
one of the key features of the Roosevelt
foreign policy.
No better augury for the eventual
success of such program could be
imagined than this overture from our
largest customer. Canada has been hard
hit by the effects of the Hawley-Smoot
tariff. The present Bennett govern
ment won Office two years ago chiefly
on platform of tariff reprisals against
the United States. Since 1929, between
the depression and Canada's retaliatory
tariff rates, American foreign trade with
the Dominion, normally worth billion
dollars a year, has slumped to $780,
00O, 1000, a sum which outweighs the
value of our entire wheat crop.
MIR. Bennett declared in the Cana
dian House of Commons last Monday
that the Dominion earnestly desires
a reciprocal tariff treaty with this
country. The prime minister rejected
a proposal to start negotiations to that
end Immediately, rightly holding them
to be premature, but he revealed an
eager willingness to hear from President
Roosevelt on the subject after March
4. Prime Minister BENEFITS statement
was less than twenty-four hours old
before the accomplished Canadian min
lister at Washington, Col Herridge, was
in consultation with Gov. Roosevelt at
New York. That may have been mere
coincidence, too, but it was a fortuitous
one, and, it is to be hoped, of concrete
omen.
Between the cup of desire and the
lip Of accomplishment, in the field Of
tariff reciprocity-as Canadian Amer
ican ventures in 1t themselves attest
there is many slip. Under the best Of
conditions, reciprocal treaties are not
going to be easy to negotiate at time
when every country in the world, in
cluding our own, is jealousy guarding
its home market and has its being in
almost state Of nervous alarm at the
mere thought of facilitating the entry
Of more imports from abroad. Yet reci-
procity means taking down existing
bars, not putting up new ones, against
foreign trade.
Probably the most useful pastime in
which the American people can engage,
pending the hour when reciprocal tariff
treaties will be before them for con-
sideration and approval, is to educate
themselves in the virtues and true in
wardness Of reciprocity. 1t is give
and take system. 1t receives and be-
slows advantages. 1t is based on
the theory that a nation cannot
expect to sell abroad If it does
all Of its buying at home. Reciprocity
as a principle calls, above all, for
realization upon the part of the citizens
of the United States that they must
think nationally, and not sectionally,
just as the Government itself must do,
in dealing with other nations for tariff
treaties fair to all and unfair to none.