Evening star., 1933-10-05
Foreign Trade.

! 1t IS a timely reminder tnat emanateS
| from The Chamber of Commerce of the
United States on the subject of foreign
| trade. The national business organiza-
tion tages that amid the vast activities
of the National Recovery Administra-
ton for promotion of domestic COM
merce and industry sight should not
be lost of the enduring importance of
| the foreign market to the producers
of America. The directors of the
United States Chamber point out that
N r. A. developments must soon
bring into prominence the extent to
which major sections of our national
economy are dependent for prosperity
upon the overseas markets, and the
advisability of recognizing In recovery
codes the importance of all proper steps
to encourage our commerce abroad"
Holding these views, the national
chamber calls upon the Government
to lay as definite plans for recovery
in foreign trade as N. r. A. and CO.
related emergency agencies are pur-
suing in the field of domestic rehabili-
tation. The chamber condemns as
impractical and undesirable any ap-
proach to national -suffciency
which aims at voluntary abandonment.
of our foreign commerce"
This is an indubitably sound posi-
ton While in boom days American
foreign trade represented roundly not
much more than ten per cent Of our
industrial and agricultural business, it
was sufficient to account. in many
trades, for the difference between profit
and loss. The vast expansion in both
our factory and farm production, which
set in with the postwar era, made It
more incumbent than ever upon Amer
lean farmers and manufacturers to
seek an outlet for their surplus wares
overseas About the time depression
came along, four years ago, the bal
ance of foreign trade was substantially
in our favor, aggregating well above a
billion dollars year in excess Of ex-
ports over imports. In the interme-
date period, of course, due to world
wide depression, Amer lean trace
abroad has shrunk to a mere shadow
of its once fat dimensions.
The Roosevelt administration has
given various indications of It's desire
to retrieve lost ground in the domain
OF foreign business. Its impending
negotiations with Latin America. as
we'll as several European countries,
looking to bi-lateral reciprocal tariff
treaties are an earnest OF Its
purpose in that direction. But, as
events at the nl-fated London Economic
Conference showed, it is not an easy
path that has to be trodden. Economic
nationalism is still the ruling passion
in most countries. The N. R. A. cam
paign has accentuated it here in the
United States-to a degree that evokes
the present petition of the Chamber OF
Commerce for wider trade vision on
the Governments part.
There is a school of thought both
here and abroad which holds that the
best flip to restoration of Americas
foreign trade would be readjustment
of the war debt structure by the United
States. Washington is about to rever-
berate with that view, now that nego-
tiations regarding the British debt are
about to be renewed at the Treasury.
Great Britain is already formally on
record to the effect that drastic re-
vision of the $11 200, 100000 war debt
item Uncle Sam holds to the debit OF
Europe would create situation advan-
tageous alike to creditor and debtor
| nations.
Undoubtedly debts and tariffs, with
respect to both of which Congress has
the last word, are inextricably linked
with foreign trade, and it behooves the
country and all members of Congress
to examine the three questions in their
correlated entirety.