Evening star., 1938-03-14
HULL HA|LSPACTS
ASHEAR|NCS OPEN
Answers House Members by
Opposing Any Delay in
British Trade Plan.
By BLAIR BOLLES.


the American reciprocal trade agree
ments program as a factor for peace
coincidental with the opening of hear
ings on the proposed agreement with
Great Britain, which is apprehensive
about war on the continent in the
wake of Adolf Hitler's Austrian coup.
England is BY far the most i'm
portant nation with which the United
States has yet dealt in the develop
ment Of the Hull program for easing
barriers to international commerce
through INSTRUMENTATION agree
ments.
I'VE should continue to 60 forward
with the program As vigorously Is
possible, on q broad, non bipartisan
basis, in the interest Of our prosperity
and Of world peace" Mr.. Hull stated
in an open letter to the Is New Eng
land Republican members OF the
House, who wrote him March Z jointly
asking that he defer the negotiation
of any further reciprocal trade agree
ment until the cost Of production Is
ascertained in the countries with
which negotiations are contemplated"
rs Members Wait Turn.
Twenty-six members OF Congress
waited their turn in the Department
Of Commerce auditorium to speak be-
fore the Committee for Reciprocity
Information, which digests the pros
and cons put by witnesses on the trade
agreements, and to urge that special
consideration be given q variety of
domestic manufactures. Representa-
tive Allen, Democrat, OF Pennsylvania,
the first on the list, spoke for the
tennis-ball industry. Four hundred
witnesses are expected altogether be-
fore the week is out.
Henry F. Grady, chairman of the
Tariff Commission and of the COM
mlttee, presided at the hearings,
which are the outgrowth of long in
formal conversations which led to
the announcement last November IT
that negotiation Of the agreement
would be undertaken with our biggest
international customer, the United
Kingdom. Exports to Britain from
the United States amounted to $40.
$4,000. or nearly 1s per cent of all our
exports. in 1895: $433, .399. 900 in 1895
and $848 100000 in 1929
A complete and permanent change
In our tariff-fixing policy would likely
follow from the successful completion
OF the British trade agreement, it is
said IN authoritative circles. Duty
fixing within defined limits by an ex-
pert committee probably would be-
come the set policy OF the Federal
Government, under the New Deal or
any other administration, rather
than by congressional tariff acts.
The congressional letter, which was
written the day before the agreement
with Czechoslovakia was promul-
gated as the seventeenth agreement
made under the Reciprocal Tariff Act
of 1884 and the resolution of 1887.
permitting reductions or increases of
30 per cent on the basis of the Smoot-
Hawley tariff, added:
There are so many articles to be
considered in the agreement with
Great Britain which will compete d.
rectly with our own manufactured
products it will be extremely unwise
to negotiate until production. costs
are available.
This matter is of such vital i'm
portance to the workers Of our section
OF the country, thousands of whom
are at the present time unemployed,
that we urge you most strongly to
accede to our request for . stay Of
negotiations
Hull Opposes Delay.
Withholding negotiations until the
cost Of production had been worked
out would mean a complete suspen-
sion, . virtual abandonment, of the
trade-agreements program" Mr.. Hull
said. He added:
From the standpoint both Of our
economic well-being and of peace,
suspension or abandonment Of the
trade-agreements program would be
the worst possible blunder. It would
be mistake, moreover, the staggering
costs of which would have to be
shared by New England III common
with the rest of the country.
1T is Of the utmost importance
that nothing be done ut this time