International Bid to Organize Post-war World Trade
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CR1T1CS in plenty there will surely be of the prodigious plan formulated by the World Trade Alliance Association for setting up an international organization for regulating the distribution of the main export pro
ducts of all countries. But, as the scheme has as its main objectives the solution of some of the world's greatest economic problems, and aims to ensure a satisfactory state of general employment, avoidance of want and poverty, and a steady uplifting of the standards of living, it should receive close analysis and impartial study by business men the world over, and, more particularly, by those in the chief producing countries.
It is acknowledged that the problems to be faced are manifold and that organized co-operation must not involve the shackling of private enterprise, but one wonders how the trade interests will react in widely separated parts of the world, where the mental make-up is as apart as the Poles, And, too, to bring the matter closer to our own particular interests, what is like:y to be the attitude of the motor industry, which, so far as this country is• concerned, has, in the past, been protected by tariff barriers? The answer of the World Trade Alliance Association is that these defensive measures were, in fact, restrictions on total t ade and employment, and that international agreements will enable trade to pro-..eed on lines that will not involve these restrictions, but create a maximum of' total employment and a future expansion. Maybe.
The plan was launched at a luncheon in London on Monday last, when industrialists and trade union leaders heard an explanation of its main provisions by Sir Edgar Jones, K.B,E., its author. We ourselves discussed a number of aspects of the organization with Sir Edgar. whose belief in the ability of the schem`e to solve some of the biggest problems of the day is backed by a sincere conviction.