§ Mr. Prescottasked the President of the Board of Trade what recent representations to the United States Government have been made for the substantial reduction of its Custom tariff, with a view to the furtherance of freer multilateral trade.
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Mr. H. WilsonMultilateral negotiations for the reduction of tariffs will take place, under the aegis of the contracting parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, between a number of countries, including the United Kingdom and United States, at Torquay this autumn. In that connection and in accordance with the agreed procedure, we submitted to the United States Government on 15th June a list of requests for reductions in their tariff. No other representations of a more general character have been made recently. The hon. Member will, however, no doubt recall the statement by the United States Government in the joint communique issued at the end of the Tripartite discussions in Washington last September, that they would reduce obstacles to the entry of goods and services from debtor countries and that high tariffs were clearly inconsistent with the position of creditor countries.