For six months, 1,000 experts from 34 countries met in Torquay, British seaside resort, in an attempt to increase world trade by lowering national tariff barriers. Last week, as they prepared to quit, 150 bilateral pacts to reduce tariffs were ready for signing.
But the British and Americans, often the closest partners at international conferences, had been unable to reach a tariff agreement. In spite of offers of substantial U.S. concessions, British Commonwealth nations refused to give up their imperial preference system. Under this system, formally established at the 1932 Ottawa Conference, goods moving within the empire pay lower duties...
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