Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Food Supplies – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 5 Mai 1947.
Following is the statement:SIR HERBERT BROADLEY (U.K.): Mr. President, I am sorry to have to announce that the United Kingdom Delegation is unable to associate itself with this Wheat Agreement. With its general plan we are in complete agreement, and the United Kingdom Delegation took a substantial part in shaping it. In fact, in many ways we regard it as a model for future commodity arrangements. It preserves the opportunity for freedom of trade so that the price finds its own level, and, at the same time, it provides maximum and minimum wheat points, rather like gold points, so that the consumer is protected against too high prices, and the producer against too sudden and too deep a fall.It is the prices themselves, Mr. President, with which the United Kingdom Delegation are unable to agree. We regard certain of these prices as excessive. We do not admit that the present and future wheat prices quoted on particular markets are any indication of what should be a reasonable price for wheat, either now or in the coming years. At the same time, we agree that some of the low prices that ruled before the war were equally unjustifiable. What the United Kingdom seeks is a price which is fair to the producer and the consumer alike. The world must face much lower prices for wheat than those which rule at present, and we want to see those lower prices achieved in a manner which protects the producer against hardship, and enables such arrangements as are necessary for every form of Agriculture to be made without serious dislocation and disaster.But, having said that, and being prepared to recognise the system which contains these safeguards, 'the United Kingdom delegation must place on record its feeling that the price scheme proposed in the Agreement in Article VI does not enable the price to come down to a reasonable figure sufficiently quickly. The United Kingdom cannot afford to pay excessive prices for its imports, and the reduction of the cost of our imports is a corollary to the expansion of the volume of our exports.
