British traders at fust were inclined to argue that since Britain bought from the United States more than 2% times what this country bought from her, the United States should make the major concessions.
American negotiators, however, had at hand a balance sheet showing that inclusion of the colonies and dominions and so-called invisible items, such as shipping and freight rates, tourist expenditures, immigrant remittances, insurance, interest and divid ends, resulted in a practically even balance and that, if U.S. imports of gold from South Africa were included, the balance was some $414,000,000 (£82,800,000) in favour of the British Commonwealth.
With the forthcoming conclusion of the British agreement, the United States will have more than half of its foreign trade covered by such treaties.—Reuter,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.