London, Mar. 19, Two agreements with Italy, coming into force on March 28, were signed yesterday at the Foreign Office by Viscount Halifax, the Foreign Secretary, One was a Clearing Agreement amending the Clearing Agreement of 1936, while the other was a new Commercial Agreement replacing the Commercial Agreement of the same date, The agreements are the result of negotiations quietly proceeding for six weeks and it is expected they will have favourable reaction on the current political talks in Rome between Great Britain and Italy, Negotiations for these trade agreements were opened because the arrears of trade debts outstanding when the 1936 agreements were completed, had now been practically all settled. "It was necessary, therefore, to re-allocate the 27 per cent. of sterling receipts collected by the Anglo-italian Clearing Effie, which previously were ear-marked for the liquidation of old debts, and to establish revised quotas for United Kingdom exports to Italy—Reuter,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.