Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1938, Blaðsíða 48

4°
LE NORD
Geneva Convention of March 24th, 1930, had proved impractic-
able, the Oslo Convention was of great moral importance as an
omen of peaceful tendencies. No doubt, it also created between
the signatory nations an atmosphere of good-will that was of
great value to all of them and really made them stand out
as a particular group for pacific co-operation in every field of
international life. To the rest of the world they demonstrated
the feasibility of replacing self-seeking action by friendly discus-
sion in economic intercourse.
The practical gains to the individual members of the group
by virtue of the Oslo Convention are not easy to demonstrate,
for the reason that modifications in tariff policies resulting from
confidential negotiations are generally not made public. Con-
sequently I can give only few instances, mostly taken from Nor-
wegian practice, of positive effects of protest against the raising
of tariffs. In 1932 the Norwegian Government agreed to retire
their proposals for augmenting the duties on some less important
articles of Swedish industry, and the next year, in consideration
of Swedish, Finnish and Danish objections, an augmentation of
duties already adopted by the Storting as to earthenware was
not put into effect, while, at the same time, as a consequence of
objections from Belgium and the Netherlands, the same attitude
was adopted with regard to duty on rubber tires. On the other
hand, in the year 1934, the objections submitted by the govern-
ments of Finland, Norway and Sweden persuaded Belgium to
drop a plan to increase the customs duties on certain qualities
of paper and cardboard. In 1935, when Norway planned to
raise the duty on rubber-soled shoes and Sweden had the same
intention as to furs, they both, after mutual communication,
decided to leave the tariff unchanged for these commodities.
Finally, in 1937, on remonstration from Belgium, the Norwegian
Government retired a proposal for raising the duty on celery.
Certainly, the archives of the different governments contain more
examples of analogous concessions, and no doubt the Oslo Con-
vention has contributed effectively towards stabilizing the cus-
toms tariffs of all countries within the group.
When to-day we look back at the origin of the Oslo Conven-
tion, it seems obvious that the convention was elaborated at a
time that could not but be very unpropitious as to its practical
effects. In the year 1930 the great economic crisis was already
making itself felt ever more severely all over the world, and the