Hon. DOUGLAS ABBOTT (Acting Minister of Finance):

I should like to make a brief announcement concerning the sugar ration. Although world sugar supplies remain below requirements, the worst appears to be over and a gradual improvement in the future is to be expected. The improvement to date has made it possible for the wartime prices and trade board to make an increase in rations to household consumers of three pounds of sugar per person during the remainder of the year, effective in September and November, and to increase quotas to industrial users and public caterers of all kinds by a roughly proportionate amount.

Trade Agreements

Mr. GRAYDON:

They are entirely different trade treaties, and because of that we might make just as much progress by dealing with them separately. I have no definite views on the matter, but perhaps the minister would indicate his reasons for suggesting that they both be dealt with at the same time.

Mr. ST. LAURENT: My particular reason is that in 1942 there were three motions of the same kind which were dealt with at the same time; but if there is the slightest objection I do not mind going on with the first one and then dealing by reference with the other motion.

Mr. GRAYDON:

So far as I am concerned I have no objection to going on with the two of them at the same time if it will expedite the matter.

Mr. CHURCH:

Will the agreements be followed by a treaty?

Mr. MacINNIS:

Is it customary to debate notices of motion? As I understand it, this is merely notice, and that it will go to the appropriate section of the order paper and then come up in due course. I did not think if is customary to debate resolutions which appear as notices of motion.

Mr. ST. LAURENT: The hon. member is suggesting that motions should not be dealt with at this time? I know of no such rule. The standing orders provide a special place for government notices of motion, and the requirement is that there be forty-eight hours' notice. The notice was put in the Votes and Proceedings of last Friday, and I mentioned it last evening as a matter to be taken up this morning. I do not want to thwart the wishes

of any of the hon. members, but it had been felt that these motions could be dealt with to-day.

Mr. MacINNIS:

I am not opposing it. Perhaps the procedure in regard to notices of this kind is different from the procedure on a notice preceding a bill.

Mr. ST. LAURENT: Yes.

Mr. GRAYDON:

Money resolutions.

Mr. ST. LAURENT: I take it, then, I have the unanimous consent of the house to have both resolutions considered at the same time, so that they both may be dealt with in the same remarks.

Although these trade agreements are negotiated and signed by the Minister of Trade and Commerce, I understand that it has been the practice of the Secretary of State for External Affairs to move in the house the resolutions for approval of such agreements. In 1942 the Prime Minister explained that that practice had been adopted because the formalities for ratification and notification to the other contracting parties were handled through the Department of External Affairs.

These agreements are of the nature of agreements affording most favoured nation treatment between the countries which enter into them. They are similar to other trade agreements of which there have been several in recent years; as a matter of fact there were seven from 1937 to 1942. In 1937 there was a similar agreement between Canada and Uruguay, which was approved at the session of 1937. In 1938 two were approved, one with Guatemala and the other with Haiti. In 1940 the house gave approval to a similar agreement between Canada and the Dominican republic, and in 1942 the house approved of three similar agreements entered into between Canada and Chile, Canada and Brazil, and Canada and Argentina.

The two agreements now before the house are one more indication of the growing spirit of cordiality between Canada and the Latin republics. They will serve to strengthen the bonds of friendship which unite Canada and the two countries, and to facilitate further and to develop the commercial relations already existing, on a mutually profitable basis. Both trade agreements provide in general for most favoured nation treatment, and are similar to the trade agreements with the other Latin American nations. The trade agreement with Mexico was signed on February 8, at Mexico City and came into provisional effect on the same day. The trade agreement with Colombia was signed at Bogota on February 20 and will come into effect thirty days after the exchange

Trade Agreements

of ratifications. Both agreements are to remain in force for a period of two years, and to continue thereafter subject to termination on six months' notice. The trade agreement with Mexico provides for the exchange of most favoured nation treatment between the two countries in matters concerning duties and subsidiary charges, as -well as in respect of rules and formalities connected with importation and of laws and regulations affecting the taxation, sale, distribution or use of imported goods. This means in a general way that the products of each country, on importation into the other, will not be subject to customs duties or other charges greater than those applicable to similar imports from a third country. Similarly any reductions which either Canada or Mexico may grant in future to a third country will automatically be extended to the other. Thus imports into Canada from Mexico will in future, instead of being subject to the general tariff as heretofore, be . accorded the intermediate tariff, and any lower rates than the intermediate tariff granted by Canada to other foreign countries, with the exception of course of the imperial preferences. There is a special reservation in both treaties providing that arrangements between Canada and other dominions or colonies subject to the British crown are not affected. The tariff treatment now granted by Canada to other British countries is expressly excluded from the operation of the agreement.

No immediate reduction in customs duties is made by Mexico for goods of Canadian origin, as it has been Mexican policy not to limit the application of conventional duties to countries with which she has trade agreements. In other words, Mexico has a single column of duties applicable equally to imports from all countries, and any tariff reductions she has made in favour of a particular country, as for example those contained in the Mexico-United States trade agreement concluded- in 1942, already in practice have been extended to Canada.

An important provision of the agreement is that quantitative restrictions which may be imposed upon imports into either country from the other are subject to consultation. The agreement provides also that if either country sets up government agencies with exclusive privileges for exportation or importation of goods, such agencies will be influenced solely by consideration of price, quality, transportation and terms of purchase or sale which would ordinarily be taken into account by a private commercial enterprise.

Subject to certain specified exceptions, the new agreement provides that imports into either country from the other will be exempt from all internal taxes, fees, or charges other or higher than those payable on articles of national origin within the taxing country or of any other foreign origin. That is, there is to be no tax discrimination in this country on goods imported from Mexico, and vice versa. This provision will result in a reduction in the Mexican registration fees established by the Mexican department of health. Hitherto the fee for registration of packaged food products and beverages has been 50 pesos per product, and for pharmaceutical specialties and toilet preparations, 200 pesos per product, when imported from any country except the United States. That special charge is eliminated by virtue of this most favoured nation agreement. The fee for goods of both these categories of Mexican domestic origin or when imported from the United States is 20 pesos per product, and will now be the same for like products imported into Mexico from Canada. Under the new agreement, Canadian goods of these classes will also be entitled to the lower fee when submitted for registration in Mexico.

The trade agreement also provides that each country will grant the other an opportunity for consultation if either adopts any measure which is considered by the government of the other country as tending to nullify or impair any of the objects of the agreement. The operation of customs regulations, control of foreign exchange, quantitative restrictions and their administration, the observance of customs formalities and the application of sanitary laws and regulations all come within the scope of this provision of the agreement. If a satisfactory adjustment is not arrived at after consultation, the agreement may be terminated in whole or in part upon giving thirty days' notice.

The trade agreement, which is the first ever concluded between Canada and Mexico, came into force provisionally on February 8, the date of its signature. The provisional application may be terminated on three months' notice by either party. Thirty days after exchange of the instruments of ratification at Ottawa the trade agreement is to go into force definitely for two years. Its duration is automatically continued thereafter for one year periods, subject to termination on six months' notice by either party to the agreement.

It may perhaps be of some interest to hon. members to have an indication of the volume of trade between Canada and Mexico in recent years. For instance, in 1940 Canadian exports to Mexico amounted to $4,328,406 and our imports were only $733,797.

Trade Agreements

Mr. BROOKS:

Could the minister give us

any idea what the chief exports were from Canada to Mexico?

Mr. ST. LAURENT: Yes. I shall give

the amounts and then give the hon. member an indication of what the principal exports were. In 1942 our exports were $5,583,644 and our imports had risen to $4,970,432. In 1945 our exports totalled $8,165,058 and our imports $13,508,164. In the first six months of 1946 our exports were $4,718,662 and our imports $9,491,005. I have a tabulation showing our exports to Mexico and our imports from that country for 1945:

Canada's Trade with Mexico Calendar Year-1945

Principal Exports to Mexico

Total Exports $ 8,165,058

Principal Items:

Newsprint 924,141

Soda and sodium compounds 531,614

Wood pulp sulphite bleached and

unbleached 551,816

Copper wire insulated 359,944

Asbestos milled fibres 315,661

Bars of iron or steel 313,367

Upper leather 299,540

Cattle, pure bred 267,115

Fox skins, black and silver 258,192

Electrical apparatus 241,205

Films, photographic and cinema... 217,944

Machinery and parts 209,740

Materials for ship repairs 208,728

Pens, pencils and parts 184,919

Whisky 180,936

Felt manufactures 156,774

Wheat 118.277

Ferro alloys 104,148

Coal, tar and pitch 103,140

Cotton fabrics, n.o.p 100,471

Nickel fine 100,863

Principal Imports from Mexico Total Imports $13,508,165

Principal Items:

Sisal, istle and Tampico fibre.... 4,526,620

Raw cotton 2,524.943

Tomatoes fresh 2,020,889

Peanuts shelled green or not 1,412,851

Bananas fresh 823,311

Rubber crude caoutchouc 299,325

Glucose or grape sugar 264,488

Boots and shoes, women's leather. . 177,902

Wax, vegetable and mineral n.o.p. 135,244 Fluorspar 127,482

The trade agreement with Colombia is similar in substance to the Mexican agreement. It is also the first agreement concluded between the two countries directly. Previously Canada's commercial relations with Colombia had been treated as being governed by a treaty between that country and the United Kingdom, which was looked upon as extending to Canada. This is the first direct treaty between Canada and Colombia.

Mr. BROOKS:

What were the exports of

potatoes and fish to those two countries? These exports affect the maritime provinces.

Mr. ST. LAURENT: I have placed upon Hansard in respect of Mexico, and shall in respect of Colombia, the tabulations obtained from the Department of Trade and Commerce. Apparently in 1945 the exports of either item did not amount to as much as $250,000. The table showing Canada's trade with Colombia for the calendar year 1945 is as follows:

Canada's Trade with Colombia Calendar Year

>1945

Principal Exports to Colombia

Total Exports $ 5,010,701

Principal Items:

Wheat 771,761

Wrapping paper kraft 335,666

Newsprint paper 290,453

Copper and brass manufactures.... 268.730

Flour of wheat 240,112

Asbestos and manufactures 231,942

Machinery and parts 221.374

Oatmeal and rolled oats 153,241

Upper leather 149,469

Wood pulp sulphite bleached 149,431

Nails, brads, spikes, iron 140,960

Pipe and tubing and fittings of iron 184,112 Medicinal preparations 101,168

Principal Imports from Colombia

Total Imports $11,678,076

Principal Items:

Crude petroleum for refining 7,662,531

Coffee green, imported direct.... 3,586,755

Bananas, fresh 194,346

Casinghead gasoline, blending.... 179,725

It is apparent that our trade with these Latin countries of America is expanding. I must say it was gratifying to me, as I am sure it must have been to other hon.. members who were a-t San Francisco-, to note how cordial all the representatives of these Latin republics were to the Canadian delegation. Innumerable statements were made to us, statements which were. pleasing and some most gratifying, respecting the possibilities of increasing trade with them. I remember asking one gentleman what it was that seemed to stimulate that desire to trade with us. His reply was, "Well, you know, we buy on sample from you, -and when we receive delivery of the goods, those goods are equail to the samples." I thought that was a most satisfactory feeling to have exist among our customers, and I am pleased to have this opportunity to pay tribute to the Canadian business men who have made for Canada that reputation. I am sure, Mr. Speaker, that on your several visits to those parts you have found- a similar desire to improve trade relations between our country and theirs.

World Health Organization

I hope these trade agreements will 'be the forerunner of the objects for which the international trade conference is being convened at some early day, and- that these trade agreements and the goo-d will which grows from them will not only serve the financial interests of those who engage in them, but will lay the foundation for that better understanding among men which can be the only real foundation of peace and security.

Mr. G. K. FRASER (Peterborough West):

Mr. Speaker, I believe these two agreements have helped Canada considerably. As the minister said, they have been in operation for some time, -and have worked1 out satisfactorily. They constitute a step in the right direction, because Canada has lost some of her European market, with the result that we must look to other countries for the sale of our products, to keep the wheels of industry turning.

Checking the two agreements reveals that the wording is about the same in each. I can see no objection to their being accepted.

Mr. Mc-IVOR: This is a tribute to our steady, thorough and progressive Minister of Trade and Commerce-

Mr. BLACKMORE:

Would it be possible to have a copy of the document?

Mr. ST. LAURENT: The constitution was published as an appendix to Votes and Proceedings of July 24.

The steps leading up to the signature of the constitution of the world health organization in New York on July 22 were initiated, at the united nations conference at San Francisco when the word "health" was inserted in the charter upon the proposal of the delegation from Brazil. Following this action the states represented on the appropriate committee unanimously approved the following declara-

tion of Brazil and China, on the calling of an international conference for the purpose of establishing an international health organization.

The resolution thus unanimously approved was in the following terms:

The. delegations of Brazil and China recommend that a general conference be convened within the next few months for the purpose of establishing an international health organization.

They intend to consult further with the representatives of other delegations with a view to the early convening of such a general conference to which each of the governments here represented will be invited to send representatives.

They recommend that in the preparation of a plan for the international health organization full consideration be given to the relationship of such an organization, and methods of associating it with -other institutions, national as well as international, which already exist or which may hereafter be established in the field of health.

They recommend that the proposed international health organization be brought into relationship with the economic and social council.

Although the governments of Brazil and China followed up the declaration by suggesting that a conference be held before the end of 1945, the resolution relating to this proposal was not adopted by the economic and social council until February 15, 1946. In accordance with the terms of paragraph 3 of this resolution, the economic and social council established the technical preparatory committee and directed that it should meet in Paris not later than March 15, 1946, to prepare a draft annotated agenda and proposals for the consideration of the conference to be held not later than June 20, 1946.

At this point it might be useful to note what the Secretary of State (Mr. Martin) said at the economic and social council of June 29, 1946. These were the words he used:

In the establishment of the economic and social council, in the setting up of its commissions, in the negotiation of relationships with the special purpose, agencies established by intergovernmental agreement, we are opening up a new chapter in the long struggle of mankind to master his environment, to the end that the material and economic resources of the world are used for the enrichment and not the destruction of humanity. Our task is not an easy one. We shall have to overcome not only the internal forces in various countries which resist change, but also the skepticism that we shall encounter in many parts of the world regarding the possibility of sucess in a cooperative effort of this sort.

I may say that these views, expressed thus by our Secretary of State at the international meeting, ap'peared to meet wit-h the unanimous approval of those to whom they were addressed.

World Health Organization

At the international health conference which met at the Henry Hudson hotel in New York city on June 19, 1946, the rapporteur of the technical preparatory committee, Major General G. B. Chisholm, presented a report which included proposals for the constitution of the world health organization. These proposals had been carefully worked out in Paris by this technical preparatory committee of experts, and they proved to be most useful documents.

The constitution of the world health organization will be found on page 9 of the addendum to the Votes and Proceedings of July 24.

Hon. .members will note in chapter 3 of the constitution that membership in the organization is open to all states. Conditions of admission, however, are governed by articles 4, 5 and 6 of the constitution. Fifty-one united nations attended the conference, and in addition the governments of Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Eire, Finland, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Portugal, Siam, Sweden, Switzerland and Transjordan were represented by observers. The governments of the following states had also been invited to send observers but were not represented. Afghanistan, Roumania, Yeman. The Allied control authorities in Germany, Japan and Korea were represented by observers but without the right to vote. So were ten other international organizations.

Hon. members will note that article 19 deals with the powers of the health assembly to adopt conventions or agreements with respect to any matter within the competence of the organization, and article 20 imposes the obligation upon member states to take action relative to the acceptance or rejection of conventions or agreements proposed by the health assembly within eighteen months after the adoption of a convention or agreement.

A member is not bound to acquiesce in the convention or agreement, but if he does not accept the convention within the time limit he is required to furnish a statement of his reasons for non-acceptance to the director-general.

Article 21 gives the health assembly the authority to adopt regulations concerning five matters. It is stipulated in article 22 that such regulations shall come into force for all members after due notice has been given of their adoption by the health assembly, except for such members as may notify the director-general of ratification or reservation within the period stated in the notice.

With respect to article 21, A, B, D, and E, these refer to matters which were dealt with before by international agreement and sanitary conventions and by national legislation 63260-274

such as our food and drugs act. "A" refers to sanitary and quarantine requirements and other provisions designed to prevent the international spread of disease. "B" contains the nomenclatures with respect to diseases, causes of death and public health practices so that statistics supplied by the nations, members of the organization, may be comparable. "C" relates to standards with respect to diagnostic procedures for international use, and is perhaps more of professional and scientific than of general interest. "D" relates to standards with respect to the safety, purity and potency of biological, pharmaceutical and similar products moving in international commerce, and of course it is very important for the health of the world that such biological and pharmaceutical products which are distributed internationally be of standard quality and purity. "E" deals with advertising and labelling of biological, pharmaceutical and similar products moving in international commerce.

With respect to article 21C, that is to say, standards for diagnostic procedures for international use, this is a new departure, but it is felt that it can be beneficial to world understanding. From the Canadian viewpoint we have high standards of requirements for the safety and potency of pharmaceutical and biological products. The adoption of standards of requirements concerning them will not adversely affect us. If in the future some regulation should prove unacceptable to the government of Canada, the government can at any time contract out by giving notice, within eighteen months, of its desire to do so and of its reasons for so doing. It is felt that this will be one of the useful agencies of the international organization, and it is in line with the general purposes and aims of us all to strive for peace among men by making men realize what help they can receive from each other and to what extent it is beneficial to them all to be dependent upon one another.

Mr. W. G. BLAIR (Lanark):

The constitution of the international health conference, which has been placed before the house by the Acting Prime Minister (Mr. St. Laurent), is one of the most important documents that have ever been considered by the Canadian Parliament. If the nations of the world agree to establish a world health organization, then there is every hope for agreement in other matters.

The constitution, objective and functions as described in chapter I comprise a momentous decision on the part of the nations of the world. Never before in the history of the world have all the nations mutually agreed on a common plan for the betterment of the