Present position as regards convertibility
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- This Resolution was
adopted by the Assembly at Its tenth Sitting, 13th May, 1953 (see Doc. 134, Report of
the Committee on Economic Questions).
- Thesaurus
The Assembly,
Reaffirming its conviction that the international division
of labour must be intensified and the standard of living of all
peoples raised by the extension of a multilateral system of trade
and payments over the widest possible area,
1. Welcomes the initiative taken by the Government of
the United Kingdom for a resolute advance towards a wider and freer
system of international trade;
2. Emphasises that the convertibility of currencies must never
be achieved at the price of restrictions on trade;
3. Urges that measures designed to restore convertibility of
a European currency should not be taken unilaterally but that, since
they might create difficulties for the O.E.E.C. liberalisation system,
the E.P.U. and the Common Market of the European Coal and Steel
Community, they should be adopted only after consultation with all
the parties concerned;
4. Believes that the first steps towards the extension of the
trade and payments system should be taken along lines which will
not jeopardise European integration, such as :
i the further development of the liberalisation programme
of OEEC.;
ii the inclusion of all countries of the EPU area in the
OEEC liberalisation system;
iii a re-examination of the system of settling EPU surpluses
and deficits with the ultimate achievement of convertibility in
view;
iv the re-establishment of European commodity markets in
which EPU countries can buy commodities from the cheapest sources
of supply;
5. Emphasises that convertibility cannot by itself bring about
a solution of the European dollar problem, which is largely structural
in character, and cannot therefore be finally solved except by structural
adjustments in the pattern of production and trade in which both
debtor and creditor nations have their part to play;
6. Expresses its appreciation of the basic contribution already
made by the United States in the form of aid but emphasises that
their future contribution should now increasingly be made by lowering
their tariffs and further simplifying their customs procedure, by
encouraging the submission of tenders by non-American firms for
private and Government contracts and by increasing public and stimulating
private American investment overseas;
7. Welcomes the recent Initiative taken by the Economic Commission
for Europe in re-opening discussion of the problem of increasing
trade with the countries of Eastern Europe and stresses the importance
of overcoming political obstacles to trade in non-strategic materials
in Asia no less than in Europe;
8. Re-emphasises its conviction that the countries of Europe
and the overseas countries associated with them must make greater
common efforts along the lines suggested in the "Strasbourg Plan."
