South Africa, imperial preference and Ottawa: 1925-1932

Abstract

The imperial economic conference held in Ottawa in July – August 1932 was not a successful exercise in imperial economic cooperation. Instead it produced a series of bilateral trade agreements mainly between the United Kingdom and each of the dominions in turn. On the British side Ottawa was seen as confirming the move from free trade to protection that was made through the Import Duties Act of February 1932. Ottawa was also seen as a move toward greater reliance on imperial preference. But these policy shifts were hardly decisive. In terms of a recent judgment the protection was ‘distinctly mild’ and the imperial preference ‘very diluted’(1). Since imperial economic cooperation was the main policy plank of Britain's coalition 'National' government, it was the United Kingdom delegation (which included half the cabinet) that had to make most of the concessions during the Ottawa negotiations.