EU leaders back stronger trade defences amid Chinese export surge
France 24 →EU leaders agreed on Thursday to strengthen trade defences against a surge of Chinese exports that Brussels views as a threat to European industry, while maintaining 'constructive dialogue' with Beijing.
EUROPE WANTS TARIFF PACT
![The Washington times. (Washington [D.C.]), August 4, 1927 — front page](/img/service:ndnp:dlc:batch_dlc_pakula_ver02:data:sn84026749:00222254437:1927080401:0186)
PARIS, Aug. 81—Reduction of armaments will be one of the main topics of discussion at the twenty-fourth conference of the Interparliamentary Union to be held here from August 18 to 30. The creation of an European tariff entente, the world fight against drugs and methods of codification of international law are other items on the agenda. Sessions of the conference will be held in the Palais du Luxembourg, assembly hall of the French Senate under the presidency of Paul Doumer, president of the Senate. At least 400 parliamentarians from more than 50 countries are expected to attend. This will be the third time since the union was founded in Paris in 1883 that the conference has met in Paris. The last conference was held in Washington in 1925.
Original Newspaper Page
![The Washington times. (Washington [D.C.]), August 4, 1927 — front page](https://tile.loc.gov/image-services/iiif/service:ndnp:dlc:batch_dlc_pakula_ver02:data:sn84026749:00222254437:1927080401:0186/full/full/0/default.jpg)
Enlarge → What Happened Next
Aristide Briand
As foreign minister Briand formulated an original proposal for a new economic union of Europe. Briand made his proposals in a speech in favor of a European Union in the League of Nations on 5 September 1929, and in 1930, in his 'Memorandum on the Organization of a Regime of European Federal Union' for the Government of France. The idea was to provide a framework to contain France's former enemy while preserving as much of the 1919 Versailles settlement as possible.
Wikipedia →Wall Street crash of 1929
The stock market crash of October 1929 led directly to the Great Depression in Europe. The effects of the disruption to the global system of financing, trade, and production and the subsequent meltdown of the American economy were soon felt throughout Europe.
Wikipedia →Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act
The Tariff Act of 1930, also known as the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act, was a protectionist trade measure signed into law in the United States by President Herbert Hoover on June 17, 1930, raising tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods. In 1927, the League of Nations held a World Economic Conference in Geneva. Their final report concluded that 'the time has come to put an end to tariffs, and to move in the opposite direction.'
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