Canada at War: EXTERNAL AFFAIRS: Creditor Canada

Canada last week stepped up front as one of the world’s creditor nations. She invited overseas customers to step up and place their postwar orders. Parliament quickly approved a bill to provide $300,000,000 in cash or credit to finance foreign purchases of Canadian goods, another $50,000,000 to insure exporters against foreign-trade risks. This was as if the U.S. Congress had appropriated $5 billion in credits for U.S. overseas customers.

The purpose of the Canadian bill was to keep Canadian trade moving in the next three years when economic dislocation is likely to be greatest. Canada’s war-booming industries, her own version of Lend-Lease ($800,000,000-a-year Mutual Aid program) have swelled Canadian exports to third among the world’s trading nations. But four-fifths of this trade is in war supplies. War Creditor Canada has a heavy stake in remaining a peacetime exporter and a world trader.

Thus Canada figures it is enlightened self-interest to be among the first to subscribe heavily to UNRRA, to commit herself at the Bretton Woods conference to a $625,000,000 contribution to the International Stabilization Fund and Reconstruction Bank. The new bill provides the incentive for Canadian traders to seek new business where demand is likely to be heavy, even if immediate capacity to pay is limited. If a deal is too big for private business to handle, Creditor Canada stands ready to provide the credit for countries which want and need Canadian goods.

First in the line already forming at Ottawa for these postwar credits is the Soviet Union, whose record as a commercial risk is excellent. Russia has already reportedly left specifications for postwar orders with Canadian manufacturers (TIME, June 5).