164 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.

between the largest Canadian and United States asbestos corporations.
 Another international deal is typified by the consolidation in
1911 of the Michigan-Pacific Lumber Cos. with the Michigan-Puget
Sound Lumber Co., with large interests in British Columbia, brought
about at a meeting of the timber interests on the Pacific coast. Deere
&amp; Co., implement manufacturers, some years ago took in a Canadian
company at Welland, Ontario. The International Milling Co.,
Moosejaw, Saskatchewan, has affiliations in the United States and
is also connected with the Canadian Cereal &amp; Milling Co. The
Sherwin-Williams Paint Co. is also an international amalgamation
which combines Canadian, British, and -American concerns. Canadian
 Explosives (Ltd.) 1. a merger which includes, it is said, not only
different Canadian plants, hut 1s affiliated with the Dupont Powder
Co., of Delaware. and the Nobel Corporation, which owns several
mills in Europe.
In connection with the international aspect of trade combinations,
it has been pointed out that any lowering of the tariff to invite foreign
 competition with a combine that has been inflating its prices
becomes of no effect, if the combine is an international one and if
the firms which could readily compete are bound by agreement not
to do so. As one writer has said, with reference to these international
mergers, “ if carried to their full length they might in the end render
superfluous any national commercial policy.”
In considering the question of international trade combinations it
may be useful to note the opinion expressed in regard to the amalgamation
 of industrial interests in Canada and the United States by the
Monetary Times:

While it may be long hefore large international companies are arranged, the
trend of interested opinion does not seem to be antagonistic to such consolidations,
 Growth in this sentiment will have an important effect upon the commercial
 relations of the Dominion and the neighboring Republic. The fact that
companies here are interested in the sale of particular goods, and are at the
same time enjoying reciprocal relations with similar companies across the international
 boundary, will create or enlarge a market which it will repay those
concerned to maintain. Easily might a tremendous trade factor thus be constituted,
 and one which would operate to some extent against the growth of
trade with Great Britain, France, Germany, and other countries.
Combinations of buyers or consumers.—The combination of buyers
does not appear to have reached any great extent in Canada. Jat.
side of the Retail Merchants’ Association—a fairly strong organization,
 with branches throughout the country—and a number of small
cooperative enterprises. The movement is not regarded as important.
There are grain growers’ associations and farmers’ associations which
are becoming of considerable strength in Manitoba and the prairie
Provinces, but their purpose is more to secure better prices and markets
 for farm products, though no doubt these associations also exercise
 considerable influence in connection with the purchase of farm
implements and some other commodities by their members.
Competitive conditions.—Outside of certain industries advantageously
 situated in regard to raw materials, water power, and easy
shipping facilities there would not appear to be any special conditions
 in Canada which would make competition by similar industries
in the United States difficult or impossible—excepting, of course,
the tariff. There might, perhaps, in some districts be an advantage
in favor of Canada in the way of cheaper labor, notably in the