CHAP. V] TREATY RELATIONS 1153
ridiculous in the pursuit of such a policy to refuse to avail
herself of the markets of the great nation lying alongside ?
The expressed fear that it will seriously affect imports from
Great Britain is groundless; the greater part of the agreement
 deals with natural products which Great Britain does
not send us. The range of manufactures affected is comparatively
 small, and in most cases the reductions are small.
It appears to be assumed in some quarters that the tariff
rates agreed upon discriminate in favour of the United
States and against Great Britain. There is no foundation
for this. In every case Great Britain will still have the
same rate, or a lower one. Canada’s right to deal with the
British preference as she pleases remains untouched by the
agreement. The adoption of the agreement will probably
lead to some further revision of the Canadian Tariff in which
the Canadian Parliament will be entirely free to fix the
British Preferential Tariff at any rates that may be deemed
proper.

In view of the conclusion of the reciprocity arrangement the
Canadian Government decided! at the Imperial Conference
to press for the exemption of Canada from the operation of
the old treaties with Argentina, Austria-Hungary, Bolivia,
Colombia, Denmark, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,
 and Venezuela, which contain most-favoured-nation
clauses, and are binding on Canada. It may at once be admitted
 that the presence of these clauses is vexatious and
annoying, but the denunciation is a serious matter unless it
can be arranged for without involving the denunciation of the
treaties generally. The proposal goes far beyond the denunciation
 of the Belgian and German treaties, for these treaties
forbad a preference to Great Britain by the Colonies, and were
an accidental and unreasoning restriction on the internal
freedom of the Empire, which might properly be removed
from the Empire as a whole by the denunciation of the
treaties. To denounce these older treaties merely to free
Canada would be a very different step.
In these negotiations the Canadian ministers were to all
intents and purposes neither less not more than plenipoten-~

See Parl. Pap., Cd. 5745, pp. 333-9 ; below, Part VIII, chap. iii.