Statement issued by the Government Information Bureau on the conclusion of a trade agreement with Germany

The following statement was issued today by the Government Information Bureau.

Following negotiations in Dublin between representatives of the Irish and German Governments, the Trade Agreement with Germany signed in January, 1935, and extended by further agreements signed in April, 1936, and December, 1936, has been prolonged for a further period of 12 months as from the 1st January, 1939, by Notes exchanged today between the Minister for External Affairs and the German Minister in Dublin.

Arrangements have been made for the export to Germany in 1939 of cattle, eggs, meat products, and herrings in prescribed proportions. The German Government are free to purchase other Irish products, including butter and horses, in such quantities as they may require from time to time. The new Agreement provides that as from the 1st January next agricultural products will be purchased by Germany in the open market here, thus obviating the necessity for special price arrangements between the Governments and eliminating any risk of loss to the Irish Government.

As from the 1st January, 1939, the agreed ratio will apply to the trade exchanges between Éire and the German Reich, including the former Federal State of Austria and the territories ceded to Germany by Czechoslovakia. The existing arrangement under which German goods imported into Éire must be accompanied by a Certificate of Origin in the prescribed form made out in the duplicate will apply as from the 1st January 1939 to all goods originating in the German Reich including the territories referred to.

The following tables indicate the exchange of trade between Éire and the territories concerned in recent years, according to Irish official statistics:

It is impossible to make any reliable estimate as to what proportion of Czechoslovakian external trade is attributable to the ceded territory.