Imperial Preference

<p>Imperial Preference was a system of mutual <a href="/facts/Tariff/NCluKCm2">tariff</a> reduction enacted throughout the <a href="/facts/British_Empire/hrsz0j7A">British Empire</a> and <a href="/facts/British_Commonwealth/TcIRQnNq">British Commonwealth</a> following the <a href="/facts/British_Empire_Economic_Conference/BQBtYP2q">Ottawa Conference</a> of 1932. As Commonwealth Preference, the proposal was later revived in regard to the members of the Commonwealth of Nations.
</p><p><a href="/facts/Joseph_Chamberlain/k0R871ar">Joseph Chamberlain</a>, the powerful <a href="/facts/Secretary_of_State_for_the_Colonies/pdwCD1fE">colonial secretary</a> from 1895 until 1903, argued vigorously that Britain could compete with its growing industrial rivals (chiefly the United States and Germany) and thus maintain <a href="/facts/Great_Power/KBtjXLun">Great Power</a> status. The best way to do so would be to enhance internal trade inside the worldwide British Empire, with emphasis on the more developed countries — Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa — that had attracted large numbers of British settlers.
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Imperial Preference open-in-new

Imperial Preference