but we have preferred to assume that some arrangements will be made for Commonwealth
sugar after that period which will not make the situation significantly less advantageous
than that now ruling. In any case we have considered that physical limitations are likely
to slow the rate of expansion after 1965, so that if marketing difficulties do arise they are
unlikely to be aggravated by the rates of growth of output that have been experienced over
the past twenty years.

 Of the other commodities with which we are concerned, rice and coconut products have
been subject to agreements covering quantities and prices, but these agreements have been
of an intra-regional nature.

 The West Indies Rice Agreement dates from 1946 when the then Marketing Board of Bri-
tish Guiana entered into an agreement with the individual governments of the Leeward and
Windward Islands, Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago. The agreement required the de-
livery of a given grade of bulk rice at a fixed price according to the need of the island. The
first agreement lasted until 1954. British Guiana could not deliver the full quota during
the first few years; but in the meantime output was being increased. The agreement was
then extended to 1956, and a separate agreement was made with Jamaica. The agreements
affected bulk rice only; packaged rice could be sold privately.

 In 1956 a new agreement was drawn up between British Guiana on the one hand and the
government of the West Indies Federation on the other hand. It was decided to review the
price annually at an annual rice conference.

 These agreements controlled by far the major part of rice trading in the British Carib-
bean and they still continue in being although the position has reverted to one in which agree-
ments are being made between British Guiana and individual governments. Although cost
studies have been made and have been extensively quoted at rice conferences, the price
has on the whole been settled purely by higgling and bargaining, and although some in-
creases have been given, on the whole the price of rice has been held by the threat of buy-
ing countries to abandon the agreement and buy from cheaper world markets.

 It is doubtful whether the buying territories could have purchased better overseas, and
 certainly when one takes into consideration delivery and supply problems they have bene-
 fitted immeasurably from the agreement. More recently British Guiana's bargaining po-
 sition has been improved by the fact that she has found other markets in the region. The
 agreement with the other British Commonwealth Territories, however, gives her a more
 assured market position than any of the other arrangements she has made.

 The West Indies Oils and Fats Agreement dates from the second world war when it was
 seen as a means of protecting supplies. In 1947 it became a permanent peace-time insti-
 tution with the object of protecting and encouraging the local production of coconut products.
 All the islands of the West Indies and British Guiana are signatories to the agreement. The
 purpose of the main clauses in the agreement, which has been periodically renewed since
 1947, has been to prevent growers of coconuts from disposing of coconuts and copra out-
 side the region, and to prevent processors from importing from outside the region.

 The result of the agreement has been that imports of vegetable oils to the area or ex-
 ports from the area have been insignificant over the past fifteen years, so that it has