Seven top leaders of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce predicted today that the West German-Israel reparations pact will be replaced at its 1963 expiration with a stronger agreement based on a possible substantial expansion of private trade between the two countries.
The bankers and industrialists declared that if West German-Israel trade could be developed on a “give and take” basis, there could be a very high level of commerce between the two countries. The statement was made to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency at a round table on West German affairs held at the Anglo-American club. Rudolf Berckholtz, vice-president of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce and a leading export-import merchant, presided.
Others in the group making the prediction were Erik Blummenfeld, a coal and oil merchant who is also chairman for the Hamburg district for the Christian Democratic Union; Erik Warburg, Baron John Rudolf von Schroeder and Emil Puhl, bankers; Jurgen Krauth, a lumber merchant, and Claus Holthusen, of a leading export-import firm. The business leaders listed among West German items for post-reparations Bonn-Israel commerce heavy machinery, textile machinery, pianos, medical instruments and pharmaceuticals.
Some of the businessmen expressed dissatisfaction with a present insistence by Israel traders that they will sell only to private West German firms but will buy only through the Israel Purchasing Mission under the reparations agreement. It was felt, however, that once the agreement expires in 1963, substantial trade would develop between the two countries.
While such trade now is fairly sizable, most of it is tied to the reparations agreement. The dimensions of such trade were described by G.E. Susse, general director of the office of Economic Affairs of the West German Ministry of Economics at Frankfurt. He revealed that West German trade with the United Arab Republic was almost four times as much as with Israel.
It was evident that there was a sustained effort in the Ministry of Economics to foster trade with the UAR on a vigorous and expanding scale. Two or three times a week, the Frankfurter Handelsblatt publishes special editions in Arabic and these editions are circulated to all Arab representatives in West Germany. There are also numerous Arab commercial and governmental offices, Arab Journals and centers of Arab trade.
Hamburg officials in both business and government have expressed to the JTA their warm feeling for Israel, their admiration for Israel’s economic achievements and their great confidence in Israel as a country with great potentials for economic growth.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
