Improvement Noted

Like penguins emerging from the icy waters of postwar dollar shortages, the black-coated, grey-trousered economists of 20 Western nations gathered in Paris last week for the fall conference of OEEC --the Organization for European Economic Cooperation. There was confidence in the air, and with much good reason. For the first time since the war, said the U.S.'s Harold Stassen, "we meet under no great pressures of economic crisis."

In the first six months of 1953, Western Europe's industrial production had reached an alltime high: 7% above 1952, a whopping 40% above 1938. Europe's gold and dollar reserves stand at better than $10 billion (v. $7 billion in 1948), its trade gap with the U.S. and Canada declined from $1,713,000,000 in the first five months of 1952 to a manageable $597 million in the same period this year. The ministers got more good news in their conference. Items:

P:Chancellor of the Exchequer "Rab" Butler announced that Britain would reverse its slow gyration towards economic nationalism by raising from 58% to 75% the proportion of British imports freed from quota restrictions. British tourists will henceforth be allowed to take abroad -L-50 ($140) apiece instead of the -L-40 ($112) permitted before. P:France's Finance Minister Edgar Faure promised a "modest" removal of French trade restrictions from "about 20%" of French imports. As France is the worst offender, OEEC decided that Faure's gesture was not enough; France got orders to report back next year, itemizing the steps it is taking to reform its artificial exchange rates, free more trade. Even the French delegate endorsed this rap at his own country.

P:The U.S. delegation predicted "a marked reduction" in U.S. economic aid next year. As if to prove their growing self-confidence, the Europeans accepted it without a dissenting murmur. The Europeans, however, are nervously waiting to see whether the Eisenhower Administration will cut import duties or raise them. They expect no real answer until next March, when the Randall Commission, appointed by President Eisenhower to recommend changes in U.S. tariffs, makes its report. P:Italy's Premier Giuseppe Pella complained that OEEC works to Italy's detriment because it does nothing to help solve the problem of 2,000,000 Italian unemployed, the biggest single reservoir of Italian Communists. Pella got some encouragement from the council's decision that jobs in any member country which remain unfilled after 30 days may henceforth be filled by bringing a worker from another member country. Theoretically, this would open undermanned British coal mines to thousands of Italian miners; in practice, local prejudices are not likely to yield.

Warning from Lenin. Another vital issue was currency convertibility--the tricky problem of how to make pound notes, dollars, lire and kroner freely exchangeable. There were strong voices for it, notably Britain's Butler and West German Economics Minister Ludwig Erhard, the man who has done most to spark Germany's industrial boom. Erhard warned: "The word of Lenin, that you just have to destroy the currencies of capitalist countries to make them ripe for Communism, should cause all democratic countries to stop and think . .." The conference agreed that one day soon, convertibility is inevitable if Europe is ever to stand on its own two feet. A committee was appointed . . .

And with that, the rumpled penguins slid back into economic waters which are still cold if no longer icy: not enough production (Europe still imports coking coal from the U.S.), not enough gold and dollars, not enough free trade.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.