Ruffled Feathers

"One can hardly believe," said a member of the West German government last week, "that such friendly animals, so crisp when fried, could cause so much trouble." He was talking about chickens, and the "chicken war" that is being waged transatlantically between the U.S. and its closest friends in Europe. Disturbed by increased Common Market tariffs that have severely cut its lucrative chicken exports to Europe, the U.S. last week decided to retaliate by raising tariffs on many European goods.

A Test Case. One-third of U.S. agricultural exports (worth $1.4 billion) go to the Common Market, where--as always when farmers are involved--there are noisy cries for protection. So far, the Common Market works well for industry, but it has never been able to come to agreement on farm prices. The protectionists are determined to raise tariff walls high enough so that Europe will become virtually self-sufficient in agriculture.

Fearing that the increase in chicken tariffs is just the beginning of further bars against U.S. agricultural products, the U.S. has chosen to make it a test case in which to insist on American rights to a place in the Common Market food basket. It has urged the Common Market to rescind the chicken-tariff hike--which has cut U.S. chicken sales by two-thirds since last year. The Eurocrats on the Common Market Commission were willing to compromise, but were blocked by the Council of Ministers, who represent the six individual governments.

In retaliating, the U.S. invoked its right under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which provides that an offended nation may raise tariffs by an amount equal to any losses resulting from discriminating tariffs. The U.S. listed for retaliation 19 major items representing $111,500,000 in annual Common Market exports to the U.S., but it will winnow the list down to cover only $46 million--the amount by which it claims it has been damaged by the poultry tariffs.

The list includes wine (the biggest import item, about $22 million worth), brandy, Roquefort cheese and flower bulbs, but it leans heavily on merchandise made in West Germany, the chief market for U.S. chicken exports before the higher tariff. If they are retained on the list, trucks and buses (aimed at Volkswagen), stainless steel netting, electric razors, flat steel wire, scissors and shears will all be slapped with higher tariffs. The U.S. strategy: to show that it means business and to cut sufficiently into export sales of German industrialists so that they will be roused to oppose the powerful German farm lobby, which fought for the higher tariffs on U.S. chickens to protect Germany's own thriving chicken industry.

Chicken Warriors. Washington's chicken warriors hope that the Common Market will take action before they have to put their retaliatory tariffs into effect. There seems scant chance of this, since Common Market officials have not even scheduled a meeting before the Sept. 15 deadline set by the U.S. The irony is that the outburst of transatlantic recriminations has come just when U.S. and Common Market negotiators had begun to make some progress at working out new and sweeping tariff cuts among 50 nations, scheduled to be made at the next meeting of GATT.

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