Common Market Clash

Charles de Gaulle was cast as Monsieur Scrooge last week in two pre-Christmas carols vitally involving the future of the Western alliance. One concerned NATO (see following story), the other the Common Market, which, according to some alarmed observers, was on the verge of breaking up.

This pessimism was exaggerated, but the problems that gave rise to it are real enough. Though the Market had planned to equalize agricultural prices for member states in easy stages by 1970, De Gaulle last summer threatened to pull out of the EEC unless agreement on rice, meat and dairy products was reached by Dec. 31. But in Bonn, the West German Government insisted that the agricultural agreement be worked out in conjunction with the so-called "Kennedy round" -- proposed talks on worldwide tariff reductions. The result was a clash of wills.

Extreme Consequences. The French maintained that Germany's modern, competitive industry had gained so much by the Common Market that it was now time for France's efficient, highly productive farm bloc to get some gravy too. But Germany's farmers are so highly subsidized that any agricultural agreement would mean a severe slash in German farm prices--an unpleasant political prospect for West Germany's new Chancellor Ludwig Erhard.

At the Brussels negotiations last week, France's Minister of Agriculture Edgard Pisani threatened "extreme consequences" if De Gaulle's deadline is not met, and Paris warned that it would hold Germany responsible if the Market broke up. What the Germans feared was that once they give in on farm prices, France would refuse to come across on the "Kennedy round," whose tariff cuts would favor German industry more than the French. But France countered, in effect, that the U.S.'s own position for the Kennedy round would not be worked out until the spring, so that advance commitments were impossible.

Uncomfortable Memory. As they seemed to approach the brink--and the really hard bargaining this week--both Bonn and Paris pulled short. "The struggle should not be taken so seriously," said Ludwig Erhard in a speech at Heidelberg University. "There will be no quarrel among friends." In Paris, France's Foreign Minister Maurice Couve de Murville said that there was no question of "France's determination to pursue European unification in the twin economic and political spheres." And yet with De Gaulle in the picture, one could never be sure. There was an uncomfortable memory of Christmas past: about a year ago, weighing London's application for Common Market membership, De Gaulle was getting ready for his decision to leave the British out in the cold.

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