Securing the Foothold

Eric Wyndham White, 55, has spent the past two decades coaxing industrial nations into lowering their tariff barriers to international trade. As head of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) ever since its creation in 1948, he earned a reputation as a trusted and respected mediator. But when cooperation eluded him, the outspoken Briton's most characteristic tactic was a blunt threat to quit. And often enough, that threat got him what he wanted.

He hung on to prepare and manage six rounds of talks aimed at abolishing or reducing trade barriers for more than 20,000 items from toenail polish to turbines. The last of these talkathons, the four-year Kennedy Round, he believed, crowned his work -- and his intention to leave became irreversible.

Last week his successor, Olivier Long, 53, moved into Le Bocage, the 150-year-old lakeside villa set in the greenery of a Geneva suburb that serves as head quarters for GATT and its small professional staff of 60. A native of Geneva and Switzerland's suave Ambassador to the Court of St. James's since 1966, Long brings a portfolio of experience that he collected during six years as head of the Swiss delegation to the Outer Seven.

Like his predecessor, Long feels that a specific postwar period came to an end with the Kennedy Round. "Our task is to secure this achievement," he says, "like a mountain climber secures his foothold." It will be a difficult task, since U.S. legislators, prompted by shrinking markets for U.S. goods, are already considering a score of protectionist measures (TIME, April 12). Such measures would invite retaliation and the resulting dustup could undo years of bargaining almost overnight.

But if the Kennedy Round agreements hold, the new head of GATT and his associates will be able to start work on another major effort to liberalize world trade. They plan to tackle the area of nontariff obstacles to commerce from border taxes to sanitary regulations. Also high on GATT's agenda are measures to encourage trade between developed and underdeveloped nations by means of special concessions. Long foresees a period ahead in which the problems of poorer countries will be "of paramount importance," and his main job will be to help stop the widening prosperity gap.

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