The Pattern of Western Unity

...The most the Six will concede at present is that there should be a longish transitional period to allow other members of the Commonwealth to adapt themselves to the loss of their privileges in the British market...

...The latter has just written an impressive article for the London Times—hitherto painfully neutral on the Common Market—which concludes: "The overriding issue remains whether Britain is to divert her custom from the developing countries of the overseas world to the rich countries of Europe...

...The difficulties now visible inside the Common Market may well be enormously increased by political changes in France and Germany...

...If we judge that views now prevalent in Europe are too narrow, then arrangements for a greater freedom of trade within Europe can be made later...

...Since the threat of European discrimination is now Kennedy's main lever for obtaining this power, the prospect of greater discrimination in a EuropeCommonwealth market would give him a bigger lever still...

...So far the Common Market has no political reality, except through its economic unity...

...Denis Healey, a regular contributor, is Labor party Spokesman for Commonwealth and Colonial Affairs...

...Under Secretary of State George Ball and McGeorge Bundy seem to be asking Britain to join Europe at the expense of the Commonwealth—although the State Department is desperately anxious for Britain to share America's loneliness as the only Western power with commitments in Afro-Asia, and the Pentagon has suggested that if necessary it would rather see Britain contract out of its commitments in Germany altogether than abandon its military role in other parts of the world...

...And if Continental Europe assumes greater responsibilities both in NATO defense and in aid to Afro-Asia, it will expect greater influence on the policies of the Alliance throughout the world...

...is ready to reduce its own tariffs...

...Expert observers are unanimous that de Gaulle may be overthrown during the coming year by another Army putsch in which large sections of the police could join...

...This, though welcome and long overdue, may further reduce German readiness to make sacrifices for European unity...

...Experience with earlier customs unions like Benelux has shown how difficult it is to proceed beyond this point, and the Common Market is likely to have great trouble as it moves into Stage Two, which involves not only further tariff reductions but the beginning of supranational decisions in restricted fields of policy...

...One consequence of the Berlin crisis may be to stimulate fresh thinking in Germany about the whole problem of national reunification...

...But if the U.S...

...This view has been powerfully expressed by two outstanding British economists, James Meade and Roy Harrod...

...Indeed, U.S...

...Once it did so, NATO would have lost its military raison d'être and the Atlantic Community would cease to develop, if not to exist...

...It is now official Washington policy to insure that an enlarged Common Market should have a low external tariff at least on imports from North and South America, and that the loose Atlantic economic association thus formed should in turn adopt liberal trade policies toward non-Communist Africa and Asia...

...As this slowly becomes clear in Westminster, Parliamentary opinion is likely to prevent the Government from opting for Europe on these terms even if it wishes to...

...Now that Continental Europe has completely recovered from the War and both the dollar and the pound sterling are under heavy strain, there is a clear case for redistributing economic burdens within the Western alliance...

...policy on Europe as a whole is still chaotic and selfcontradictory...

...Meanwhile, the negotiations for Britain's entry into the Common Market have so far shown that if the Inner Six (France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) stick to their present line, Britain can only join the Common Market at the expense of liquidating the Commonwealth as an economic entity...

...Europeanism is already on the wane in West Germany, as Bonn's rigidity on the Common Market's agricultural policy has shown...

...In the first place, it is highly doubtful whether the Common Market, even without Britain, will continue to develop as planned by its founders...

...This conception is the main ground on which Kennedy is fighting his biggest battle with Congress for greater Presidential powers to reduce tariffs...

...This may be what many Americans secretly desire...

...President de Gaulle has always made it clear that he is opposed in principle to any diminution of French sovereignty...

...POLICY ON EUROPE IS STILL CHAOTIC AND SELF-CONTRADICTORY' The Pattern of Western Unity By Denis Healey London One major theme of world politics in 1962 will be the search of the Western powers for a new pattern of unity...

...On top of all these economic and political considerations there is the fundamental unsolved question of nuclear weapons inside NATO...

...So far it has to deal only with mutual tariff reductions on an intergovernmental level...

...But there is a danger that it may prove to be based on false assumptions, and that at best it may involve certain internal contradictions which will, be difficult to overcome...

...Moreover, America's commercial interests in Europe will only be met if and when the U.S...

...Its misgivings are aggravated by the fear that the Common Market is trying to establish itself as a club of rich white peoples at the expense of the underprivileged in the world...

...It has been said that we are in danger of 'missing the bus...

...It must be remembered that the Schuman Plan also broke down as a supranational authority the first time it had to cope with conflicting national interests, during the European coal crisis in 1959...

...McGeorge Bundy was thought to be expressing President Kennedy's opinion when on December 6 he told the Economic Club of Chicago: "My own belief is that the most productive way of conceiving the political future of the Atlantic Community is to think in terms of a partnership between the United States on the one hand and a great European power on the other...

...Harrod's position, which has always been my own, gains strength at a moment when industrial growth in the Common Market is levelling off and Britain's exports to the Common Market have increased faster than those of its members with one another...

...This is justified partly by the argument that permanent Commonwealth association with the Common Market will dilute its political cohesion, partly by America's crude economic interest in restricting the area of discrimination against it...

...Quite apart from the economic losses Britain might suffer by transferring its preferences from the Commonwealth to Europe— the Commonwealth still takes three times more British exports than the Common Market—it is doubtful if the Commonwealth could survive as a political entity once it lost its economic raison d'être...

...The fashionable view on both sides of the Atlantic is that during the next 12 months Britain will join the Common Market so as to produce a massive European counterpoise to America's traditional influence inside NATO...

...this strikes me as an empty phrase...

...Although many Conservatives have lost their enthusiasm for the Commonwealth since it admitted colored members, a majority still feel a keen loyalty to the white Commonwealth—particularly Canada and New Zealand, which are likely to suffer most if Britain abolishes Commonwealth preference...

...The Labor party, on the other hand, has discovered a new love for the Commonwealth since it has become a multi-racial community...

...So far, discussion of this problem has concentrated on the internal structure of Western unity, rather than Western policies on the major issues...

...All this is certainly a noble vision and a worthwhile aim...

...It is inconceivable that if Europe, including Britain, became a Great Power as Bundy predicted, it would not make itself wholly independent of the United States in the field of atomic striking power...

...It is only likely to develop political meaning, if at all, as a result of new patterns of economic interest against the rest of the world...

...Ironically, though the United States has a powerful interest in insuring that the negotiations for Britain's entry succeed, Washington's influence is directed toward stiffening the Common Market's present attitude...

...During the protracted battle over a common agricultural policy, however, other governments also have shown that they can oppose giving the Common Market supranational powers no less strongly in practice where their national interests are at stake...

...achieved its longterm aim of persuading an enlarged Common Market to open up its frontiers to the rest of the world, the same political dilution would follow...

...This could lead quickly either to civil war or to a fascist dictatorship, with appalling consequences for the Atlantic Community as a whole...

...Thus, unless there is a drastic shift in the Common Market's attitude towards the Commonwealth, it seems impossible that Macmillan will dare to conclude an agreement for Britain's entry...

...But I cannot believe it would be in the long run interest of the United States or Europe, or the world as a whole...