MAKING EUROPE INTO SINGLE MARKET

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 15118, 29 October 1949, Page 3

MAKING EUROPE INTO SINGLE MARKET

Further Freedom Of Trade And Reduction Ot Barriers NATIONS MUST INTENSIFY EFFORTS TOWARDS UNIFICATION

(Rec. 8.20 a.m.) London, Oct. 28. The consultative Group of the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation met in Paris today. It was attended by Ministers from eight European countries. Sir Stafford Cripps represented Britain. In addition, today’s meeting was attended by Mr Harriman, the United States special representative in Europe for Marshall Aid. The meeting—the first since devaluation—was to talk about the further freedom of trade and of the reduction of trade barriers to a degree which will make Europe, as one spokesman put it recently, into a single market.

A Paris correspondent says that much has been done in , this direction already. Most of the countries have submitted lists of the goods which they are prepared to import at once in unlimited quantities. In other words—the goods on which they will abolish import quotas. There are also plans afoot to enable member countries to reach separate agreement between each other for freeing more goods. A correspondent says this will not apply, however, in Great Britain’s case, because she put all her goods to be freed on the first list. The Consultative Group adjourned after meeting for four hours. It will resume tomorrow.

The correspondent say's the group has examined the organisation’s progress so far and recomemnds to the council, which meets on Monday, what further steps should be taken.

The Marshall Aid Administrator (Mr Paul Hoffman) is expected to address Monday’s meeting. Before leaving New York for Paris today, Mr Hoffman said he was not going to Europe “with any get-tough policy, or any ideas of cracking down on the Marshall Aid countries.

He said that the European nations had made amazing progress but he made it plain to them that they must intensify their efforts towards economic unification.