EUROPEAN TRADE

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29233, 17 June 1960, Page 13

EUROPEAN TRADE

Talks On Linking Six And Seven (Rec. 10 p.m.) THE HAGUE. June 16. Talks on European trade, which begin in The Hague today, may result in a break in the deadlock between the six-nation Common Market and the British-led European Free Trade Association. Two main obstacles to an agreement, even a limited one, are believed to be France’s fear that she might lose much of her influence in the Common Market if Britain joins, and Britain’s fears of upsetting Commonwealth relations and of losing her political independence.

Reports in The Hague say that Britain is expected to ask to be admitted to the European Coal and Steel Community. The Dutch Foreign Minister, Dr. J. A. M. Luns, who has been negotiating between the two trading groups as chairman of the Atlantic study commission, seemed pleased at this last night. “Britain is essentially part cf this Continent,” he said, “and even if all the countries of free Europe were to be linked together in one big economic structure, it would be necessary to have Britain. Otherwise there would be lacking an indispensable source of strength, experience and economic power.”