MrSelwyn Lloyd Speaks On Common Market

Press, Volume C, Issue 29674, 18 November 1961, Page 8

MrSelwyn Lloyd Speaks On Common Market

IN.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright)

LONDON, November 15. If Britain joined the European Common Market she might have to cut 50 per cent, off her present protective tariffs, said the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr Selwyn Lloyd) today. Mr Lloyd said to British

manufacturers git a London luncheon: "If we join, it may be that we should cut our tariffs to the products of the ‘Six' to the same extent as they have cut their tariffs amongst themselves. “This may well mean a cut of 50 per cent, in the degree of tariff protection which we at present, enjoy taking effect immediately upon entry. “Our manufacturers will suddenly face very severe competition in the home market, quite apart from what happens oversea*., ” Mr Lloyd said the nation must not try to improve its balance-of-payments position by cutting import*. “That would hurt us, and many other supplying countries,” he said.

If Britain joined the European Common Market, she would be in a position where every year protection would be a little less and competition keener. “The opportunities will be immense, but it would be all too easy for us to price ourselves out of reach of them,” he said.

Meanwhile, at The Hague, the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs (Mr. J. W. de Pous) said the fact that there was really “no way baek” for Britain now that she had decided to apply for membership of the European Cam-

mon Market made her dlecision a historic one. Addressing the Second Chamber, the Minister said he was confident that the European governments would do “everything they could" to prevent a failure of the current negotiation* on Britain'* admission to the market, Since a strong British Commonwealth was vital to the free world, and therefore to world stability, negotiations on Britain’s membership of the Common Market should not harm the vital interests of other Commonwealth countries, he said.

On the other hand, it would be wrong to maintain existing British import regulations on good* from the Commonwealth. Current negotiations should aim at a compromise, the Minister said.

In London today, Britain's Minister of Agriculture (Mr Soames) speaking at a meeting of the Primrose League— Conservative support organisation—spoke similarly.

Britain’s opposite numbers in the Common Market negotiations realised the links between Britain and the Commonwealth, and recognised that any damage caused to these links by closer BritainEurope ties would not be in the interests of the free world, he said.

The West must develop an infinitely greater unity to meet Communist efforts at

world domination, Mr Soames said. The Common Market treaty was an economic one, but it had political implications which might well—“and in all probability will”—rise to the surface in the future, he said. If a political treaty came from this, it would be a separate treaty, which all countries would have to sign. “But the fact that we are keeping our troops in Europe today, in time of peace shows how inextricably we are bound up wi'h the fortunes of Europe,” he said.