‘U.S. And E.E.C. Near Accord On Tariff Cuts’

Press, Volume C, Issue 29696, 14 December 1961, Page 17

‘U.S. And E.E.C. Near Accord On Tariff Cuts’

(N.Z. Press Assn.— Copyrigtii)

WASHINGTON, December 13. The United States and Western Europe were on the verge of agreeing on a historic tariff-cutting pact, informed sources said last night, according to United Press International.

The sources said they anticipated the agreement would provide for a cut of 20 per cent virtually “across the board” in the common external tariff barriers being erected by the European Common Market. In exchange, the United States was said to have agreed to much less extensive concessions. U-PX reported. The American concessions. one source said, would provide for reductions m tariffs ranging up to 20 per cent, for foreign cars and for a number of other products In the tariff-cutting negotiations conducted in s® cre ’ at Geneva, the United States was said to have exhausted the tariff-reducing authority granted to the Eisenhower Administration by Congress in 1958 That authority allowed reductions of up to 20 per cent.. but precluded cuts on a wtde range of items on which duties already were at the so-called “peril point.” below which further reductions were barred. The Acting Secretary of State. Mr George Ball, hinted that a final new tariff agreement was in the offing during testimony yesterday before a joint Congressional economic sub-committee He volunteered without elaboration that he he- 1 hopes that the Geneva talks would be brought to a successful conclusion within a few days UPX said the Kennedy Administration viewed the Geneva negotiations as vital to the Western world's economic policies.

The United States had been fearful that unless there was a reduction in the common external tariff, an average of the tariffs of the six Common Market countries, many United States products would be priced out of the Common Market The six Common Market nations were creating a mass market of 170 million consumers When Britain joined, the market would total 225 million consumers, one-fourth more than the United States domestic market. President Kennedy already had decided to ask Congress for a new authority to make

“across-the-board” reductions in United States tariff duties as a necessary prelude to further tariff-cutting negotiations with the Common Market. The existing tariff-cutting authority, which had been kept intact since 1958. was scheduled to expire on June 30 unless it was used, the news agency said In his testimony yesterday Mr Ball predicted that Congress would approve a liberalised trade programme next year That presumably would give President Kennedy even more power to deal with the Common Market U.PX said. “I don’t believe for a minute that the American people are going to refuse to face the realities of the new environment and the new trading world.” Mr Ball said