De Gaulle Stops Statements On Britain And E.E.C.

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30057, 15 February 1963, Page 11

De Gaulle Stops Statements On Britain And E.E.C.

(NZ yA.-Reuter—Copyright) PARIS, Feb. 14. President de GauHe is reported to have ordered French officials to make no further statements on Britain and the Common Market. A Foreign Affairs debate in the National Assembly was called off yesterday. The Foreign Minister (Mr Couve de Murville) will not now make an expected statement on the issue, British United Press reported. The Information Minister (Mr Alain Peyrefitte) also cancelled an interview he was to have recorded for the Canadian Broadcasting Company. Cooling Down President de Gaulle was said to believe that the furore caused by France’s attitude to Britain was beginning to cool down, the agency said.

SnUsh United Press said * rench officials saw two possible forms of market associate status for Britain:— . association between Britain and the Common Market, similar to the agreement already concluded between the Six and Greece. A more ambitious attempt to agree on some form of bridge between the Common Market and the European Free Trade Association. The French were said to believe the latter probably would not be feasible at the moment. The best that could be hoped for would be a trade pact, perhaps negotiated tnrough the machinery o f the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GA.T.T.) in Geneva. French officials expressed the belief that Britain would be unlikely to settle for such a relatively small result. Thus they believed full as-

sociation to be the most promising outcome until a new attempt could be made in “a few years’ time” to bring Britain in as a full member, British United Press mid.