E.E.C. INQUIRY Report Stows Big Problems Left

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30073, 6 March 1963, Page 13

E.E.C. INQUIRY Report Stows Big Problems Left

(NJEPA.-Aester—Copvrieht) BRUSSELS, March 5. A report released today showed that a number of major problems remained to be solved when the talks on Britain’s Common Market entry were broken off at the end of January. The 124-page report, by the Common Market’s Executive Commission, was drawn up at the demand of the European Parliament by Mr Jean Deniau, the French leader of the commission’s negotiating team at expert level.

Mr Deniau was assisted by commission officials of other nations who took part in the negotiations. The six-nation Parliament, at its session in Strasbourg last month, told the commission to draw up a report based on three main criteria:

(1) The state of the negotiations when they were

suspended. (2) Problems which had already been , solved. (3) Problems not yet solved, and an opinion on them. The report summed up the negotiations as follows:

“Many points left in abeyance may be classified as of minor consequence. “In the tariff field in particular the tactical manoeuvring inseparable from negotiations had certainly delayed in many cases the settlement of secondary problems for which there was no reason to believe that a solution could not be found.

"Broadly speaking it may be said that the normal provisions of the treaty (of Rome) and the decisionmaking powers of community institutions could certainly have been accepted as providing the means of reaching a reasonable solution of many points referred to in this report which stem from minor or quite special economic problems. On the other hand, it is important not to minimise certain questions which were still unanswered. “With regard to temperate foodstuffs from the Commonwealth, although a solution had been put forward for cereals, its extension to certain other products might still

have raised difficulties, even though the broad line* were already laid down.” The report emphasised that an outrtanding feature of the negotiations had been the “remarkable complexity” of the problems. The report said: “The numbers of problem* raised, the novelty of some of them (Commonwealth, British agriculture, the E.F.T.A.) and the need to reconcile two sets of commitments as vast as those of the United Kingdom and those of the Treaty of Rome obviously posed extremely delicate problems for both the United Kingdom and the community.” In its detailed comment on

the problem* involved, th* report Mid of British agriculture that agreement had been reached on an annual review by the community, but none had been readied on the remaining measures to fit British agriculture into th* community's common agricultural policy. Commonwealth problem* which remained unsolved included: New Zealand'* dependence on its farm export* to Britain; several tariff questions of particular interest to India, Pakistan, and Ceylon; Commonwealth preference* for British exports; and the problems of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Hong Kong and other territories.