The Press TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 1964. Progress Of The E.E.C.

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30480, 30 June 1964, Page 12

The Press TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 1964. Progress Of The E.E.C.

The achievements of the European Economic Community in its first five years are striking. In the community’s seventh annual report, the president (Dr. Hallstein) says that between 1958 and 1963 the real gross product of the community rose 30 per cent. (The increase in New- Zealand’s real gross national product over the same period was 21 per cent.) During the same period, industrial production of the E.E.C. rose about 40 per cent (New Zealand 32 per cent, United States 33 per cent, Britain 23 per cent). The E.E.C.’s figures are even more impressive when account is taken of the comparatively stable population of the community—a mere 4 per cent increase over the last five years, compared with New Zealand’s 11.4 per .cent increase. Per capita comparisons bring this out more clearly: the average wage or salary in the E.E.C. rose 56 per cent but consumer prices rose only 16 per cent. The comparable New Zealand figures are 21 per cent and 14 per cent. In the last three years the number of private cars in the community rose from 78 per 1000 inhabitants to 102; in New Zealand the number of business and private cars rose from 221 per 1000 to 238.

The E.E.C. still has its problems, not least of which is the failure to reach agreement on a common price policy fdr cereals. “If no common cereal price “is agreed on soon ”, said Dr. Hallstein, “ we can “ expect progress with the common agricultural “ policy, and progress in the Kennedy round, to come “ to a halt If these problems are not solved soon the E.E.C.’s spectacular progress may be checked, which would give the laggards—including Britain and New Zealand—a chance to catch up. In the meantime, many people in Britain must wish Britain had joined the E.E.C. when it had the chance seven years ago; and people in New Zealand should wonder whether a customs union with Australia might not lift this country’s growth rate.