Rippon’s view of sterling

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32564, 25 March 1971, Page 11

Rippon’s view of sterling

(N.Z.P.A. -Reuter —Copyright! LONDON, March 24. The British chief Common Market negotiator, Mr Geoffrey Rippon, affirmed today that Britain was ready to talk with the European Six about the future of sterling as a world reserve currency.

He told a conference sponsored by a proEuropean group that the British Government, contrary to some reports, was not surprised at the role of sterling being brought up in Brussels, but felt that such discussions should not form a direct part of the Common Market entry negotiations.

There was nothing immutable about the international role of sterling, he said. The Government accepted that sterling some day might have to be merged into a wider entity, and there was no difficulty in principle about this. But he emphasised that the discussions should take place in a discreet manner and in a restricted forum. Mr Rippon was replying to questions arising from a speech at the conference by Mr Harold Lever, a former Labour Government Minister in the Treasury. Mr Lever called on the British Government for a clear statement of its intentions on the future of sterling. He said that he would like to see the Government commit itself to the creation of a new international reserve asset either through the extension of special drawing rights under the International Monetary Fund (1.M.F.) or a World Bank mechanism. ‘Days numbered’ He made clear that he felt that the days of sterling as a world currency were numbered, though no detailed timetable could be given. After that was settled, he said, it would be time to consider the world role of the dollar. “The United States can no longer be the indulgent patron of the world’s free-trad-ing system,” he said, adding that he strongly defended France’s right to raise the question of sterling. He said that it had been a source of instability to Britain and he believed its international role should be reduced, probably to extinction, whether Britain joined the Common Market or not.

Mr Rippon joined Mr Lever and other speakers in what probably constituted the strongest boost given re-

cently to British entry into Europe. Britain’s choice He said the fact was'that Britain had to change over the next decade, whether or not it entered the European Community. “It is foolish and dangerous to suppose,” he said, “that the British people have a choice between painful growth and happy drift.”

He said that it was a tragedy that Europe had not built an adequate aerospace industry. He was not in any way despondent about the way the negotiations were going. Success was so obviously in everyone’s interests that the entry talks were, in a popular phrase, condemned to succeed, he said. But after previous rebuffs Britain was beginning to feel “a little bit like love locked out—it’s time to get on the (European) stage or get a booking in another theatre.” The director-general of the Confederation of British Industry (Mr Campbell Adamson) foresaw Britain facing awesome competition in the next decade from international trading giants if she remained outside the Common Market.