US Presidency
1961

I am not proposing nor is it either necessary or desirable that we join the Common Market, alter our concepts of political sovereignty, establish a rich man's trading community, abandon our traditional most-favored nations policy, create an Atlantic free trade area, or impair in any way our close economic ties with Canada, Japan and the rest of the Free World. And this, of course, is a problem of the greatest importance to us also. We do not want Japan left out of this great market, or Latin America which has depended so much on the European markets. It may find it now increasingly difficult because of competition from Africa to sell in Europe which could mean serious trouble for them and therefore for us in the long run both political as well as economic. I am not proposing nor is it either necessary or desirable that in setting new policies on imports we do away altogether with our traditional safeguards and institutions believe we can provide more meaningful concepts of injury and relief, and far speedier proceedings.