The chronicle., 1963-11-28
Common Market
Works Wonders
Over Europe

1AOAS yO
dam shows off her curves In an
Italian-made sweater, she's a
customer Of the European Com
mon Market.
The Italian Fiat car her boy
friend bought in Amsterdam
cheaper than he could in Rome
also came by grace of the Com
mon Market.
So did the Krupp truck carry
ing a French farmers fruit to
market, the French butter sold
in an Italian grocer'S shop, the
German canned frankfurters sit
ting in a Belgian housewives
refrigerator.
All over Europe the Common
Market is working a quiet -
and highly profitable = revolu-
ton in the daily lives of ITO mil
lion people.
The six member countries -
West Germany, France, Italy.
Belgium, The Netherlands and
Luxembourg have seen their
trade rise from a total value of
s. million to 1874 million since
1853.
Under Common Market rules
customs duties between the six
member nations already have
been slashed in half and will
be abolished altogether by 1867.
Trading BOomS
Manufactured goods such as
cars, refrigerators, radios and
children'S toys are flooding back
and forth between the six ma
tons to feed an unprecedented
wave OF high living.
The countries Of the Common
Market are finding that jobs
create jobs. Germany and Hol-
land are crying for more work.
erS to keep pace with their ex-
banding economies.
Dutchmen no longer look
aroun dwhen they hear Italian
being spoken in their coffee
houses. Most walters in Ger
many speak with a foreign &C
cent.
This correspondent recently
drove a car from Holland
through Belgium, Luxembourg,
France and Germany producing
nothing but a certificate proving
the car was internationally in
Sured. There was no identity
check, no baggage search .
Mrs. Germaine Meyers, a So
year-old Brussels housewife,
obligingly threw open her re-
frigerator for a Uniteti Press
International inspection. The
German : made ice : box con-
tanned Dutch butter, French
wine, Italian olives and toma-
to PURGE - and the German
frankfurterS.
The amazing thing was that
Mrs. Meyers thought nothing
about the vast change in her
purchasing habits since 1858.
PrOtectioniSm Hurts
Before the Market, many ex-
porterS just gave up trying to
export through protectionist Gus
toms barriers. Local manufac-
turers sitting behind these bar
riers let their design and quail
ity slip. Stagnation followed the
protectioniSm.
Since the barriers started to
60 down six years ago a stimu-
lating new wave of design and
manufacturing has swept across
Europe. Local manufacturers
can no longer lean back and
depend on customs duties to
keep foreign produce out.
Parisien Jean Barthelmer pro-
vides a case in point. He told
UPI: "The finish on foreign
cars is better than it is on
French vehicles. That's why /
bought a German car"
French car manufacturers
know this and are working on
it. Not so long ago they could
have shrugged it off knowing
they were safe behind a tariff
barrier that meant a foreign car
cost so per cent more than its
French equivalent.
Foreign food is no longer a
luxury for the ITO million GUS
toners Of the Common Market.
Foreign cars and manufacture
ed goods are commonplace. For
eign workers no longer cause
comment. Competition is stimu-
lating national production. Econ
omies are humming - and pref
ty, blonde young Hilda in Rot
terdam is mighty happy with
----