Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1938, Page 170
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LE NORD
very existence of each of these countries, and it would continue
to be indispensable even if they were merged into one unit for
purposes of commercial policy. For all of them it is a vital neces-
sity to be able to buy and sell outside the borders of the North,
because only thus can their productive capacity be kept up to the
level which is necessary to maintain their present population and
standard of life. Indeed, one argument which is often adduced
in support of proposals for a Northern union is that a united
North would carry more weight as against the rest of the world
in the sphere of commercial policy, and would be in a better posi-
tion to secure the access to foreign markets that it desires than
a collection of small States acting separately. The idea is a sound
one in itself, but it must not be forgotten tbat the interests of the
Northern States do not always necessarily coincide. While the
Norwego-Swedish union was in force, the results of its activities
in the sphere of trade policy were not always greeted with the
same satisfaction on both sides the frontier.1)
An inter-Northern customs arrangement would necessarily
deprive each of the countries in question of some of its economic
independence, and situations might easily arise in which this might
be felt as a disadvantage. In order to obtain concessions in favour
of Danish agricultural exports, it might for instance be necessary
to concede to non-Northern countries the right to export more
industrial manufactures to the North, and such a concession might
be detrimental to Swedish industrial interests.
In short, a customs arrangement of the type discussed above
would hardly prove of long duration unless it was followed by
a political union. Without that, a common commercial policy
would produce friction between industrial, agricultural, and
fishery interests, and this friction would become dangerous to the
existence of the customs union, because it would assume a national
character. It is only within a State which forms a political unit
that such friction can be avoided. In other words, it would not
be enough to abolish the customs frontiers, it would also be neces-
a) Thus the Norwego-Swedish commercial treaty with France o£ 1865
was more favourable to Norway than to Sweden, because the national treat-
ment obtained for Norwego-Swedish shipping in French ports was especially
valuable to Norway, while the Swedish industry had to provide the neces-
sary quid pro quo in the shape of considerable tariff reductions for French
goods. Cf. Poul Drachmann: The Industrial Development and Commercial
Policies of the Scandinavian Countries, p. 91.