The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1973, Page 47

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
45
May, 1960, in which the members
would progressively dismantle barriers
to trade on industrial goods between
themselves. Finland joined in March,
1961, and Iceland in March, 1970. It
was hoped that terms could be ar-
rived at with the EEC, with a view
to establishing a wider European
market.
The governing body of the EEC
The headquarters of the EEC are
in Brussels, Belgium. The commun-
ity institutions are: a Council of min-
isters, a decision making body, whose
decisions on all matters affecting na-
tional interests are made on the basis
of unanimity; a Commission of four-
teen members, at present appointed,
who propose policy to the Council of
Ministers and may take certain legal-
ly effective initiatives, and who are
pledged to act in complete independ-
ence of national or sectional interests;
a Court of Justice which interprets
and adjudicates treaties and Council
and Commission measures and whose
rules are binding; a Parliament,
representative of the member states,
which is a consultative body but
passes on the community budget;
Dermanent Representatives of ambas-
sadorial rank, and an Economic and
Social Committee, which represents
employers’ organizations, trade unions
and other groups.
A Common Market—and other
important developments
The spotlight at the present moment
is focussed on the EEC tariff. Agree-
ment is in effect for the progressive
abolition of all internal tariffs and the
adoption of a common external tariff
by 1977. Envisaged, too, are trade
agreements with EFTA countries who
have not joined the EEC, namely
Austria, Norway, Sweden, Finland,
Portugal, Switzerland and Iceland
(provided an agreement on fisheries
can be arrived at).
Furthermore, an economic and
monetary union is envisaged. A mon-
etary union will mean a common cur-
rency with control from the centre.
This will simplify international ex-
change and eliminate the danger of
devaluation and other monetary
fluctuation as far as the EEC is con-
cerned. Envisaged also is integration
of transportation. The BOAC is now
a European airline, with the longest
airways network in the world. Inter-
file is an organization with a computer
system for storage and communication
of market intelligence. Already 25,000
businesses have subscribed. Above all
it will not be possible for one coun-
try in the EEC to make war on an-
other.
The enlarged Community of nine
has a population of some 253 million
people (as against 207 million in the
United States and 245 million in the
Soviet Union) and accounts for two-
fifths of the world’s trade. The far-
reaching, indeed world wide, effects
of this development challenges the
imagination.
The effect on Canada
“The effect of Britain’s entry into
the European Common Market” was
the theme of a seminar sponsored
jointly by the British Canadian Trade
Association and the Winnipeg Cham-
ber of Commerce, in Winnipeg, at the
Fort Garry Hotel, April 3.
Speakers at the seminar were A. F.
Maddocks, Minister (Commercial)
with the British High Commission,
Ottawa; Lord O’Neill of Maine, prom-
inent London merchant banker and