EUROPEAN ECONOMIC INTEGRATION AND THE UNITED STATES.

As indicated previously, the consequences of the Common Market for nonmember countries will depend as much or more on subsequent policy decisions of the Community as on the provisions of the Rome Treaty. This analysis suggests that at present nonmember countries have been put in a disadvantageous position. Future developments will depend in large measure on the willingness of the EEC to recognize the interests of nonmembers in their deliberations or, to use the standard phraseology, whether the Common Market will be outward or inward looking. There is some evidence to indicate that up to now the Community has been looking a little in both directions. One can get some comfort in the belief that the Common Market will be outward looking from the Rome Treaty itself. Article 110 indicates that the interests of the Community lie in expanding world trade. Furthermore, the influential leaders of the Commission of the EEC and Professor Hallstein in particular have continually supported this belief in public statements. Nor has the liberalism of the Common Market been confined to words alone. The first two internal tariff reductions were generalized to nonmember countries (as long as the resulting tariff did not fall below the external target rate). Also, the common Market was willing to enter negotiations through GATT in the so-called "Dillon round" and eventually reached agreements with other countries through which their external tariff was reduced by almost 20 per cent. There is some indication, however, of less liberal tendencies within the EEC. The tariff reductions made so far by the Common Market have been relatively painless in that they have merely removed some but not most of the excess protection created by the common external tariff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]