THE EUROPEAN COMMON MARKET AND

The economic challenge of the European Common Market must be understood and met not only by the U.S. as a whole, but by American agriculture in general and California agriculture in particular. The U.S. must be able to fashion its foreign economic policy to bargain effectively with these "partners" who constitute an important segment of US. international trade. Reconsideration of our bargaining status with the Common Market is neces- sary so that we can take advantage of all possible concessions. Adequate knowl- edge of the agricultural segment of the U.S. economy for which our officials are speaking is an absolute necessity in this consideration. porarily harmed by liberalization of trade, and special arrangements for handling trade with former colonial and "associated" territories of the member nations. The agricultural features of the Com- mon Market organization had been left pJrposely vague in 1958, merely stipu- lating a pledge among the members to "establish a common agricultural policy." Now, four years later, this agricultural agreement is beginning to take shape. Recognizing that agricultural patterns in the Community are the least flexible and most traditional, the establishment of a common agricultural policy might have been the breaking point for the Com- mon Market. The signing of the agree- ment on January 14 of this year between the six Common Market members over- came a major hurdle in the economic integration of the Common Market. Po- litically, it was the last occasion when further development of the Community plan could be stopped by the vote of a single member country. The agricultural economic cooperation which had been outlined previously but postponed be- cause of lack of agreement over policy is now getting underway. The United States, as well as the other "outside" nations, is now faced with the need of developing effective procedures for negotiating and dealing with the Common Market as a single bargaining unit in the question of tariffs and other matters affecting trade in agricultural products. Removal of barriers