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June-July, 1970
on the appearance of a narrow, inward–
looking protectionist bloc, whose trade
policies . . . increasingly discrirninate
against non-members."
And Edwin L. Dale, Jr., the respected
international economic analyst of
The
New York Times
and once an ardent
proponent of the Common Market,
wrote recently
JO
The Times
of
London:
"We bought a pig in a poke. We
have been taken. . . . The girl looked
gorgeous for awhile. But now she is all
warts. It is all very human, but the time
has come to cut our losses."
This is the increasingly bitter U. S.
viewpoint. Europeans, on the other
hand, are crying that the U. S., vía its
annual balance-of-payments de.ficit, is
exporting inflation to Europe. And with
these inflated dollars, they point out,
American businesses have been buying
up huge segments of W este
en
European
industry. The massive "Eurodollar"
market - surplus dollars in circulation
in Europe - now totals approximately
$43,000,000,000.
Agriculture the Big Obstacle
Overall, the United States profited
economically from the formation of the
Commoo Market in its first decade.
This fact caonot be denied. U. S.
exports to tbe Six rose by 153 percent
compared to an 84 percent increase to
non-Community countries.
Agriculture, however, is the big
obstacle. Over the last three years the
U. S. has watched its position of key
agricultura! supplier to the Six gradu–
ally erode away. The drop in U. S. farm
exports to the EEC in 1969 was 21 per–
cent over the previous year.
At the same time, rising subsidies to
Common Market farmers have produced
a glut of many commodities within Eur–
ope. Brussels officials, for example, are
pondering over what to do with a stead–
ily growing "butterberg" - a moun–
tainous oversupply of butter.
Sorne of these surpluses, according to
U. S. officials, are being "dumped" into
Since early 19
55,
in-depth arti–
cles in
The
PLAIN
TRUTH
hove
repeatedly warned the American
public of the growing trade chal–
lenge from the Common Market
and Jo pan.
The
PLAIN TRUTII
traditional American export markets
below U. S. export price levels. J. Rob–
ert Shaetzel, American ambassador to
the Common Market, cites, as examples,
sales of wheat to Taiwan, lard to Brit·
ain, and feed grains to Japan.
Shaetzel recently addressed an
audience
in
Bonn, West Germany. He
said that original American hopes for
cooperation with the Common Market
have "largely evaporated and been
replaced by irritation, frustration, and a
brooding sense of apprehension as to
what the future will hold."
West German Chancellor Willy
Brandt has even gone so far as to pro–
pose a new American-European liaison
office to discuss mounting trade prob–
lems between U. S. and the Common
Market.
Thus the "grand design" of a políti–
cally unified Western Europe and the
United States waltzing harmoniously in
an "Atlantic partnership" delirium
JS
virtually dead.
Co-Prosperity Sphere-
Act
11
Wasbington's hopes in the early
1950's for a revitalized Japan, able to
share the burden of leadership in the
Pacific region, has worked out well -
all too well .
Given massive transfusions of eco–
nomic assistance after the war (a sort of
"Asian Marshall Plan"), protected by
the U. S. nuclear umbrella (saving
billions of dollars in defense),
J
apan
has become an economic giant of the first
magnitude. In staging the first world's
fair in Asian history, Japan this year is
showing the world just how far up the
economic ladder she has risen.
Japan has become an economic giant
- far surpassing the dreams of the
military "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperíty
Sphere" planners of the 1930's.
Japanese industry, in octopus-like
fashion, reaches around the earth.
It
devours voluminous supplies of raw
materials. The ubiquitous "Made In
Japan" label - no longer an epithet
for cheapness -
is
affixed to every
product under tbe Rising Sun.
Japan has climbed to thi.rd place
among industrial powers, outranked by
only the United States and the closed
industrial society of the Soviet Union.
Japan's annual gross national product
5
stands at between one fourth and one
fifth that of the U. S. - $200,000,000,-
000, compared to $952,000,000,000.
But Japan's yearly
rate
of growth has
averaged three times that of the U . S.
ovec the last decade.
And very important -
despite
Japan's phenomenal rate of growth, her
economy is the most disciplined and
controlled of all major nations. There is
no runaway inflation in Japan!
By 1975, Japan's GNP could reach as
high as $440,000,000,000. That awe–
some figure would be greater than
today's
combined
gross incomes of Brit–
ain, West Germany and France.
Competition Deluxe
Japan's unstoppable growth has
meant competition deluxe for the infla–
tion-ridden United States.
For years the U. S. held the advan–
tage on the massive trade between
the two nations. This is no longer
the case. In 1969, the U. S. trade
deficit with Japan reached approx:imately
$1,500,000,000.
In January of this year, Senator Jacob
Javits told a trade meeting in Tokyo
that Japan's refusal to compromise on
trade problems - particularly textile
exports to the U. S.- and open her
markets to the United States threatens
not only U. S.-Japanese relations but the
trade structure of the entire world.
"l
warn you that protectionists are
out in force in my country," the New
York Senator told a luncheon meeting
of the Japan-America Society and the
American Chamber of Commerce in
}a
pan.
Two months later, one of America's
top business leaders warned that Japan's
delay in easing its present trade and
economic restrictions could be the first
step in an all-out global trade war.
Donald M. Kendall, Chairman of the
Emergency Committee on American
Trade (ECAT) and President of Pepsi
Cola,
Inc.,
expressed concern that it was
already almost too late to act.
"If
we
have a trade war we will be right back
in the 1930's," he said.
Kendall told newsmen, at a breakfast
meeting in Tokyo, that the pressure by
the American textile industry for con–
gressional restriction of synthetic and
wool imports from Japan is matched by