Business: Competition Goes Global

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Starting High. Even if Britain does not join the market, the U.S. has much to gain from coming to a tariff agreement with the Six—partly because U.S. trade barriers are higher than theirs already, and reductions of the same percentage on both sides would still leave U.S. barriers higher. (Where the Six impose tariffs of 25% or more on only seven categories of goods, the U.S. does so on no.) And the Common Market nations have shown a readiness to go more than half way in meeting the U.S. This year, the Six trimmed tariffs on a wide range of U.S. imports valued at $1.6 billion a year, in return accepted U.S. tariff cuts on Common Market exports amounting to only $1.2 billion. Because its six member nations rely on foreign trade for one-third of their gross national products, Common Market President Walter Hallstein says: "We simply cannot afford to be protectionist."

Provided that the Common Market practices what it preaches, and the U.S. is correspondingly flexible and farsighted, there could open a new era in world economic history. Says Chairman John Brooks of California's Lear Siegler Inc.: "If we play it right, this country should be in a position ten years from now where doing business with West Germany would be like doing business with Texas." The promise is not only economic. The interlocking of markets, the sharing and spreading of prosperity are objectives that move businessmen. The side effect of this effort, not specifically intended by businessmen but welcomed in their calculations, is the political health and strength of all who join in the alliance.