Common Market: And a Touch of Garlic

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A little garlic goes a long, long, way —and soon, in the European Common Market, it will be going duty free In Brussels last week, as the year's first piece of legislation, Common Market ministers drew up a common garlic policy to remove all restrictions on the flow of the pungent AIlium sativnm.

Italy and France grow nearly all of the area's annual 110,000-ton output but no European kitchen could long survive without garlic. Some Europeans even swear by it as a remedy for rheumatism; Russians eat garlic to fight the common cold, last week rushed in an emergency 500 tons for Moscow's flu epidemic.

To improve and spread this supply the Common Market set up new and detailed regulations for grading and packing garlic (the bulbs must be free of dirt, manure or nongarlic smell) and decided to eliminate gradually all tariffs and import price controls on it. The plan, which was considered with all the solemnity suited to the occasion, was passed without a sniff of dissent.