COMMON MARKET: The Barriers Dip

Still on its timetable, the European Common Market last week cut tariffs between its six member nations another 10%. The second 10% cut since the market got going, it will be followed by a third at the end of the year. Import quotas will not be completely abolished until the end of 1961, but voluntary liberalization has already brought free flow of a big range of industrial and consumer goods. The system is working so well—trade among the Six was up 29% and trade with the rest of the world up 8% last year—that West Germany will soon urge a special Common Market conference to study new ways to speed integration, both economic and political.

To keep pace, the rival Outer Seven dominated by Britain cut tariffs between themselves by 20%, the first practical step to be taken since the Seven group was organized last May. The impact on trade patterns was almost instantly apparent. Some British automobiles will sell for $50 less in Denmark; West German chemicals can now undersell their British competition in The Netherlands but can be undersold in turn in Sweden. The split between the Common Market's Six and the Outer Seven was widening.