Common Market: End of the Chicken War

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The chicken war—that silly but symbolic dispute between the U.S. and the Common Market—finally ended last week with each side holding a leg. After a dispute that dragged on for 17 months, a panel of neutral experts decided that the Six's tariff hike on chick ens had cost the U.S. $26 million in exports. Though the estimate of losses was only about half as high as the U.S. had argued, both sides could claim victory—the Common Market because the loss figure was much nearer to its estimates, the U.S. because the ruling implied that the Market's tariffs were discriminatory.

The U.S. must now decide whether to levy retaliatory tariffs on Common Market goods of the same total value—a move that might create a bad atmosphere for next May's scheduled round of tariff-cutting negotiations, at which the U.S. hopes to win broad mutual tariff reductions. For the moment, everyone was simply relieved at the chicken truce. "We are all glad it's over," said W. Michael Blumenthal, Trade Negotiator Christian Herter's deputy in Geneva. He was addressing an American Club luncheon in Geneva—at which the main course was French chicken.