ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information needed to understand the reaction of the European Economic Community (EEC) member states to the US proposal. The driving force of the economic policy of Western European countries was a combination of state intervention and measures to increase the exposure of the domestic economy to international market forces. The Treaty of Rome provided for exclusive Community competence in the trade field. It implemented a customs union for industrial products, in which French goods could compete in a framework smaller than the multilateral one established by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The French government attentively examined the impact the Trade Expansion Act (TEA) could have on the EEC. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was developed in tension with international trade. In September 1962 Erhard expressed his support for Kennedy's trade policy, calling it a fine development, and advocated a rapid start for the new round.
