ABSTRACT
The European Economic Community (EEC) crisis had immediate repercussions in Geneva, making uncertain the destiny of the EEC and, consequently, of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) talks. The US move created an intricate problem for members of the EEC and complicated the EEC's internal discussions about the treatment of agriculture in the GATT and the elaboration of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). An agreement on CAP and GATT negotiations still had to be reached and in nervous aftermath of the Empty Chair crisis it would not prove an easy task. In September 1964, meetings between the Commission and Blumenthal intensified in an effort to work out mutually acceptable rules. With the failure to agree on rules for agriculture, the most urgent matter Washington had to resolve was whether to offer its exceptions list. The State Department and National Security Affairs assistants Francis Bator and McGeorge Bundy were convinced of the need to go ahead with industrial negotiations.
