Oldal 3 [3]
— page three e
large Corporations : the Elgin and the Hamilton Watch €2!s.
Despite this, chances are that the move will succeed, esoecially
since the Trade Unions have come to the help of the corporations.
This is unfortunately not all. In fact the Tarriff
Commission is presently studying 16 recommendations for the appli=
cation of the Escape-Clause, and in the majority of instances it
is to be feared thi the recommendations will be hpstile to Euro¬
pean Imports. :
This tendency hence implies the gravest dangers for the
European—American relations, The Dollar gap is again increasing.
It is the reason, why several European countries have been com¬
pelled to close their borders to imports, or to try to limit
trade. It is certain that with the present trend the trade gap
will only increase and that rising Dollar-shortages must be ex¬
pected,
From the American point-of-view this implies two very
bad political riskse First of all, the whole aim of the Marshall
aide was to make of Europe again a going concern, This is the
reason why such large sums of money were apprppriated for indus¬
traal expansion, And this was successfulle Today Western Europe's
potential is fully reconstructed. But it lacks a market. In the
past, normal exchanges went in a large proportion to the Hast,
Now the East is incorporated in the Soviet realm, and hence has
no trade with the West. This trade with the East is furthermore
banned under the Mutual Security System. But the two pronged risks
arise at this point, The first one is, that the tendency is
rapidly growing in Europe demanding, in view of America's econo=
mic isolationism, a retrn to the trade with the Baste The Soviets
know exactly this possibility and hence are floofling Europe with
increasingly favourable trade offers. Russia feels that these of¬
fers have a large political audience, And the leaders in America
begin to understand that these renewed trade offers are the new
Troyan Horse with which to enter the West European stronghold,
If no solution is found to the problem of trade with America, the
economic Western Front will collapse, beginning later this year.
The other possibility for the Americans is, if they can not open
their market more widély, to continue in increased manner the poli¬
cy of subsidies as in the times of the Marshall plan. The best
form would be the off-shore buying, by MSA, But this has the
danger of unfavourable reactions inside the USA, where people are
getting very tired of paying taxes for foreign subsidies, Hence
the off-shore buying has been very limited, Between the inner
pressure end the outward dangers, the Americans are waveringe In
private leaders agree, that only a lowering of the customs bar¬
riers could solve the present grave problem. But they also say,
i