"FREE TRADERS" REV UP AN 11TH-HOUR CAMPAIGN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85T00153R000100070010-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 15, 2008
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: April 11, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2008/01/15: CIA-RDP85TO0153R000100070010-3
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TRANSMITTAL SLIP I DATE 11 Apr 83
TO: Milt Kovner, NI0/WE
ROOM NO. BUILDING
7E62 Hqs.
DATE
TRANSMITTAL SLIP
11 Apr 83
TO:
NI0/E
ROOM NO.
BUILDING
REMARKS:
FYI
FROM:
C/NIC
ROOM NO.
BUILDING
7E62
Hqs.
FORM NO. 1 FES 55 241 WHICHCMAYBEMUSED
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Approved For Release 2008/01/15: CIA-RDP85TO0153R000100070010-3
 Approved For Release 2008/01/15: CIA-RDP85TO0153R000100070010-3
EUROPEAN COMMUNITY
`Free traders' rev up
an 11th-hour campaign
European governments breathed easier
after arch-protectionist France decided
to saddle its own citizens instead of its
trading partners with the bill for its eco-
nomic ills. Even so, officials in Bonn,
London, and The Hague are afraid they
have only a few weeks to contain the
forces of protectionism before Greece-
whose Socialist government is now
strongly protectionist takes over the
presidency of the European Community
for a six-month term in June.
The margin of the French decision
was razor-thin, and only at the last min-
ute did President Francois Mitterrand
tilt away from the protectionists, led by
former Ministe1 of Research & Industry
Jean-Pierre Chevenement and Jean Ri-
boud, chairman of Schlumberger Ltd.,
the oil exploration equipment company.
Despite the ascendancy of conservative
socialist Jacques Delors, few top French
officials favor reducing trade barriers,
and some who advocate more protection-
ism could gain support if France's aus-
terity program fails to cut imports.
Led by West Germany, Europe's "free
traders" are trying to convince other EC
nations that they are a hairbreadth away
from a total breakdown in already frag-
ile intra-European t '
years of
fou
mmon Market was
there is no difference between
rting into the European Community
other within it," laments Karl-H'
and exporting from one country to an;
Narjes, the German EC Commoner
who-heads the effo ' -Brussels- "If we
cannot win a reform, we can forget
about a sustained recovery."
By June, Narjes is hoping to secure
Con umtyagreemen cey har-
mzation measures:
Easing of the 30,000 different health,
ety, and commercial standards that
^ Limiting border -hara
pers and truckers within Europe, w
sharing," suspecting that the cure would
mean either lower productivity or pay
the EC calculates costs a staggerine12
^ Erecting trade barriers, to "safe- cuts. But recent breakthroughs in Ger-
guard" against non-European products, many and Belgium could augur the be-
that would replace individual countries' ginning of industry-labor collaboration.
The EC may lower Internal walls while strengthening banters against the U. S. and Japan.
restrictions against a range of imports- France in January "a political time
from shoes to high technology-from bomb" that could lead a e co the U. S., Japan, and some developing-si new import pens ie Est
nations. Such a safeguard may be the German goods. "We [Germans] are be-
price the free-trade bloc must pay to win coming the Japan of Europe," he says.
easier trade rules within Europe. - 'Bit of a box.' Instead of giving Europe
Despite its decision to shelve new im- time to streamline its industries more
port restrictions, France's underlying de- easily, a gradual economic recovery may
sire for a protected market is un- exacerbate protectionist tendencies by
changed, EC officials say. New studies of' unmasking weak companies in sectors
French competitiveness show that be- that France,. Italy, and other countries
fore Mitterrand took office, France consider critical. With worldwide overca-
could outcompete Germany only in au- pacity in consumer electronics, rising
tos, and now even that advantage has
been lost.
European analysts doubt that the 8%
devaluation of the French franc against
the Deutschemark and new austerity
measures will cut France's trade deficit
with Germany-significa.y~t-tf-tie
r -dos not shrink soon, Paris may dew
d the same "voluntary" export re-
straints from Germany that it imposed
n Japan. Such a move could trigge
sirhihW calls from Italy and Greece el
Zonornist-Norbe r calls
Institute e
the 25% leap in German exports to
European incomes will encourage U. S.
and Japanese companies to cut prices for
the sake of market share. This will hurt
Europe's struggling plants.
U. S. government . officials are con-
cerned.' But because the U. S. already
applies trade restrictions, such as limit-
ing imports of cars from Japan, they say
Washington can do little if the French
persuade other Europeans to block U. S.
and Japanese imports temporarily. "We
are in a bit of a box in criticizing them.
Their proposal parallels our own," says
a U. S. official in Brussels. ^
A job crisis finally trims the work week
Europe's runaway unemployment cri-
sis-one of every 10 Europeans is job-
ess-is breaking the logjam on a contro-
versial formula to create jobs by
shrinking the workday. Until recently,
both employers and workers have re-
ment of ship-_, fused to take more than small doses of
Late in March, German chemical
workers sidestepped employer opposition
by folding workweek reductions into a
plan that resembles early retirement.
The 40-hour workweek will be cut four
hours every other week for 50,000 work-
ers aged 58 and over, with a full reduc-
tion to a 36-hour week after 1987.
To be sure, the long recession has con-
tributed to the double-digit unemploy-
ment now stifling Europe. But the prob-
lem goes much deeper. Ivor Richard, the
European Community's commissioner
Approved For Release 2008/01/15: CIA-RDP85TO0153R000100070010-3