Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, Western European Security and Integration, Volume IV

186. Memorandum of a Conversation, Department of State, Washington, September 26, 1956¹

Washington, September 26, 1956

SUBJECT

• General Discussion of Current Work of OEEC

PARTICIPANTS

• The Secretary of State
• M. Rene Sergent, Secretary-General of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation
• Mr. B.E.L. Timmons, Director, Office of European Regional Affairs
• The Secretary received M. Sergent at 2:15 p.m.²

The Secretary welcomed M. Sergent and spoke of the deep interest of the United States Government in the work of the Organization, and in particular in the projected study of relations between the proposed common market and the free trade area. He recalled that he had had the privilege of attending on one of the Ministerial meetings of the OEEC.

M. Sergent responded that he greatly appreciated the opportunity of talking for a few minutes with the Secretary regarding recent developments in the work of the Organization, which he found most encouraging.

Turning first to the proposal for the creation, through the OEEC, of a broad free trade area, including the United Kingdom, grouped around the Six-Country Common Market now under discussion in Brussels, M. Sergent said he personally was convinced that the proposal was not a device on the part of the British to gain time. He said that the first cracks in the British position opposing an enlarged free trade area in Europe came in the early months of this year. Several of the leading newspapers in the United Kingdom had addressed themselves to the matter. M. Sergent said that he thought that Mr. Thornycroft, President of the Board of Trade, now sincerely believes that British association with a free trade area in Europe would be greatly to the United Kingdom’s advantage, and other members of the British Cabinet are increasingly favorable to the idea. M. Sergent went on to say that previously there had existed a danger that the Six Countries, if they formed a common market, would then have proceeded to deal on a bilateral basis with the other OEEC countries. This would have been most unfortunate, and he thought this danger had now greatly lessened owing to the more positive British approach to the free trade area now under discussion.

The Secretary commented that at the time of Prime Minister Eden’s visit to Washington last January, it had been quite clear that while the British Government was prepared to tolerate EURATOM, it was quite hostile to the Common Market. It appeared to him that the British Government was now approaching the question of the common market and a free trade area in a much more objective way, and that there had been a considerable shift in British thinking on the matter.

M. Sergent said that the OEEC study regarding the creation of the free trade area is now just getting under way, under the direction of Baron Snoy, a high permanent official of the Belgian Government dealing with trade matters, who has participated in the work of the OEEC from the beginning and who is also a member of the Belgian Delegation to the Six-Country talks in Brussels on the common market. M. Sergent said he felt that the fact Baron Snoy is heading the study is a very good omen for the future of the discussions concerning the free trade area, as he believes in both the common market and in the association with it of a free trade area. It was of course too early to say what the outcome would be, but he remained extremely hopeful. He added he was conscious that the U.S. was watching developments closely, and that it was important that the free trade area not become a device for discriminating against the U.S.

Turning to the question of the work of the OEEC in the field of nuclear energy, M. Sergent recounted briefly some of the developments that had given the appearance of incompatibility between EURATOM and the OEEC initiative in the nuclear energy field. He said that while several “peace treaties” had been signed earlier, it was not until the July 1956 OEEC Ministerial meeting that there was a full realization of the compatibility of the two initiatives. The representatives of the Six had been particularly helpful at the OEEC meeting. He went on to speak of the hope of the OEEC to associate private capital in whatever projects it proves possible to undertake in the field of nuclear energy in the OEEC framework.

1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 840.00/9–2656. Confidential. Drafted by Timmons.
2. Sergent was in Washington to attend meetings of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In a memorandum to Dulles, dated September 24, Elbrick briefed the Secretary of State on this scheduled meeting. (Ibid., RA Files: Lot 58 D 455, Washington Visits)