Office of the Historian

225. Memorandum of a Conversation, Department of State, Washington, February 26, 19571

Washington, February 26, 1957

SUBJECT

  • European integration

PARTICIPANTS

  • U.S. Side
    • The President
    • The Secretary of State
    • The Under Secretary
    • Mr. Dillon
    • Mr. Houghton
    • Mr. Elbrick
  • French Side
    • M. Guy Mollet, Prime Minister
    • M. Christian Pineau, Minister of Foreign Affairs
    • M. Louis Joxe, Secretary General of Ministry of For. Aff.
    • M. Daridan, Director General of Political Affairs
    • M. Emile Noel, Chief of Prime Minister’s Cabinet
    • M. Pierre Baraduc, Director of Press and Information Service
    • Mr. Herve Alphand, French Ambassador

The President referred to his conversation with Premier Mollet earlier in the day on the Middle East and asked if there were not [Page 530] other matters which Mollet wished to discuss.2 Mollet said there were various European problems which he would like to touch upon and he asked Mr. Pineau to describe the European Common Market and the related free trade area.

Pineau then went into some detail in describing the efforts of the six countries to integrate their economic activities. At the recent meeting of Prime Ministers in Paris to finalize arrangements the question of the association of overseas territories had also been dealt with and a decision had been reached as to the relationship of those territories to the Community of Six. The countries had agreed to establish a common investment fund for the development of these territories, but it was pointed out that this would not preclude private investment in this field. The period foreseen for the development of the Community is fifteen years. Pineau said that Great Britain is very interested in establishing a free exchange between the Common Market and the United Kingdom in the field of industrial products. The United Kingdom cannot enter the Common Market arrangement itself due to the fact that its special ties with the Commonwealth countries prevent it from accepting agricultural products from other areas. Likewise the United Kingdom does not wish to agree to the inclusion of its own overseas territories in the Common Market. Pineau said that the idea of a free trade area must be discussed separately from the Common Market and felt that this should be done in the OEEC.

Pineau said that at the end of the 15-year period the six countries will be as one in their economic relations with other countries. Their normal exchanges with other countries will not be affected and, he felt, might even be improved in cases where duties established in the common tariff may be lower than they are at present. The six countries will, in the operation of the free trade area, be considered as one country. He felt that the association of the United Kingdom in this free trade area would bring England closer to the Six.

President Eisenhower expressed the view that it would be a fine day for the free world when the Common Market becomes an established fact.3

  1. Source: Department of State, Conference Files: Lot 62 D 181, CF 833A. Secret. Drafted by Elbrick.↩
  2. Mollet was in the United States for a 4-day official visit, February 25–28.↩
  3. In a joint statement issued by Eisenhower and Mollet on February 28, at the conclusion of the talks, the President reaffirmed U.S. support for Western European economic integration and indicated his full accord with the objective of associating overseas territories with the proposed common market. For text of the statement, see Department of State Bulletin, March 18, 1957, pp. 438–439.↩