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UK Visible Trade and the Common Market

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

A.E. Daly
A.E. Daly*
Affiliation:
National Institute of Economic and Social Research
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Abstract

This article examines changes in the pattern of the United Kingdom's visible trade with the original members of the European Economic Community and with Ireland, Denmark and the EFTA countries since her entry to the EEC in January 1973. It is concluded that UK-EEC trade has grown faster than might have been expected in the absence of entry, with little or no loss of non-agricultural trade in the other markets.

Type
Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 86 , November 1978 , pp. 42 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © 1978 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

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References

(1) For a discussion of the problems involved in attributing imports to a particular country source, see R. Green, ‘How different methods of country attribution affect trade statistics’, Trade and Industry, 21 April 1978.

(1) J. D. Wells and J. C. Imber, ‘The home and export performance of United Kingdom industries’, Economic Trends, August 1977.

(1) Membership of EFTA has changed over the period. Apart from the United Kingdom, the original members were Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland and Portugal. Finland, which had previously been associated with EFTA, was included in 1969 and Iceland in 1970. In 1973 both Denmark and the United Kingdom left EFTA. The remaining seven countries decided to continue in EFTA although its economic significance was reduced.

(2) Price competitiveness is calculated as competitive world price of manufactures ($) / UK unit value index for exports of manufactures ($) where the numerator is

UN index of world price 0.1 x UK unit value index of manufactures ($) — for exports of manufactures ($) 0.9

(1) A. D. Morgan, ‘Commercial Policy’ in F. Blackaby (ed.) British Economic Policy, Cambridge University Press, 1978, p. 560.

(2) S. S. Han and H. H. Liesner, Britain and the Common Market: the effect of entry on the pattern of manufacturing production, Cambridge University Press, 1971. The introduction of a scheme to protect the Community's iron and steel industry in January 1978 would now make this statement invalid.

(3) G. M. Taber, Patterns and Prospects of Common Market Trade, Peter Owen Ltd., London, 1974, p. 70.

(1) Although North American trade in motor vehicles is distorted by the US-Canada automotive free trade agreement, this commenced in 1965 and its effect on shares of imports from other sources will therefore be included in the trend.

(1) The Economist, 31 December, 1977, ‘Industries in Trouble’, p. 78, contains a description of the EEC scheme for the steel industry. The Davignon plan has proved less successful than was hoped in maintaining a minimum price for European steel. Discussions between the Commission and Eurofer, the organisation of steel producers, are currently under way in an attempt to strengthen the plan.

(1) White Paper on Britain and the European Communities: An Economic Assessment, London, HMSO, February 1970.

(1) R. Bacon, W. Godley and A. McFarquhar, ‘The direct costs to Britain of belonging to the EEC’, Cambridge Economic Policy Review, March 1978.

(1) These countries were Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Niger, Upper Volta, Ivory Coast, Togo, Dahomey, Cameroon, Chad, Central African Empire, Gabon, Congo (Brazzaville), Zaire, Burundi, Rwanda and Somalia.

(2) Nine EEC countries and forty-six African, Caribbean and Pacific countries signed the Lomé Convention in February 1975. Seven additional ACP countries have now signed the Convention, which is currently being renegotiated.

(1) A. D. Ouattara, ‘Trade effects of the association of African countries with the European Economic Community’, IMF Staff Papers, July 1973.

(1) White Paper on Britain and the European Communities: An Economic Assessment, para 102, HMSO, London, February 1970.