approach or a unilateral one. He wanted to make it clear that the President would not himself take
unilateral action but he was of the opinion that
Congress would do so if the Administration was not able to reach a solution in consultation with overseas countries. He emphasised that the problem of textiles
was of great internal political significance in the United States. The President would welcome any advice or help that the United Kingdom Government
could give on this matter.
The Prime Minister said that the United Kingdom Government greatly appreciated the strong line that the previous U.S. Administration had taken in resisting protectionism. President Nixon now faced rather greater problems and we in no way underrated the difficulties which confronted him. The Prime Minister referred to our application to join the Common Market and the fact that this had for the time being been frustrated by the French veto. We expected that cur
accession to the Common Market would produce a more
liberal and outward looking community. But this was not the present position and we were very ready to consult with the United States and others on how the existing impediments to the freer, movement of trade could best be minimized. We welcomed the initiative on what had been called "an open table approach" in relation to non-tariff barriors. Wo had to face, however, that this would be a lengthy process, since