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16.
non-disruptive;
and
(c) swing in could only be at the expense of swing out,
leaving aggregate limits unchanged.
In this, as in a number of other aspects, Ernst
demonstrated a philosophical rather than practical approach
and showed little awareness of the realities of the conduct
of business, This rather academic approach could present
difficulties in future negotiations with the Commission.
Administrative Practices
17. Despite an attempt to create the illusion of a Commission
in control, it became clear under questioning that Ernst had
in fact little hope of an Article 4 arrangement being materially
different to a photograph of existing restraint agreements and
the French non-agreement, extended to cover presently
liberalised trade in some sectors but possibly excluding yarns
and some piecegoods, with administrative control arrangements
still a matter for negotiation with individual Member States.
The only matter on which Ernst expressed a firm opinion in this
context was that there would be a uniform categorisation system
based on an EEC list of 34 categories. These, he emphasised,
were selected for basically statistical reasons and he did not
think that there would be a significant number of specific
category limits within any Article 4 agreement.
The actual
number would, however, still be a matter for the secondary
negotiations with Member States.
18. We made it clear this was an unsatisfactory situation from
our point of view. It did not appear to be in accord with
either the spirit or the letter of the CTC conclusions which had,
after all, been based on an EEC draft. We said we could see
no possibility of carrying forward the derisory French limits
into an Article 4 arrangement, especially in the absence of a
firm commitment to concede export control.
This would merely
/be a
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