journal of european integration history revue d'histoire de l ...

118
Juhana Aunesluoma
The trade disputes of 1952 and the abortive Eden plan were both signs that the
Anglo-Scandinavian relationship had after all become more strained when compared
to the Labour government's period in office in 1945-51. Thus in summer
1952, while acute disagreements between Britain and Scandinavia in trade issues
were patched up, posts in Scandinavia were increasingly apprehensive about the future
prospects of Anglo-Scandinavian economic co-operation, as this time problems
seemed to originate from London and not from Stockholm or Copenhagen. 53
While on the trade side the British were steadily losing ground to West Germany,
on the economic-political front even the Norwegians had become more reserved
towards Britain than they had been in the beginning of Uniscan co-operation in late
1949. There was a growing realisation of economic changes, which were working
against, not for, further Anglo-Scandinavian economic co-operation. The last occasion
when plans for deepening economic relations between these countries were
discussed was in 1953-55, when under the initiative of the Treasury and the Bank
of England, feasibility of Scandinavia's full Sterling area membership, and even
participation in the British Commonwealth, was studied and abandoned in face of
Swedish and Danish opposition. This time these ideas met with even less enthusiasm
on the behalf of the Swedes and Danes than the Uniscan proposals had in
1949, although the Norwegian response was at first positive. 54 Again in 1957-58,
when the British government's Free Trade Area proposal was discussed, the prospects
for any special Anglo-Scandinavian economic arrangements alongside the
wider schemes were very low. After the shelving of the Sterling area proposals in
1955, no substantial openings for further co-operation within this group were introduced
until 1959.
Conclusion
While officials at the Board of Trade and the Foreign Office tried to counter the
overall trend of growing distance between the governments on international economic
policy in the early 1950s, Uniscan's meetings nonetheless continued apace
and remained a part of the official machinery of managing Britain's relations with
the Scandinavians and vice versa. The biannual meetings of Uniscan lasted until
1959, when the Swedish government initiated – during what proved to be Uniscan's
last meeting – the negotiations that led to the signature of the Stockholm Convention
in November 1959 and the formation of EFTA. The arrangement was formally
ended in 1960.
53. Wright to Eden, 18 June 1952, FO 371/99082, PRO.
54. Brittain minute, 29 February 1953, T 236/5375, PRO; Bank of England memorandum, 'Uniscan
and convertibility', 15 April 1953, OV 29/32, BEA; H. Eggers minute, 5 May 1953; Treasury
memorandum, 'Scandinavia and the Sterling Area', 16.May 1953; Berthoud to Coulson, 17 June
1953, T 236/5375, PRO; K. E. ERIKSEN and H. Ø. PHARO, Kald krig of internasjonalisering …,
op.cit., pp.144-145.