Journal of European Integration History – Revue d'histoire de l'

Industrial Interest in West Germany´s Decision 49German foreign trade statistics. All in all, the trade discrimination that occurredbetween the EEC and EFTA did not seem to lead to important changes in thesources of imports for the Seven. This might have been partly due to long establishedtrade relations, to geographic proximity and correspondingly low transportcosts, but most probably to the fact that the markets were regulated by otherdevices. It could also have been due to the fact that production capacity withinEFTA would not have been sufficient to cause a substantial switch from Germanyor indeed from any other EEC supplier country to Britain as the most importanttextile producer among the Seven.Textile – ImportsFor imports the picture is quite similar to that of exports with a little slump in 1958and 1959, a rise above the trend for the EEC and a line close to the 1953-58 trendfor imports from EFTA. However, it is important to note that the balance of tradewith the EFTA countries is persistently positive, while with the EEC it becomesincreasingly negative particularly from mid-1959 when the first internal tariffmeasures showed their effect. The most important source of imports among theEEC members was Italy, closely followed by France. The value of imports fromFrance almost doubled from the first to the last quarter of 1959. On a slightly lowerlevel, imports from the Benelux countries rose markedly above the 1953-58 trendtoo, contributing to a very strong negative balance of trade in textiles for Germanywith its partners in the EEC.Textile imports from the EEC rose markedly, whereas imports from the EFTAcountries roughly followed the 1953-58 trend, and remained below it during mostof the second half of the period. Imports from the UK continued to stagnate after1958 and stayed well below the trend. Switzerland remained the most importantsource of textile imports among the Seven, followed by the UK and Austria. Themost significant development was the complete stagnation of imports from Britainafter 1957.While it is hard to specify to which protective measures this stagnation was due,it seems that the failure to establish the free trade area and to admit Britain into theEEC saved the German textile industry from potentially very damaging competition.Had the free trade area come about in 1958/59, a “take off” of imports fromBritain together with the rise of imports from France and Italy would undoubtedlyhave had a strong negative impact on the German textile industry. One factor in thatwould certainly have been textile imports into the UK from the Commonwealth aswell as the UK textiles made from Indian “grey cloth” or re-exports from HongKong.