Another Look at the Common Market

It is generally recognized that membership of the EEC would almost certainly mean for the United Kingdom the acceptance on the balance of payments of a substantial burden through the working of the Common Agricultural Policy. Part of this cost would take the form of higher import prices, as a result of buying food from other members rather than from cheaper sources outside the Community, and of direct contributions to the Community's Agricultural Fund; and part would result from the effects of higher prices for food on the general cost structure of the economy and hence on the competitiveness of exports. In addition, allowance must be made for the so-called ‘impact’ effects of tariff changes. Apart from the mutual reductions in tariffs between the United Kingdom and the Community's present members, the United Kingdom would in all probability forfeit the preferences over those countries which it now receives in the Commonwealth, EFTA, and the Irish Republic.