Benelux is very much in the air at present, but
there are a lot of people who feel rather hazy about it. What is it, and what is it trying to do? Its name, BElgium, NEtherlands, LUXembourg, in- dicates that it is an association of those three countries. Its purpose is to create a complete customs union between the three. That is turning out slow work. A common tariff on all goods coming into any of the three countries from outside has been fixed. That is something, but it is a long way from the ideal, which is the elimina- tion of all customs barriers between Holland and Belgium and between each of them and Luxembourg. One or two small advances, like the same postal rate within the three-country area, have been arranged. But welcome as all this is, it is a pertinent reminder of the problems to be solved before anything like a customs union between the sixteen Marshall Plan States can be evolved.
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