Brit for Gatt
I SUPPOSE we could always have a Gener- al Disagreement on Tariffs and Trade. Would it be a private fight, or could anyone join in? While we have what purports to be a general agreement, Arthur Dunkel, though due to retire up one of his native Alps, remains in charge of it. Possible suc- cessors are said to be put off by the idea that disagreement may have supervened before they get there. A useful topic for next month's economic summit meeting if such a thing can be imagined — would be to find the successor who can stop that hap- pening. It will take something more than a worthy international civil servant. The job specification must include political clout, a belief in free trade, and a willingness to tread on people's toes, which is why I have been arguing that it is the perfect retire- ment job — if that, too, can be imagined for Lady Thatcher. I can think of two more names from the Honours List which would be on my short list. The British are very bad, just as the French are very good, at farming the top jobs in the international agencies. Frenchmen head the Internation- al Monetary Fund, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Commis- sion. Now the Gatt job is going, we should go for it and make something of it. We have more interest than most people — the Swiss or the French, for example — in staving off disagreement and making Gatt work.
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