THE SIX AND AGRICULTURE Sta,—]
.1 is strange that no use appears hitherto to have
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been made of Article 52 of the Rome Treaty n the Present Common Market negotiations over agricul- ture. This article provides for freedom of establish- ment of workers, businessmen and others, and Article 54(2)(e) specifically covers freedom to pur- chase and use landed property within member States by nationals of any other member State. It might well cause the French negotiators to rn, °difY their obdurate attitude if they were reminded that their apparently inefficient farmers would be vulnerable to an influx of land-hungry farmers from Britain, properly capitalised and with a tradition of highly productive and mechanised farming behind them. Indeed when Britain and Denmark have joined. the EEC will contain the three most efficient farming countries in the world (Holland completing the trio).
There is an escape clause, Article 39(2), but if the EEC agricultural system is to be based on the stan- dards of the inefficient rather than the efficient pro- ducers, it will clearly be more difficult for France to put up a convincing case for still further preferential treatment by invoking this article.
N. MARCH HUNNINGS
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