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A Customs Union for Western Europe: Advantages and Feasibility*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

P. J. Verdoorn
P. J. Verdoorn
Affiliation:
Central Planning Bureau, Rotterdam School of Economics
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Extract

EXPANSION of internal trade and a wider market for its products are generally considered necessary conditions for the economic strengthening of Western Europe. Obviously, creation of a wider market presupposes at least some liberalization of trade. Liberalization of intra-Western European trade might be part of some broader scheme, such as a world-wide liberalization of trade, or the establishment of a huge block of interlocking preferential areas, as advocated by the Strasbourg Plan; or it might be restricted to Western Europe alone. At all events, it is clear that the economic consequences of liberalization will depend on the areas to be liberalized and on the character of the agreements that pertain to the mutual removal of trade restrictions.

Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , July 1954 , pp. 482 - 500
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1954

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References

1 Council of Europe, Secretariat General (S G/R[52]16 final): Economic Relations with Overseas Countries, August 27, 1952, ch, II, esp. p. 31, n. 1.

2 See, e.g., Hirsch, Werner Z., “Manufacturing Progress Functions,” Review of Economics and Statistics, XXXIV (May 1954), pp. 143ff.Google Scholar; and Andress, Frank J., “The Learning Curve as a Production Tool,” Harvard Business Review, XXXII (January-February 1954). pp. 37–38–Google Scholar

3 “The Influence of Protective Tariffs on the Industrial Development of the United States,” Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science (May 1940), pp. 2–7; reprinted in Clemence, Richard V., ed., Essays of J. A. Schumpeter, Cambridge, Mass., 1951, pp. 164ff.Google Scholar

4 Cf. Hawtrey, R. G., “The Nature of Profit,” Economic Journal, LXI (September 1951), pp. 489ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 A complete exposition of the method used is given in Reprint No. 22 of the Central Planning Bureau, The Hague (available upon request).