The 37 contracting parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) were represented at the meeting of the GATT inter-sessional committee, held in Geneva for three weeks, beginning April 14, 1958. The committee discussed at length the provisions of the Rome treaty establishing the European Economic Community. In its consideration of the question, the committee dealt with the common customs tariff which the community was to bring in, the use of import restrictions by the six signatories to protect their balance of payments situation, the so-called managed market for agriculture, and the association of the overseas territories of the community as part of the common market and the effect of this on world trade. Baron Snoy, who represented the European Economic Community, informed the committee that there would be a meeting in July at which representatives of the six countries would discuss preliminary matters affecting agriculture.

The Council of the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM) held its eighth session in Geneva from May 7 to 13, 1958. The session opened with the unanimous election of Marcus Daly as Director of ICEM to succeed Harold H. Tittmann. In his report on ICEM activities in 1957 Mr. Tittmann announced that during the year ICEM had moved 194,000 migrants and refugees, bringing the sixyear total to 775,000. The retiring director suggested that the future program of ICEM should include 1) consultations between the emigration countries of Europe and the immigration countries overseas with regard to the planning of migration programs; 2) the closest possible relationship between ICEM and the European Economic Community, and the free trade area if it were set up, which were concerned with the mobility of manpower within Europe; and 3) efforts to make effective activities of ICEM other than transport which helped develop and improve migration and to assure stable financing for them. It was announced that an estimated total of 126,000 migrants would be moved by ICEM in 1958, representing a decrease of twenty percent below the total previously estimated and a decrease of 67,747 from the number of migrants moved by ICEM in 1957. The decrease was ascribed to reductions in immigration programs and stricter selection requirements imposed by receiving countries as the result of economic retrenchment. ICEM expected to spend $34,575,767 in effecting the movements.

The 24th session of the International Wheat Council was held in London on June 25 and 26, 1958, under the chairmanship of Mr. F. Sheed Anderson. Representatives of 31 countries and of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) were present.