The ninth meeting of the Consultative Committee of the Colombo Plan for Cooperative Economic Development in South and South-East Asia was held in Saigon, Viet Nam, October 21–24, 1957. The committee considered the draft annual report which reviewed the progress of economic development in the area and outlined the unfinished tasks. It was announced that the annual Canadian contribution to the Colombo Plan would be increased in 1958–1959, subject to the approval of Parliament, to $35 million. The United States representative informed the conference that a new $300 million development loan fund was being organized by his government to assist countries of south and southeast Asia. The Federation of Malaya was welcomed as a member of the Colombo Plan. On the final day of the meeting the invitation of the United States to hold the next year's meeting in the United States was accepted. The meeting adopted the draft annual report and issued a communiqué which noted the economic progress made in the area in the year under review and outlined some of the future tasks in economic development.

In February 1958 the International Tin Council announced that as part of its efforts to cope with the world surplus of tin, the first control period would end on March 31, 1958, instead of on March 14. Total permissible exports were to remain at 27,000 tons. The Council subsequently decided to hold the rate of production to 23,000 tons for the period from April 1 to June 30, 1958, and then from July to September, and thus to continue to apply restrictions at a rate of about 40 percent. It was estimated in February 1958 that the reduction of exports would reduce the current supply of tin below the rate of current consumption. In May 1958 the market price of tin was just above the floor price of £730 per ton.

The sixteenth regular session of the Danube Commission was held in Budapest in January 1957. It was reported that a series of organizational and financial problems was deliberated, an assessment of the practical work accomplished given, and the fundamental tasks of the Commission in the forthcoming period determined. Reportedly, the Danube Commission had covered and resolved almost all the basic problems concerning the establishment of the regulations for ensuring free navigation of the Danube; however, uniform regulations regarding civil law relations in navigation still had not been established. In setting its future tasks, the sixteenth session took into account, inter alia, the interconnection of the Danube basin with the other European water ways (the Rhine, the Oder, the Vistula, and the east German canals) and the complex utilization of the Danube as a source of hydroelectric power. It was reported that active cooperation had been established with the Economic Commission for Europe and the International Navigation Congress of Brussels. The importance of taking the entire Danube into account was noted in deliberating the tasks of the Commission relating to navigation and to the increased economic exploitation of the Danube. In this connection it was reported that beginning from the fifteenth regular session of the Commission, the Austrian and west German experts were participating in the Commission's activities.

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.

The Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) held an extraordinary session in Rome, November 5–9, 1957. It re-elected Mr. Hans Furler (Federal Republic of Germany, Christian Democrat) as President of the Assembly and chose the following as vicepresidents: Messrs. Jean Fohrmann (Luxembourg, Socialist), Roger Motz (Belgium, Liberal), Emilio Battista (Italy, Christian Democrat), Emile Vanrullen (France, Socialist), and W. Rip (Netherlands, Anti-Revolutionary). The Assembly discussed four major topics: safety in the mines, migration and free movement of workers, coordination of transport, and commercial policy in the Community. Four resolutions adopted by the Common Assembly on November 9 dealt with the following points in each of the four areas: need for preventive action, the solution of technical problems, and proposals made by the Conference convened to study safety in the mines; the study to be made by the High Authority of means of solving the housing crisis and of increasing vocational training, as well as of a plan for coordinating manpower movements between member countries; institution of a procedure of mutual consultation, delegation to the High Authority, in respect of coal and steel, of the same competence to be delegated to the European Commission, and close coordination and assembly in one place of European institutions; and the need to coordinate and harmonize European transport and the invitation to the Council of Ministers to take the report presented to the Assembly on this subject as the basis of a common policy.

The European community treaties establishing the European Economic Community (common market) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) were ratified by Italy on October 9, 1957. by Luxembourg on November 26, by Belgium on November 28 and by the Netherlands on December 5 With the ratification thus completed the treaties came into force on January 1, 1958.

The twelfth session of the Contracting Parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was held in Geneva, October 17-November 30, 1957, under the chairmanshipof Shri L. K. Jha (India). According to the press, one of the most important aspects of the meeting was the discussion of the Treaty of Rome establishing the European Economic Community. A committee which had been created by a GATT ministerial meeting, October 28–30, 1957, to examine the relevant provisions of the treaty and of GATT and to consider methods of implementing the interrelated obligations which governments had assumed in the two instruments reported to the Contracting Parties that its four subgroups had examined the treaty with respect to tariffs, the use of quantitative restrictions for balance-of-payments reasons, trade in agricultural products, and the association of certain overseas countries and territories with the Community. Agreeing that the preliminary examination had been useful but that a number of important questions remained unsolved, the Contracting Parties decided that the Intersessional Committee, with representation from all contracting parties, should continue the work begun at the session. Following its discussion of the trade aspects of the treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) the Contracting Parties decided that further consideration could take place together with examination of the European Economic Community treaty. On another aspect of European economic integration, the Contracting Parties agreed that the Intersessional Committee should follow developments concerning the proposed European free trade area being negotiated in Paris.

The Council of the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM) held its sixth session in Geneva, April 8–12, 1957.1 The Council took note of two reports submitted by the Director describing the work of the Committee from January 1956 through February 1957. The reports pointed out that there had been a further decline in overseas emigration from Italy and Greece, especially to Latin American countries, and an increase in emigration from Austria, the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Netherlands. On the other hand, migration to the United States had reached a high level due to a sharp increase in the rate of issue of visas shortly before the expiry of the Refugee Relief Act atthe end of 1956. Discussing the reports, Council delegates expressed their concern at the decrease in movements to Latin America, especially movements of workers as distinct from those of persons emigrating under family reunion schemes. With regard to land settlement the Council was informed that the decision of the United States to devote part of its Latin American Development Fund to the promotion of land settlement schemes had stimulated interest in this field. Eight projects prepared with the cooperation of ICEM had been submitted by the governments concerned to the United States authorities. With respect to transport, the reports drew attention to the difficulties resulting from the progressive increase in passenger fares and the withdrawal of vessels formerly available for the movement of migrants. During the discussion, several delegates emphasized that the continuous and orderly movement of migrants depended on the availability of adequate transport facilities. The Council learned that the United States was considering the possibility of making available to ICEM three vessels formerly used as United States troop carriers.