Recartelization?

West German businessmen, like most of their colleagues in Europe, favor some sort of cartel as an aid to doing business. Last week they thought they saw a ray of hope. In 1950, the Allied High Commission had split Germany's Vereinigte Stahlwerke A.G. (United Steel Works Corp.), which once produced and sold 40% of the nation's steel and 20% of its coal, into 18 different companies; one of them was the marketing company and that, in turn, was to be split in two.

But last week the allies ruled that the sales company could stay intact, at the request of the West German government. Did the decision mean that German industry, now far along the way to decartelization, would take a significant turn back?

The commission insisted that there had been no change in its opposition to cartels; in fact, the new ruling stipulated that the marketing agency, which still sells a good part of West Germany's steel output, could not be used as a nucleus for reconcentrating the producing units of the old combine.

The best assurance that recartelization would not get far came from Germany's Minister of Economic Affairs. Ludwig Erhard, who arrived in the U.S. this week for a two-week visit to interest businessmen in investing in Germany. A fervent free-enterpriser, Erhard said he would not "retreat one step" in his opposition to cartels, which he considers incompatible with free enterprise.

Last year he introduced a tough anti-cartel bill to prohibit associations formed to fix prices, but the bill was lobbied out of the Bundestag. Erhard, who is expected to introduce another bill soon, said last week that he would get even tougher in the future.

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