Down on the Farm

How small is a small tomato? How does a chicken lay an egg? How much Italian Chianti would Frenchmen drink?

For the past four weeks in Brussels, such questions have engaged and enraged delegates from the six Common Market nations--France. Italy. West Germany, Belgium. Luxembourg and The Netherlands. After four years of remarkable headway, the Common Market had momentarily stalled. The obstacle was agriculture in all its earthy details and behind it the sturdy, stubborn European peasant.

Push for Change. The 1957 Treaty of Rome, which established the Common Market, provided for gradual tariff reductions, and industry quickly adjusted to the newly freed competition. Some inefficient mines and marginal businesses had to shut down, but the Common Market created so much new prosperity that such dislocations were rare.

The Rome treaty called for similar stabilization of agricultural markets, but in this field the six nations proved far less flexible. After centuries of striving for national self-sufficiency in food production, each country had its own weird system of import restrictions, government subsidies, artificially maintained price levels to protect its farmers, and these were far harder to change than industrial tariff walls.

The push for change came from France. With the support of Italy and The Netherlands, the French began to pressure for an agricultural accord before the end of the Common Market's first four-year stage, during which each member had an absolute veto. Deadline for the end of the first phase was Dec. 31. 1961. The French warned that unless the substance of a new farm program was worked out by that date, they would veto passage of the Common Market into its second four-year stage, in which majority rule would prevail on all but specific major decisions. Forewarned, delegates of the Six gathered in Brussels' Palais des Congres in mid-December to haggle over the complicated terms of the agreement.

Major antagonists were the French delegation, headed by Agricultural Minister Edgard Pisani. and the West German group, headed by West German Agricultural Minister Werner Schwarz. Chairman of the conference last week was West Germany's Alfred Muller-Armack, who was kept so busy trying to keep peace among the two warring delegations that he had to retire at one stage because of his heart condition.

Heated Sessions. Before the delegates was a proposal that called for gradual abolition of agricultural subsidies in each member nation, and the establishment of an agricultural support fund for the whole Common Market area. The question: How to finance the new system? The French wanted payments from each nation assessed according to the size of its food imports; this would put the main burden on West Germany, which is a heavy food importer. The West Germans, on the other hand, wanted assessments made on the basis of each country's present contribution to the running of the Common Market; this would let Bonn off more easily.

The other major problem was negotiating price levels for all Common Market countries. Essentially, France favored low prices. West Germany high prices. Reason : West German agriculture is inefficient, even more heavily protected than its neighbors', with prices for some items substantially higher than world market prices (example: $2.90 a bushel of bread grain v. the world price of $2). By contrast, the French have a vast agricultural surplus, in effect want a Common Market system that will enable them to sell their surplus in Germany. Since this is bound to reduce German farm income, and since German farmers are heavy backers of Konrad Adenauer's regime, the West German delegates at Brussels stalled every step of the way.

The sessions were heated. Three officials collapsed with heart attacks, and stubble-bearded, trigger-tempered delegates fought long into the night, stoked with double whiskies brought to the conference table. Each point was conceded only after bitter argument. "This isn't integration!" shouted a Netherlands minister. "This is disintegration!'' null chances for agreement glimmering, the six nations agreed to continue the meetings into the new year, evaded the Dec. 31 deadline by stopping the clock and the calendar, continuing to give a December date to the minutes of each meeting.

No Pitchfork Revolt. As the talks wore on, some compromises were wrorked out between the German high-price demands and the French low-price demands. The West German delegates reluctantly agreed to a gradual establishment of a common grain price, to be negotiated over the next eight years. Prodded by Italy, delegates agreed to set up a free trade program for poultry, pork, fruits, eggs, vegetables, dairy products and feed grains over the next eight years. Two major problems remained: an escape clause to allow an individual government to cut off farm imports from other members if its own farmers were seriously threatened, and a compromise between the German and French plans for financing the new Common Market support system.

In the long run, there is no doubt that West Germany will have to expose its agriculture to stiff foreign competition. Essentially, the Germans are fighting only for time to carry out this transition as slowly as possible. West Germany's peasants are grumbling about the sacrifices they will have to make, but they are not likely to take up their pitchforks in revolt. They need only look across the border at the collective farms of East Germany to realize how much better off they are--even with foreign competition.

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