Hearing the Europeans

After just 150 days in office, Treasury Secretary Henry Fowler last week took off for Europe on a two-week trip to meet and hear the views of his counterparts among the finance ministers and central bankers of Europe. Main purpose: to canvass European opinion about the next steps toward world monetary reform and to seek support of Fowler's proposal for a world monetary conference. The importance of the trip was underscored by the fact that Fowler was accompanied by Undersecretary of State George Ball, Treasury Undersecretary Fred Deming and five Treasury, State and White House aides.

This week Fowler is to meet French Finance Minister Valery Giscard d'Estaing for talks in Giscard's palatial office in the Louvre Palace, fly on to Rome to meet Italian Finance Minister Roberto Tremelloni, then on to Bonn to talk with West Germany's Finance Minister Rolf Dahlgruen. Before the trip is over, he will also meet the top financial men of Britain, The Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden. After this month's session of the International Monetary Fund in Washington, at which Fowler wants a preparatory commission set up to get ready for a world money conference, he plans to take another swing abroad to talk with finance ministers he will not see this time.

In a sense, Fowler will be the first U.S. Cabinet member to be exposed directly to Europe's newly increased self-confidence. In international politics and defense, the Europeans still largely defer to U.S. leadership. In monetary matters, however, they feel increasingly that Europe's economic strength already makes it an equal partner with Washington. Fowler faces considerable skepticism and disagreement about the whole idea of monetary reform. Practically all the Europeans (except the British) oppose his plan for an international monetary conference, believing that any reform should be left to the powerful Group of Ten nations.

Before the Secretary's departure, President Johnson made it clear that the U.S. takes a flexible position on monetary reform, is "not wedded in this enterprise to any particular procedure nor to any rigid timetable. The point to be kept in the forefront," added the President, "is that we are determined to move ahead--carefully and deliberately but without delay--because we are convinced that not to act when the time is ripe can be as unwise as to act too soon or too hastily." The big task of Fowler and his team is to convince Europe that the time is ripe.

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