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At one point, the tensions grew so great that William Matson Roth, a millionaire San Francisco shipping executive who succeeded the late Christian Herter early this year as chief U.S. negotiator, angrily threatened to break off negotiations and return to Washington. That impasse, which might well have doomed the Kennedy Round to failure, was resolved when Nils Montan, chief Scandinavian negotiator, persuaded Roth and the Common Market's Rey to lunch with him at the Geneva Intercontinental Hotel. Over filet mignon de veau and a bottle of 1962 Chāteau Capbern St. Estéphe, tempers cooled. Roth promised to stay in Geneva; Rey agreed to quit stalling and wind up the negotiations promptly.
The Case of Dye. Major stumbling blocks remained over freer trade in grains and chemicals. But Roth, in a dramatic shift in the U.S. position, withdrew his demand for guaranteed access to Europe's grain markets. Reason: the best offer from the Common Market amounted to less grain than American farmers already sell to the Six. Still, the U.S. insisted that reluctant Europeans join in creating a massive food-aid program for underdeveloped countries, which would increase world demand for U.S. wheat. For its part, the Common Market demanded that the U.S. get rid of its 1922 law that bases tariffs on certain chemical imports, drugs and rubber footwear on the American selling price of those products. The result is extraordinarily high import duties—up to 172% in the case of yellow vat dye-but only Congressional action can abolish the system.
At week's end, as Rey returned once more from Brussels with final instructions, that haggle narrowed down to how much European chemical tariffs should be sliced before the American selling price is repealed, and how much afterwards — provided Congress agrees.
"I think," says Rey, "that we did pretty well." There was still the question of how big Europe's contribution to food aid would be and whether the Common Market could be induced to cut its du ties further on such farm produce as meats, canned fruits and vegetables.
Despite some probable disappoint ments when and if the tariff cuts take effect on the scale indicated by the final bargaining, the free world should move a step closer to economic unity.