Journal of European Integration History – Revue d'histoire de l'

112Fernando Guiraosystem for which the Treaty of Rome provided within the EEC area were extendedto Spain on the basis of the most-favoured-nation clause contained in its bilateralagreements with EEC member-States.Trade in oranges serves to show the impact of the EEC on Spain's foreign trade(Table 2). Oranges constituted Spain's largest earner of foreign exchange and thecategory in which trade with the EEC reached the largest proportion, above sixtyeightper cent by value after 1956.TABLE 2: Spain´s orange exports to the EEC, 1956-62 (in tons)1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962TotalExportsExports tothe EEC378.804 458,562 731,913 784,435 941,108 906,204 1.120,932258,003 318,999 500,140 575,945 708,850 656,982 818,223FRG 124,365 181,987 236,189 299,211 377,199 357,136 450,876France 62,705 79,943 128,766 137,932 162,637 129,087 155,352Netherlands 42,092 26,373 79,066 79,648 89,709 93,967 116,174Belgium 28,841 30,696 56,119 59,154 79,305 76,791 95,821Exports tothe EEC as% of totalexports68 69 68 73 75 72 72In the table as in the text, orange exports include all varieties of oranges and mandarins.Exports to EEC markets increased at a higher rate than exports to world markets,except in 1958 and 1960. The exception for 1958 should be counterbalancedby the important overall increase that took place (fifty-seven per cent) and that for1961 by the general decline in the export volumes of this commodity. Any possibleswing in Spain's exports to the Six during these years should not be attributed toany specific discrimination linked to the EEC Treaty but to a combination of naturalfluctuations in crops and to the discouraging effect of the lack of convertibilityof the Spanish currency unit.Trade concessions however were subject to the permanent threat of unilateralremoval. In view of the impossibility of obtaining from the EEC a long-term pledgein favour of Spain's export trade stability, the Spanish authorities called in theassistance of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), an institution towhich Spain did not belong. The aim was to obtain a formal guarantee that Spanishexports would not suffer discrimination due to the implementation of the Treaty of