journal of european integration history revue d'histoire de l ...

58
Tapani Paavonen
selainen announced, at a meeting of Nordic Prime Ministers and Nordic Cooperation
Ministers in July 1959, Finland's readiness to join the planned Nordic customs
union, the Finnish government had already decided in principle in favour of the
Seven. Finland's integration aim, as expressed by the Prime Minister, consisted of
an exclusively economic agreement, which would not include any supranational
decision-making profile and which should safeguard Finland's extensive bilateral
trade with the Soviet Union.
The British government regarded it as politically purposeful to include Finland
in the sphere of the emerging EFTA, and the Nordic governments acted on the basis
of mutual Nordic solidarity. Thus, when Finland's aspiration was repeated later in
the same July 1959, at a ministerial meeting of the Seven, by Ahti Karjalainen, the
Finnish Minister of Trade and Industry who in fact led the Finnish negotiations
process under President Kekkonen, it was agreed upon that the Finnish government
was allowed to follow the proceeding negotiations. However, on the demand of the
British, Finland's observer was not allowed to be present in the negotiation room
but was to be kept informed, in the first place, through Sweden.
The Soviet Union opposed Finland’s EFTA membership. Apparently, the Soviet
leadership was nonetheless ready to accept alternative arrangements for free trade between
Finland and the EFTA countries, which in the first place would have meant bilateral
agreements between Finland and the individual EFTA countries. The Finns when
preparing a policy position in 1959 took into consideration such bilateral agreements
but this procedure was found unfeasible, alone because the GATT provisions would
have obliged Finland to generalise trade preferences to all the Contracting Parties. The
only way was either to join EFTA according to Article 41 Paragraph 1 of the Stockholm
Convention or to create an association according to Paragraph 2 of the same article.
President Kekkonen, seemingly, committed himself already at the early stages of Finland's
moves towards EFTA to satisfy the Soviet demand of non-membership, even
though the exact content of such a commitment remained unclear. Nor were the Soviet
objections known among wider circles.
Finland's negotiation position, defined in early 1960, envisaged either joining or
creating an association with EFTA. In any case, the Finnish integration aim was defined
as follows:
“The competitive position of Finnish exports will be safeguarded in such a way that
[1] The domestic market industries will be guaranteed appropriate tariff protection
for a transitional period
[2] The special position of agriculture will be preserved
[3] Finland's present significant commercial relations with third countries, especially
with countries outside GATT with which Finland has a bilateral commercial agreement
on a most favoured nation treatment, will not be endangered”. 5
Negotiations were carried out from February to May 1960, after the Stockholm
Convention had been signed. Finland's delicate international position was reflected
5. Records of the Finnish Foreign Ministry (FM Records) 58 DA: Foreign Trade Committee (Kauppapoliittinen
neuvottelukunta) 4 January 1960, “Suomen suhteet EFTA: an”.