Before Mr Macmillan became Prime Minister in 1957, he pushed for a new scheme to help the UK trade with the European bloc that was emerging. The European Economic Community (EEC) – the prerequisite to the current EU – formed in 1956 and was made up of Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. As Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Macmillan was concerned about how being outside the EEC would affect British trade, but knew the British people were not willing to join an international organisation which may compromise some of its agency and force exclusive trade deals.

He asked his civil servants to come up with ideas whereby the UK could trade with the EEC without necessarily joining it – similar to a deal which the UK is trying to strike up now during Brexit negotiations with the EU.

President of the Board of Trade Peter Thorneycroft found one solution, which was named Plan G.

In his 2019 book, ‘A Short History of Brexit: From Brentry to Backstop’, Kevin O’Rourke explained how this plan was believed to be the “best option” for Britain at the time.

It would be a “free trade area” and “involve industrial goods only” within Western Europe. The six countries of the EEC could become a member of this wider free trade arrangement, and the UK would not have to choose between European trade and trade from the Commonwealth. 

Mr O’Rourke said: “The hope was that the new free trade area could come into effect at the same time as the EEC so that Britain (and the rest of the OEEC) would at no stage face discrimination in the EEC market.”

The OEEC was yet another European organisation which Britain was part of, formed in 1948 to distribute American and Canadian aid across Europe and help the continent rebuild after World War 2.

The historian continued: “Plan G had a lot going for it from a British point of view, indeed perhaps too much. 

“It would be based on intergovernmental cooperation, and would thus require no surrender of national sovereignty.

“Because it was a free trade area rather than a customs union it would enable Britain to maintain its existing system of imperial preferences. 

“And finally, because it only involved industrial products, and excluded agriculture, it would allow the UK to maintain its existing system of agricultural support.”

One of the reasons the UK was reluctant to join a European trade body was because it did not want to compromise the good relations it had with its Commonwealth.

In his 2016 book, ‘Continental Drift: Britain and Europe from the End of Empire to the Rise of Euroscepticism’, Benjamin Grob-Fitzgibbon said: “Under its terms, the British government could have its cake and eat it too, aligning itself with its European neighbours without in any way distracting from its Commonwealth relations.”

Mr O’Rourke explained that “this outcome would be feasible”, because, as the Board of Trade commented at the time, “the possibility of UK co-operation would be so welcome that we should be able to enter the plan more or less on our terms” due to Britain’s status as an established European power.

Some of the British reportedly hoped to undermine the customs union scheme which the countries in mainland Europe were hoping to set up through the EEC.

Mr O’Rourke also said there was some euroscepticism throughout Europe too.

DON’T MISS
SNP’s Alex Salmond said referendum should ‘stand for a generation’ [REVEALED]
Why ‘rebel MPs and Bercow have NOT done what constitution requires’ [EXPLAINED]
Bizarre reason Boris Johnson will NEVER shake Jeremy Corbyn’s hand [VIDEO]

Individuals such as the German Economic Affairs minister Ludwig Erhard were “suspicious of supranational institutions” and “whose liberal instincts led them to favour as wide a free trade arrangements possible” –this should have, in theory, produced some support for Britain’s Plan G.

The UK did originally propose Plan G before the EEC was fully formed.

Yet, as Mr O’Rourke points out: “The mere possibility that a European free trade area might undermine support for the Common Market, particularly in France and Germany, was a very good reason to get the Treaty of Rome negotiated.

“The Treaty of Rome was the priority [for Europe] not the industrial free trade area proposed by the British.”

Negotiations with the UK only started in February 1957, once a schedule for EEC trade liberalisation was put into place.

However, Plan G was not accepted by the six nations of the EEC. The French noticed that “the free trade area involved all of the costs associated with trade liberalisation and none of the benefits”.

There was a risk of “trade deflection” and “trade discrimination”, and the UK was accused of focusing too much on the domestic consensus.

Mr Macmillan also inspired a lack of trust in key EU leaders such as the Belgian socialist Paul-Henri Spaak.

Mr O’Rourke added: “Macmillan’s original hostility to the Messina process [the initiative which established the EEC] meant that key actors such as Spaak were deeply suspicious of Plan G.”

The UK did eventually join the EU in 1973, but voted to leave the trading bloc in the Brexit referendum.

Current Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who campaigned to leave the EU in 2016, has been attempting to establish a deal with the EU in the Brexit negotiations.

However, as it is proving challenging to find a compromise with the trading bloc, he has promised to take the UK out of the EU by October 31 with or without a deal.

Source: Read Full Article