Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 42. (1992)
NAUTZ, Jürgen: Österreichische Überlegungen zur wirtschaftlichen Integration Europas und zum europäischen Machtgleichgewicht. Die wirtschaftspolitischen Arbeiten Richard Schüllers im amerikanischen Exil 1943–1950
EDITION ments; the same procedure must be applied to every change in the tariff; customs regulations, decisions, and practices have to be identical; there can be only one trade policy; commissions in which all countries are represented have to negotiate uniform trade agreements with other countries to which concessions can be made only if the thirteen representatives agree. Such machinery is comparable to an engine driven by thirteen men, who can manipulate it only after having agreed on every single move. In addition to the creation of these conditions, curency within a customs union must be uniform, or at least security must be given that the relative value of the currencies will not change. To provide the necessary guarantees a common central bank or a federal banking system has to be established, and statutory rules for a uniform monetary policy must be fixed. Also, indirect taxes must be the same throughout the union. Thus an intensive and extensive political and economic unity is necessary to make a customs union possible. Independent states cannot build up the machinery. In the United States, Canada, and many other countries, economic union was achieved only after political unity had been established. The only case in which a customs union preceded political unity was the German Zollverein, which was based on the nationalist movement and on Prussian hegemony. Whereever political units were dissolved, customs unions broke down. This occurred when Sweden and Norway were seperated, and again after the first world war, when Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and the Baltic countries became independent political bodies. On the basis of these historical facts and of my own personal experience, it seems to me highly improbable, not to say impossible, that a customs union can be achieved among thirteen European countries '). An alternative to a customs union is suggested by the Charter of the International Trade Organisation (Article 44), which stipulates: “The provisions of this chapter shall not prevent, as between the territories of members, the formation of a customs union or a free-trade area or the adoption of an interim agreement necessary 1) I twice participated in concluding the customs union between Austria and Hungary, which had to be renewed every ten years. Each renewal was accompanied by a serious political crisis, though the Emperor af Austria was King of Hungary, and the two countries had a common foreign office, army and navy, ministry of finance, and, in addition to their own parliaments, a common parliament of members elected by the seperate parliaments. I also negotiated customs unions, which were not activated, between Austria and Italy in 1922 and between Austria and Germany in 1931. With reference to the proposal in discussion, Gottfried von Haberler sounded a warning “not to waste efforts on a chimera”, because “a European economic union is impossible without complete political unification” (“The European Recovery Program”, in: American Economic Review, vol. 38, September 1948, pp. 523-324). 363
