The President of the Commission of the European Communities, Signor Franco Maria Malfatti, held talks with American President Nixon in Washington, D.C. on Thursday (8 April) in which they had agreed it was necessary for the United States and the European Community to work together for free trade.

Later, at a luncheon in the capital, Signor Malfatti said that the Common Market is willing to discuss the full range of world trade problems with the United States and other countries once negotiations for expanding its membership are completed.

SYNOPSIS: A meeting at the White House on Thursday........
President Nixon was having talks with European Economic Community Chairman Signor Franco Malfatti. The two men, accompanied by a number of assistants and advisors, discussed trade and the Common Market. They agreed that it was necessary for America and the Market to work towards free trade. Signor Malfatti said the Market is willing to discuss trade with America once negotiations for the Community's expansion had been completed.

In his talks with the President at which Secretary of State Rogers was present, Signor Malfatti didn't rule out the possibility of discussions on certain problems now, But the basic issues were complex and required a different approach.

Later, Signor Malfatti acknowledged that the present quality of relations between the Market and America wasn't always satisfactory and sometimes devolved into a petty quarrel. But he rejected American arguments that the Market was erecting trade barriers. He said the Community had the lowest average tariff of any of the world's traders and the Americans still had tariff peaks of up to 50 per cent. He said such peaks weren't in the Community's tariff structure.