Chicken Armistice

For an issue that involves barely 1% of U.S. exports to the Common Market, the chicken-tariff war has produced a ridiculous number of international conferences, alarming statements and bad gags. Last week truce was declared. After a final all-night session, bargainers in Brussels agreed to submit the disputed facts to arbitration. In the next three weeks, a panel chosen from nations not involved will determine exactly how much of U.S. chicken exports to the Common Market have been affected by the restrictions of the Six. The U.S. claims that the loss is $46 million a year, the Europeans that it is only $19 million.

The truce will settle little beyond what sums are involved. Both sides fear that yielding in the first test of Common Market agricultural protectionism would set a pattern for the later and larger decisions about wheat, corn, sorghum and rice. The Europeans stipulated that the panel's fact findings are not to be legally binding; the panel will not even consider possible remedies for the lost U.S. chicken business. Still, optimists hope that during the truce, both sides may find it easier to make concessions.

At week's end, with apt but accidental timing, the Common Market automatically lowered its chicken levy to compensate for rising world prices. The tariff fell by 1.1-c-, to 12.3-c- per pound, which is still almost three times what it used to be.

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