PAGENO="0001"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN
TRADE POLICY
HEARINGS
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON
FOREIGN ECONOMIC POLICY
OF THE
JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE
CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES
NINETIETH CONGRESS
FIRST SDSSION
JULY 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, AND 20, 19G7
Volume I
Printed for the use of the Joint Economic Committee
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
82-181 WASHINGTON 1967
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office
Washington, D.C. 20402 - Price $1
O(Q ~ I
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JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE
SENATE
JOHN SPARKMAN, Alabama
J. W. FULBRIGHT, Arkansas
HERMAN E. TALMADGE, Georgia
STUART SYMINGTON, Missouri
ABRAHAM RIBICOFF, Connecticut
JACOB K. JAVITS, New York
JACK MILLER, Iowa
LEN B. JORDAN, Idaho
CHARLES H. PERCY, Illinoli
WILLIAM H. MOORE
JOHN B. HENDERSON
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
RICHARD BOLLING. Missouri
HALE BOGGS, Louisiana
HENRY S. REUSS, Wisconsin
MARTHA W. GRIFFITHS, Michigan
WILLIAM S. MOORHEAD, Pennsylvania
THOMAS B. CURTIS, Missouri
WILLIAM B. WIDNALL, New Jersey
DONALD RUMSFELD, Illinois
W. E. BROCK 3D, Tennessee
GEORGE H. IDEN
- DANIEL J. EDWARDS
DONALD A. WEBSTER (Minority)
SUBCOMMITTEE OX FOREIGN EcoNoMIc PoLIcY
HALE BOGGS, Louisiana, Chairman
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
HENRY S. REUSS, Wisconsin
WILLIAM S. MOORHEAD, Pennsylvania
WILLIAM B. WIDNALL, New Jersey
DONALD RUMSFELD, Illinois
W. E. BROOK 3D, Tennessee
[Created pursuant to sec. 5(a) of Public Law 304. 79th Cong.]
WILLIAM PROXMIRE. Wisconsin. Cli airman
WRIGHT PATMAN, Texas, Vice Chairman
JOHN R. STARK. Executive Director
JAMES W. KNOWLEs, Director of Research
EcoNoMIsTs
SENATE
JOHN SPARKMAN, Alabama
J. W. FULBRIGHT, Arkansas
HERMAN E. TALMADGE, Georgia
STUART SYMINGTON, Missouri
ABRAHAM RIBICOFF, Connecticut
JACOB K. JAVITS, New York
JACK MILLER, Iowa
II
PAGENO="0003"
CONTENTS
Page
Announcement of hearings 1
List of witnesses scheduled to appear 2
STATEMENTS
Boggs, Representative Hale, Chairman, Subcommittee on Foreign Eco-
nomic Policy, Joint Economic Committee: Opening remarks 3
Javits, Senator Jacob K., member of subcommittee ~- 5
Roth, Hon. William M., President's Special Representative for Trade
Negotiations; accompanied by John Rehm, General Counsel; Bernard
Norwood, Chairman of the Trade Staff Committee; and Raymond loanes,
U.S. Department of Agriculture 10
Sehnittker, lion. John A., Under Secretary of Agriculture_ 29
MeQuade, `Hon. Lawrence C., Acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce for
Domestic and International Business; accompanied by Robert L. Mc-
Neill, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Trade Policy 65
Solomon, Hon. Anthony M., Assistant Secretary of State for Economic
Affairs, Department of State 69
Greenwald, lion. Joseph A., Deputy Assistant Secretary for International
Trade Policy, Department of State 85
King, Hon. Cecil R., a U.S. Representative from the State of California
and Delegate to the Kennedy Round 100
Curtis, Hon. Thomas `B., a Representative in Congress from the State of
Missouri and a Delegate to the Kennedy Round 103
Peccei, Aurelio, vice chairman of Olivetti, member of the steering commit-
tee of Fiat-Turin, and president of Italconsult, Rome, Italy 117
Younger, Rt. Hon. Kenneth, director, Royal Institute of International
Affairs, London, England 132
McAshan, S. M., Jr., president, Anderson, Clayton & Co., Houston, Tex~ 173
Gilbert, Carl J., chairman of the executive committee, the Gillette Co.,
Boston, Mass 185
Balgooycn, Henry W., president, American & Foreign Power Co., New
York, N.Y 188
Danielian, N. R., president, International Economic Policy Association- - 198
Diebold, William Jr., Council on Foreign Relations 219
Baldwin, Robert E., professor of economics, University of Wisconsin 223
Cooper, Richard N., professor of economics, Yale University 225
Pincus, John, the RAND Corp 246
Witt, Lawrence, professor of agricultural economics, Michigan State Uni-
versity 253
Ball, Hon. George W., former Under Secretary of State 271
Rockefeller, David, president, Chase Manhattan Bank 279
ADDITIONAL SUBMISSIONS
Javits, Senator Jacob K.:
Kennedy Round participants: Washington~~ 5
Kennedy Round delegation: Geneva 6
Address: "Britain and the Future of Europe" 169
Roth, Hon. William M.:
The Kennedy Round Agreement 11
Letter to Chairman Boggs responding to Senator Miller's question re
agricultural grain prices 38
List of areas and products of significant export potential 50
Table: Kennedy Round concessions-United States and EEC trade~~ 62
III
PAGENO="0004"
IV CONTENTS
Miller, Senator Jack:
"Trade Bloc Seeks Grain Output Rise" by Edward L. Dale, Jr.,
New York Times
Solomon, Hon. Anthony M.:
Table: Gross national product per capita, by country, in U.S. dollars. -
iPeccei, Aurelio:
Biographical sketch 117
Report of the Conference on Transatlantic Technological Imbalance
and Collaboration - 121
"Developed-Underdeveloped and East-West Relations," paper
reprinted from Atlantic Community Quarterly 1.54
Younger, Rt. Hon. Kenneth:
Biographical sketch 118
Prepared statement 138
Widnall, Representative William B.~:
Table prepared by Legislative Reference Service, Library of Congress
on "Balance of Trade, in Western European Countries with the
Soviet Union and East-West for 1965 and the First Half of 1966" --
Curtis, Representative Thomas B.:
Report: "The EFTA Experience in Abolishing Barriers to Trade,"
by George R. Young, director~
Boggs, Rep. Hale:
"Commodity Agreements: Bonanza or Illusion?", by John A. Pincus 176
"National Economic Policy in an Interdependent World Economy,"
by Richard N. Cooper 231
Witt, Lawrence:
Extension of remarks 261
APPENDIX
Quantitative Restrictions Affecting U.S. Exports (January 1962):
Trade Expansion Act of 1962, hearings, Ways and Means Committee,
U.S. House of Representatives__ 303
Nontariff Trade Barriers of the United States, by Noel Hemmendinger,
counsel, United States-Japan Trade Council 345
National Chamber Calls for New Flexibility to "Most-Favored-Nation"
World Trade Principle 357
Programme for the Liberation and Expansion of Trade in Manufactures
and Semi-manufactures of Interest to Developing Countries~_ 360
The Question of the Granting and Extension of Preferences in Favour of
Developing Countries 380
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CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE
REPRESENTATIVE HALE BOGGS ANNOUNCES STUDY OF
U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
JUNE 19, 1967
Representative Hale Boggs (D-La.), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Foreign
Economic Policy and the House Majority Whip, today announced that his sub-
committee would undertake a broad reassessment of U.S. foreign trade policy.
The subcommittee will begin its study by holding a series of hearings in July.
The lead witness at the hearing of Tuesday, July 11th, will be Ambassador
William H. Roth, the President's Special Representative for Trade Negotiations.
Testimony of congressional delegates to the Kennedy Round negotiations will be
heard Wednesday, July 12th. On Thursday, July 13th, distinguished foreign
observers have been invited to give their views on the position of the United
States in the trading world of the future; the Honorable Kenneth Younger,
Director of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, and Dr. Aurelio
Peccei, Executive Manager of Olivetti, Milan, will testify then. At a final hearing,
on Thursday, July 20th, there will be a summing up; on that occasion the wit-
nesses will be David Rockefeller, President of the Chase Manhattan Bank, and
George Ball, formerly Under Secretary of State.
The subcommittee intends also to publish a number of study papers to serve
as background for the hearings and to canvass a wide range of opinion on signifi-
cant issues of trade relations and trade policy.
In announcing the subcommittee's plans, Congressman Boggs stated, "This is
an appropriate time for taking stock of our position on trade policy. It is appar-
ent that, after the details of the Kennedy Round are worked out, the negotiations
will have achieved a greater scope of concessions than any previous round. We
shall make an early review of these bargains.
"But the intention of the subcommttee is to look both at the events of the past
five years and to try to anticipate the problems of the future. In so doing, we
expect to achieve a worthwhile congressional appraisal of future U.S. trade policy.
"Certainly, there is important unfinished business to attend to. Trade relations
with the less developed countries have had less serious attention during the
Kennedy Round than that subject deserves; and nontariff barriers of various
types are of increasing significance as tariff barriers are lowered-to mention
only two broad issues.
"But we can look forward with confidence to the recognition that world trade
and interdependence between countries are growing apace. As Americans, we
can welcome this, for the vast and prosperous `free trade' market that we have
developed within our own borders points the way to success in international
markets also."
The members of the subcommittee are Representative Hale Boggs as Chairman,
and Senators Sparkman, Fulbrigbt, Talmadge, Symington, Ribicoff, Javits, and
Miller; and Representatives Reuss, Moorhead, Widnall, Rumsfeld, and Brock.
Representative Boggs stated that the names of witnesses and the dates of other
hearings would be announced in a later release.
REPRESENTATIVE HALE BOGGS ANNOUNCES SCHEDULE OF
HEARINGS ON FOREIGN TRADE
JULY 7, 1967
Representative Hale Boggs (D-La.), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Foreign
Economic Policy and the House Majority Whip, today issued the schedule of hear-
1
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2 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
ings to be held before his Subcommittee on the Future of U.S. Foreign Trade
Policy. An earlier announcement of the hearings was made on Monday, June 19.
SUBCOMMITTEE ON FOREIGN EcoNoMIc Por~cY
Progranz of Hearings on the Future of U.S. Foreign Trade Policy
JULY 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, AND 20, 1967
Tuesday, July 11, 10:00 a.m.-Room 1202 New Senate Office Building.
Ambassador William Roth, President's Special Representative for Trade
Negotiations.
Wednesday, July 12, 10:00 a.rn.-Room AE-1 The Capitol.
Anthony Solomon, Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs.
Lawrence McQuade, Acting Assistant Secretary for Domestic and Interna-
tional Business, Department of Commerce.
Congressional Delegates to the Kennedy Round.
Thursday, July 13, 10:00 a.in.-Room 1202 New Senate Office Building.
Kenneth Younger, Director, Royal Institute of International Affairs, London.
Aurelio Peccei, Vice-Chairman of Olivetti, Member of the Steering Committee
of Fiat-Turin, and President of Italconsult, Rome.
Tuesday, July 18,10:00 a.ni.-Room 1202 New Senate Office Building.
S. M. McAshan, Jr., President, Anderson, Clayton & Co., Houston, Tex.
Carl J. Gilbert, Chairman of the Executive Committee, The Gillette Co.,
Boston, Mass.
Henry W. Balgooyen, President, American & Foreign Power Co., New York,
N.Y.
N. R. Danielian, President, International Economic Policy Association.
Wednesday, July 1.9, 10:00 a.m.-Room 1202 New Senate Office Building.
William Diebold, Jr., Council on Foreign Relations.
Professor Robert E. Baldwin, LTniversity of Wisconsin.
Professor Richard N. Cooper, Yale University.
John Pincus, The Rand Corporation.
Professor Lawrence W. Witt, Michigan State University.
Thursday, July 20,10:00 a.rn.-Room 1202 New Senate Office Building.
David Rockefeller, President, Chase Manhattan Bank.
George W. Ball, former Under Secretary of State.
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THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
TUESDAY, JULY 11, 1967
CONGRESS or TUE UNITED STATES,
SUBCOMMITTEE ON FOREIGN ECONOMIC POLICY,
JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITrEE,
Washington, D.O.
The subcommittee met at 10 a.m., pursuant to notice, in room 1202,
New Senate Office. Building, 1-Ion. Hale Boggs (chairman of the sub-
committee) presiding.
Present: Representatives Boggs, Reuss, and Widnall; and Senators
Symington, Javits, and Miller.
Also present: John R. Stark, executive director; John B. Hender-
son, staff economist; and Donald A. Webster, minority staff economist..
Chairman BOGGS. The subcommittee will come to order.
The Subcommittee on Foreign Economic Policy of the Joint Eco-
nomic Committee today begins a series of six public hearings on "The
Future of U.S. Foreign Trade Policy."
The recent conclusion of the Kennedy Round negotiations-the
sixth round of the GATT trade negotiations-provides an opportunity
for taking stock of our position on trade policy. It is fitting that the
reassessment be undertaken by this subcommittee, which was set up in
the 87th Congress, just over 6 years ago ". . . to conduct studies and
hold hearings on such subjects as trade, trade agreements, interna-
tional investments, U.S. imports and exports, and U.S. foreign aid."
It was this subcommittee, you will recall, whose first major work was
the review of trade policy that preceded the enactment of the Trade
Expansion Act of 1962.
Now, a few days after the expiration of the special powers granted
to the President of the United States by that act, we welcome as the
lead witness in these hearings the President's Special Representative
for Trade Negotiations, Ambassador William M. Roth.
In the long and arduous debates of Geneva, in crisis after crisis
down to the final hours of negotiation, Ambassador Roth has acquitted
himself well. His talents of persistence and patience, and even on oc-
casion his temper, have been applied to further the interests of the
United States in a liberal trading world.
In expressing our appreciation to Ambassador Roth for helping
to bring the Kennedy Round negotiations to a successful conclusion,
I find a suitable occasion to pay tribute to his predecessor, the late
Governor Herter, who did so much to focus our attention on the need
3
PAGENO="0008"
4
THE FTJTTJRE OF IJ.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
for expanding and liberalizing world trade. The public service of
Governor Herter in many different offices makes us mindful that the
life of the Republic gains its strength from the dutiful efforts of men
like him.
The end of the Kennedy Round is a suitable occasion for a reevalua-
tion. These hearings are certainly timely.. They are also necessary. We
must make a prompt beginning of a review of our thinking on issues of
foreign trade. It is a matter of great importance how the Congress
will form its ideas on trade policy. And we hope and expect that this
initial set of hearings will lay the groundwork.
Let me repeat a statement in 1961 by George Ball who was then
LTnder Secretary of State. In an address to the National Trade Con-
vention, he said:
I have been aware of a measure of agreement rarely found in these esoteric
circles-agreement on the fact that we are coming to the close of a familiar era
in our world trading relations and entering another that is not familiar at all.
Some see this new phase as filled with opportunity and challenge. Some, on
the other hand, are apprehensive. But few question the proposition that per-
vasive change will be the dominant characteristic of the years that lie ahead.
That, it seems to me. is still our situation.
So, in meeting thiS situation, we look back with the intention of
guiding our aims in the future. Our purposes on this subcommittee
should be-
to examine the past, not to find errors, but to take stock and
learn our lessons well;
to try to foresee the changes that are imminent and to direct
our efforts accordingly;
to persuade the United States to dispense with policies that are
anachronistic, or which cater to outmoded demands, and to rein-
force our efforts to achieve significant and necessary advances in
the international commerce of nations, and of the United States
in particular;
to deal plainly with the special interests of our own country
in agriculture and industry, while always remembering tile pri-
mary importance of the general public interest;
to give our negotiators the basis for firm and flexible bargaining
with our trading partners in other countries and through agen-
cies such as GATT; and, finally,
to keep constantly in mind the interdependence of the trading
world and the need to lnaintain its growth and prosperity, which
represents for us all the best protection.
We are very happy to have so many of the members of the subcom-
mittee here with us this morning.
I want to thank the members of the staff who have worked very
hard in putting together these subcommittee hearings, including the
papers that have been prepared and edited which are available to
tile members of tile subcommittee as well as others.
PAGENO="0009"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 5
Mr. Ambassador, we are very happy to have you here this morning.
I am reminded, however, that Senator Javits has a statement that
he would like to present at this time. We will now hear from Senator
Javits.
STATEMENT OP HON. IACOB K. TAVITS, A U.S. SENATOR PROM THE
STATE OP NEW YORK
Senator JAVITS. Mr. Chairman, I had the privilege of visiting Ge-
neva, and so I have some concept of the extraordinary work that has
been done in this particular area by Ambassador Blumenthal and
Ambassador Roth. I ask unanimous consent to include in the record
a list of the personnel who worked on these various negotiations as a
part of the U.S. delegation. It is a fairly extensive list, Mr. Chairman.
But too often Americans who render such extraordinary service and
such arduous service as was rendered here go absolutely unnoticed and
unknown, and I think that is wrong. And with the Chair's permission
I would like to include those names in the record, and express my feel-
ing of respect and appreciation for the extraordinarily gifted service~
which was shown in this case which is so critically important to the
security and prosperity of our Nation.
Chairman BOGGS. Without objection, the names will be included.
Senator JAVITS. I thank my colleague.
(The list referred to follows:)
EXECuTIvE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT,
OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE
FOR TRADE NEGOTIATIONS,
Jvly 12, 1967.
KENNEDY ROUND PARTICIPANTS: WASHINGTON
OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Ambassador William Roth George Weaver
Philip Berlin Harry Weiss
Theodore Gates
Irwin Hedges DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Walter Hollis John Schnittker
Selma Kallis Raymond loanes
Louis Krauthoff Howard Worthington
Harald Malmgren DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY
Bernard Norwood
Morton Pomeranz Winthrop Knowlton
Albert Powers James Hendrick
Mary Jane Wignot DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR
Leonard Wilson Harry Shooshan
John Rehrn
TARIFF COMMISSION
DEPARTMENT OF STATE Paul Kaplowitz, former chairman
Anthony Solomon
Joseph Greenwald
Deane Hinton
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Secretary Trowbridge
Robert i~icNei1l
Allen Garland
PAGENO="0010"
6 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
KENNEDY ROUND DELEGATION: GENEVA
Government agency
Ambassador W. Michael Blumenthal - STR (State).
OFFICERS
Adams, Leason B - Tar~ Commission.
Arundale, Joseph Interior.
Barton, Bernard - Tar~.
Birkhead, James W - Agriculture.
Brewster, Helen State.
Brosnan, Anne - STR (Commerce).
Cruit, Anthony N - Agriculture.
Drew, Joseph C Commerce.
Eads, Mabel - Commerce.
Feilman, David - Commerce.
Fernandez, Kenneth Commerce.
Hamerschlag, Robert - STR (Commerce).
Hart, William T - Tariff.
Hirabayashi. Martin STR (State).
Howe, Jeanne Commerce.
Jones, Dallas - STR (State).
Karpoff, Edward Agriculture.
Kelly, William B Commerce.
Kilgore, Lowell P - Commerce.
Kirk, Northrop STR (State).
Law, Dana Tariff.
Lee, Roland Tariff.
Lewis, James H STR (State).
Lord, Winston - STR (State).
MacHatton, John Tariff.
Martin, Edward E - Tariff.
Montgomery, Frederick . Commerce.
Musrey, Alfred G - Tariff.
Nelson, Donald M., Jr Tariff.
Pappano, Albert E - STR (State).
Pinkney, Anne - STR (State).
Preeg, Ernest H State.
Pritchard, Norris T Agriculture.
Riegert, Thomas STR (State;.
Sacchet, Edward STR (State).
Sanders, Walter L - Tariff.
Simons, Thomas W., Jr STR (State).
Starkey, James Agriculture.
Steward, John W - Agriculture.
Stmderland, Lawrence B - Tariff.
Thoreson, Mrs. Musedorab State.
Thuroczy, Nicholas M - Agriculture
Travis, Herman . Labor.
Twaddell, James - STR (State).
Vaughan, Hal USIS.
Vernon, Mrs. Gloria Labor.
Wiggins, Guy . STR (State).
Wolff, Ernest Tariff.
Worthington, Courtenay - STR (State).
Worthington, Howard L Agriculture.
Zaglits, Oscar State.
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THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
7
SECRETARIAT
Bauer, henri F. Lacock, Robert A.
Boone, Dorothy. Lineberry, Betty Sue.
Burton, Martha Jo. Lini, Arleen.
Chamberlain, Mary. Marshall, Janet.
Oompton, Mrs. Esther G. Martinichio, Deanne.
Durkin, Mary. Odom, Allene.
Dvorken, Doris. Parascbos, Christine.
Funyak, Barbara. Pfromer, Joanne.
Greenstrect, Mrs. Virginia. Rockymore, Jean.
Hartman, Becky. Samora, Barbara.
Heisey, Patricia. Sharpless, Mattie.
Holloway, Irene. Slaughter, Evelyn P.
Hoyenga, Patricia. Sondheimer, Bernice.
Hughes, Mary. Velarde, Margaret.
Jahn, Carolyn. Williams, Jesse.
Jazynka, Mrs. Jane. York, Mrs. Ethel.
Knebel, Mrs. Jerry W.
Senator JAv1TS. I have a very brief statement.
The hearings which are about to start are of the greatest national
importance as they can set the tone of congressional and national mood
toward the results of the Kennedy Round and toward future trade
legislation. Our chairman, Representative Hale Boggs, is to be con-
gratulated for the excellent care with which these hearings have been
prepared and for the outstanding witnesses who are to appear be-
fore us.
It would be the greatest folly to interpret the relative quiet with
which Congress and U.S. industry have thus far reacted to the results
of the Kennedy Round as an indication that these results will be
readily accepted. We are about to face a major congressional battle on
the agreement reached in Geneva on chemicals and the American
selling price. The Senate Finance Committee is considering "legisla-
tive oversight" hearings involving the Trade Expansion Act and other
trade legislation. I would be surprised if the agreement on an inter-
national antidumping code would be accepted by all. This happens to
be something which is of very particular interest to me, as I have urged
such a uniform code, and have introduced a resolution to bring it about.
Unless forces favoring trade liberalization are ready to go into
battle in defense of the principle of trade liberalization on every one
of these issues, much that has been gained over the past 4 years as a
result of the heroic service of the team led by Ambassadors Roth and
Blumenthal-and one cannot, Mr. Chairman, speak of this matter
without the highest tribute to our former colleague in the House,
Christian Herter, with whom both Congressman Boggs and I, and
Congressman Widnall, served in the House-much of the gain which
has been established could be lost. And, let's not kid ourselves-unless
we have the full support of the President the chances of resisting self-
interest and protectionist forces will be small.
There have been news reports that the 1,Vhite House is preparing new
interim trade legislation and that a bill will be sent to the House by the
end of the month. Such legislation is essential to show the President's
determination that this country will continue on~ the path we have
followed since the end of World War II.
PAGENO="0012"
8 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
And I hope that Ambassador Roth is prepared to give us some con-
cept of the President's proposal either at this or some subsequent
hearing.
There are several key elements that in my judgment should be con-
tained in any interim trade legislation proposed by the President-
and I emphasize the word "interim," as I will explain in a minute.
First, the American selling price (ASP) system should be repealed,
if the package deal on chemicals proves on close examination as bene-
ficial to the United States as present information indicates. The elim-
ination of ASP on the part of the United States would bring with it a
substantial reduction of European tariffs on chemicals we export to
them and also the reduction of several nontariff barriers discriminatmg
against American cars, tobacco, and canned fruit.
Second, the adjustment assistance provisions of the Trade Expan-
sion Act of 1962 should be liberalized along the lines of the adjustment
assistance provisions of the United States-Canada. auto agreement
but with the U.S. Tariff Commission retaining its factfinding powers
as at present.
Third, the President should be given powers to undertake negoti-
ations on nontariff barriers. With tariffs becoming increasingly a less
important factor in international trade, nontariff barriers must now
be dealt with.
And I think the testimony will show the material reduction, the
overall percentage of total trade subject to tariffs which has now
been affected by the Kennedy Round.
Fourth, t.he President should be authorized to put forward a sig-
nificant trade proposal for the developing countries, particularly one
calling for trade preferences, even if this would mean a modification
of the most-favored-nation principle. These preferences should be
conditioned on similar action by other industrialized nations and
should be extended for manufactured and semimanufactured prod-
ucts. The United States should be ready with positive offers by the
time UNCTAD meets next February. rather than to be. put into the
position of having to react and to reject plans offered by other nations.
It is quite clea.r that there will be a. period of 1 or 2 ye.ars before
Congress will enact major new trade legislation. It is essential that
this time period be utilized fully to assess the impact. of the Kennedy
Round on the. U.S. economy and on international trade patterns and
to develop specific new proposals. I am pleased that witnesses coming
through before us will begin this process and will give us their best
judgment on the essential elements of new trade legislation. both of
an interim kind such as I have described, and of a definitive kind.
In my judgment. the power to negotiate further trade agreements
should again be delegated to the President based on stated criteria
and should not revert to Congress. Congress is not equipped to handle
tariff negotiations as history and experience have shown.
I also hope that witnesses will comment on the proposal I advocated
during consideration of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962: namely, to
give the President power, subject to congressional veto of the agree-
ment reached, to reduce reciprocally tariffs and other trade barriers by
any amount. The success of the flexible approach embodied in the
Trade Expansion Act encourages me to think that we should pursue
PAGENO="0013"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 9
it in the future. And the problems which I find abroad, particularly
as they affect Britain, make it essential in my judgment for the Presi-
dent to be able to negotiate a free trade area, for example, in the
Atlantic, but subject to the congressional veto which maybe required
in order to protect fully participation by the Congress in any such
eventuality.
Mr. Chairman, I thank you for your patience. I think t.he~ Chair
knows that I have been very heavily involved in these matters for
many years, and hence felt sure that at the opening of such a hearing
as this that I would make this declaration.
Chairman BOGGS. I thank the Senator from New York. He has
indeed been very closely associated with the action taken by Congress
in the past on all of these subjects.
And I appreciate your statement, Senator. It is a very complimen-
tary statement.
Do any other members of the subcommittee have statements?
Representative WIDNALL. Mr. Chairman, I would just like to con-
gratulate Dr. Roth and his colleagues for the work that has been done
over the years. It is an arduous task, and it seems to have been culmi-
nated very successfully. And I think in the next 2 or 3 years that the
emphasis that Senator Javits has placed on keeping an eye on it is
something that should be kept in mind.
Thank you.
Chairman BOGGS. Thank you very much, Mr. Widnall. Senator
Miller?
Senator MILLER. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I would
like to join with my colleagues in thanking the chairman for arranging
these hearings, and welcoming Ambassador Roth before the sub-
committee.
As a member of the subcommittee I am naturally interested in all
aspects of the GATT negotiations and the Kennedy Round in
particular.
But I am also a representative of a great agricultural State quite
concerned with what has happened from the standpoint of agricul-
tural products and more particularly the access to the Common Mar-
ket countries for our grain. I have heard all kinds of statements,
ranging from a statement which appeared in the press attributed to
Mr. Schnittker praising the results, to cries of "sellout" of American
agriculture from some rather knowledgeable members of the agricul-
tural industry.
It was pointed out that the United States gave up trying to get
guaranteed access to the market of the European Economic Cômmu-
nity because the Community's final order had "no value." I am going
to be interested in knowing what this was, and what caused the evalu-
ation that it had no value.
I went on to point out that the United Sates received a reasonable
assurance that the total grain exports to the Common Market will be
maintained, because production there may grow no faster than con-
sumption, and because the Community will now have to export more
grain on a new agreement between more countries.
I am naturally interested in the basis for that evaluation, and espe-
cially that production there may grow no faster than consumption.
PAGENO="0014"
10 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
It seems to me that this is a very fine opportunity for Ambassador
Roth and his staff to set the record straight, so that if indeed there has
been a favorable result from the standpoint of American agriculture
we know about it. And if there is false optimism, we will know it.
So I welcome the opportunity to participate in these hearings. And
I again thank the chairman for arranging for them.
Chairman BOGGS. Thank you, Senator. -
Mr. Ambassador, again we welcome you.
Before you begin your statement, would you be good enough to in-
troduce your associates?
Mr. ROTH. This is John R.ehrn, General Counsel of my office; Ber-
nard Norwood, chairman of the Trade Staff Committee; and Mr. Ray-
mond loanes, the Department of Agriculture.
Chairman BOGGS. Thank you. You may go right ahead with your
statement.
STATEMENT OF HON. WILLIAM M. ROTH, PRESIDENT'S SPECIAL
REPRESENTATIVE FOR TRADE NEGOTIATIONS (WITH THE
RANK OF AMBASSADOR); ACCOMPANIED BY JOKN REHM, GEN-
ERAL COUNSEL; BERNARD NORWOOD, CHAIRMAN OF THE TRADE
STAFF COMMITTEE; AND RAYMOND IOANES, U.S. DEPARTMENT
OP AGRICULTURE
Mr. ROTH. First, Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for your good
words about the negotiations and those of your colleagues. I am par-
ticularly grateful that Senator Javits put in the record the names of
the members of the negotiating delegation, because a negotiation such
as this is a team effort.. And this was a team that worked closely and
well together, and was very instrumental in putting together the final
package.
Mr. Chairman, it is a great honor to be the opening witness before
this subcommittee. This series of hearings reassessing U.S. foreign
trade policy comes at a most appropriate moment.
The President has ordered a major review of our trade policy. The
deliberations of this subcommittee, and the testimony and papers pre-
sented before it, will be of enormous benefit to us in preparing for and
undertaking the study for the President.
In trying to decide the aspects of the Kennedy Round a-nd the
future on which I c.ould most productively concentrate this morn-
ing, Mr. Chairman, I have concluded that an extended review of the
Kennedy Round and its results would not, perhaps, be in order.
A great deal has already been written and said on the Kennedy
Round's conclusion, and until the President's report to the Congress
is completed we will not have a definitive analysis of time agreement.
I would propose for your consideration, therefore, insertion in the
record of our initial report on the agreement. It is a fairly detailed
account of what happened. I would then focus my remarks on the
immediate future, to include, first, the issues that we face as a result
of the Kennedy Round and, second, the question of what we envision
as the means of meeting the President's request for a major ad-
ministration review of trade policy.
PAGENO="0015"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 11
May I ask permission to insert the comments on the Kennedy
Round in the record, Mr. Chairman?
Chairman BOGGS. Without objection, they may be included.
(The comments referred to follow:)
OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR TRADE
NEGOTIATIONS
Washington, DXI.
THE KENNEDY ROUND AGREEMENT
By direction of the President, W. Michael Blumenthal, Deputy Special
Representative for Trade Negotiations, signed multilateral agreements nego-
tiated in the Sixth Round of Trade Negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland, on
June 30, 1967.
The signing ceremony concluded the most comprehensive assault on barriers
to international trade that has ever taken place. The negotiations were known as
the Kennedy Round in recognition of the late President's leadership in in-
augurating the effort.
The important elements of the Kennedy Round package are:
Tariff cuts of 50 precent on a very broad range of industrial goods, and
cuts in the 30 to 50 percent range on many more.
Agricultural concessions to which the United States attaches great value
because they create new trading opportunities for our farmers and because
they support our contention that international negotiation on trade in farm
products can accomplish something.
A world grains arrangement guaranteeing higher minimum trading prices
and establishing a program under which other nations will share with us
in the vital but burdensome task of supplying food aid to the under-
nourished people in the less-developed countries.
Nontariff barrier liberalization including a very significant accord on
antidumping procedures as well as European NTB modifications in the
ASP package.
Useful if limited progress on the complex and sensitive problems in the
steel, aluminum, pulp and paper, and textile sectors including a three-year ex-
tension of the Long Term Cotton Textile Arrangement.
An agreement on the treatment of chemical products that deals with
the American Selling Price (ASP) issue in a manner that provides major
chemical traders with mutually advantageous concessions in the main Ken~
nedy Round agreement and a separate and balanced package that makes
additional concessions available to the United States if it abandons the
American `Selling Price system.
Significant assistance to the less-developed countries through permitting
their participation in the negotiations without requiring reciprocal con-
tributions from them; through special concessions on products of particular
interest to them; and through the food aid provision's of the grains arrange-
ment.
United States participation was made possible through authority granted the
President by the Congress through `the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. The late
Christian A. Herter directed U.S. participation as the Special Representative for
Trade Negotiations until his death in late 1966. He was succeeded by William
M. Roth, who continues to serve a's Special Representative.
The agreements signed June 30 `comprised:
1. A Final Act, which authenticates the texts of the agreements described
in paragraphs 2-5 `below, and `which expresses the intention of all the
signatories to take appropriate steps, subject to their constitutional proce-
dures, to put these agreements into effect.
2. The Geneva (1967) Protocol to the General Agreement on Tariffs and
`Trade (GATT) which embodies most of the tariff and other concessions
exchanged in the negotiations.
3. An agreement relating primarily to chemicals, which provides for the
elimination of the American Selling Price (ASP) system.
4. A memorandum of agreement on basic elements for a WTorld Grains
Arrangement.
`5. An agreement on implementation of Article VI of the GATT, in the
form of a code of antidumping practices.
PAGENO="0016"
12 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
It is estimated that the agreements will apply to about ~4O billion of world
trade. In industry, the U.S. and the other countries have agreed on cuts averag-
ing about 35 percent. In agriculture, the average cut is less but the United States
has obtained important concessions covering a substantial volume of trade.
United States tariff reductions will not enter into force until proclaimed by
the President of the United States. It is expected that their effective date will
be January 1, 1968. In accordance with the requirements of the Trade Expansion
Act, most United States duty reductions will be made in five equal annual
stages.
In overall trade terms and taking both industry and agriculture, the tariff
cuts made by the U.S. are in balance with those of the other industrialized coun-
tries. In terms of 1966 trade the United States is giving tariff cuts on about
871/2 to ~8 billion of industrial and agricultural imports and is obtaining tariff
concessions on about the same amount of U:S. exports.
None of the multilateral agreements negotiated in the Kennedy Round will
require Congressional action, except the agreement providing for the elimination
of the ASP system with respect to chemicals. The World Grains Arrangement en-
visaged by `the Memorandum of Agreement on grains will require consent of
two-thirds of the Senate.
INnusTRIAL NEGoTIATIoNs
Import duties are being cut in half on a broad range of industrial products in
international trade. Cuts in the 35 to 50 percent range are being made on many
more products. Categories of products on which the principal negotiating coun-
tries. including the United States. have made cuts that in the aggregate average
over 35 percent include machinery, both electrical and nonelectrical; photographic
equipment and supplies; automobile and other transport equipment; optical,
scientific and professional instruments and equipment; paper and paper products;
books and other printed material; fabricated metal products; `and lumber and
wood products including furniture.
Steel Sector-Negotiations on steel were conducted against a background
of tariff rates where U.S. duties are generally lower than those of other partici-
pants. These negotiations, held bilaterally and multilaterally, resulted in closer
harmonization of tariffs among the major steel producing countries. Virtually
all the peaks in these countries' tariffs were eliminated so that almost all rates
will be no higher than 15 percent and most will be well below 10 percent.
Except for United States rates, most steel tariffs have not heretofore been
bound. In the final negotiating package, however, almost all rates of other coun-
tries were bound and many were reduced.
The international harmonization of steel tariffs should also reduce the tend-
ency for exports to be deflected to the United States market in instances where
United States tariffs were much lower than those of other countries. Although
the United States is primarily an importer rather than an exporter of steel mill
products, lower tariffs abroad will also provide opportunities for United States
exporters.
The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSO) adopted a unified tariff and
agreed to reduce rates to an arithmetical average of 5.7 percent. The European
Economic Community (EEC) agreed to reduce rates within its jurisdiction
correspondingly so that a tariff relationship would be maintained between more
highly fabricated EEC steel items and primary and less fabricated ECSC items.
The ECSC/EEC concessions are a 23 percent reduction from existing rates (a
10 percent reduction from the pre-February 1964 rates on 1964 imports from the
United States).
The United Kingdom is reducing most of its rates by 20 percent. Japan is re-
ducing its rates by 50 percent except for a few alloy steel items. Sweden is bind-
ing its rates at existing low levels. Austria is harmonizing its tariffs with the
ECSC/EEO at a somewhat higher level.
The United States reductions average 7 percent on 1964 imports. It is generally
harmonizing its tariffs with the ECSC/EEC where they have been above those
rates. United States rates higher than ECSC/EEO rates are to be reduced to
ECSC/EEC levels, but no cuts are to be made where rates are now below ECSC/
ECC concession levels. United States concessions take account of differences be-
tween the United States f.o.b. and ECSC/EEC c.i.f. customs valuation systems so
that, nominally, United States rates would be somewhat higher than ECSO/EEC
rates. Also, the differential in the United States tariff between ordinary and
PAGENO="0017"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 13
alloy steel is being reduced by 50 percent but is not being eliminated as complete
harmonization would have required.
Aluminum $ector.-The Community offer consisted of a binding of a 130,000
ton annual quota at 5 percent. The EEC bad previously bound in the GATT a
9 percent rate of duty on ingot aluminum. Some imports were allowed entry
annually under a tariff quota at 5 percent but neither the amount of the quota
nor the lower rate had been bound. The U.S. is making a 20 percent cut on ingot
aluminum, of benefit primarily to Canada and Norway.
On unwrought aluminum (further advanced than ingot), tariff cuts by the
United States averaged less than 30 percent. The EEC average cut was about one
third, while the tariff cuts by the U.K. and Canada were larger than those of the
EEC. Japan and other EFTA countries also made substantial cuts in the alumi-
num sector. Of special interest to U.S. aluminum exporters will be the adoption
by Canada of an injury requirement in its antidumping legislation to conform
to the new antidumping agreement.
Chemical Sector.-The chemical sector negotiations were centered on the
American Selling Price (ASP) issue. European countries maintained from the
start that any more than token reductions in their chemical tariffs were condi-
tional on United States elimination of the ASP valuation system. Since elimina-
tion of ASP would require Congressional action, United States negotiators in-
sisted that chemical concessions be implemented in two packages: first, a bal-
anced settlement in the Kennedy Round; second, reciprocal concessions by other
countries in return for abolition of ASP.
The pattern and volume of chemical trade is such that the outcome of negotia-
tions in this sector inevitably played a major role in the outcome of the entire
Kennedy Round. United States dutiable chemical imports from countries with
a major stake in world chemical trade (EEC, United Kingdom Japan, and
Switzerland) were $325 million in 1964; these countries' dutiable chemical
imports from the United States totaled nearly $900 million.
In the end, all major Kennedy Round participants made concessions in the
chemical sector. Many concessions have been agreed on unconditionally, while
certain other concessions are conditional on United States elimination of the
American Selling Price (ASP) valuation system. The concessions on chemicals
are, therefore, in two parts: first, the Kennedy Round chemical package, and
second, the ASP package.
I. The Kennedy Round Package
Unconditional obligations undertaken in the Kennedy Round are as follows:
1. The United States agreed to duty reductions on products accounting
for nearly all (95 percent) of United States dutiable chemical imports.
Tariffs will be reduced 50 percent on most items with rates above 8 percent;
20 percent on items 8 percent and below. These commitments will result
in a weighted `average duty reduction of 43 percent in United `States chemical
tariffs and $325 million of dutiable imports from the EEC, U.K., Japan,
`and Switzerland. The combined tariff reduction made by these four countries
averages 26 percent on nearly $900 million of U.S. chemical exports, and
the United `States retains the ASP method of valuation for benzenoid
chemicals.
2. The European Economic Community agreed to duty reductions on tariff
items accounting for 98 percent of its dutiable chemical imports from the
United States. `Most duties will be reduced `by 20 percent. Certain items,
however, will `be subject to reductions of `30 percent `and 35 percent, while
some others will be reduced less than 20 percent. These commitments will
result in a weighted average `reduction of 20 percent in EEC tariffs on $460
million of 1964 chemical imports from the United States.
3. The United Kingdom agreed to duty reductions on virtually all chemi-
cal imports from the United States except certain plastics. Most British
plastics duties are currently 10 percent, a level considerably lower than
other major trading countries. The United Kingdom has agreed to reduce
tariffs at rates of 25 percent and a'bove by 30 percent, and rates below 25
percent by 20 percent. These commitments will result in `a weighted average
reduction of 24 percent in United Kingdom imports of more than $100 million
of chemicals from the United `States.
4. Japan agreed to tariff reductions which on a weighted average basis
amount to 44 percent on dutiable chemical imports from the United States.
These imports were over $200 million in 1964.
82-181-67-vol. I-2
PAGENO="0018"
14 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
5. Switzerland. agreed to tariff reductions which on a weighted average
basis amount to 49 percent on $45 million of chemical imports from the
United States.
6. Other participants, notably Canada and the Scandinavian countries,
agreed to reductions in their chemical tariffs as part of their Kennedy Round
concessions.
II. The ASP Package
The following concessions are contingent on United States elimination of the
ASP valuation system:
1. The United States would eliminate ASP and replace rates currently
based on ASP with rates that have been proposed by the Tariff Commission
to be applied on the valuation as normally calculated for other United States
imports and yielding the same revenue as the previous rates. These "con-
verted" rates would be reduced, by stages, generally by 50 percent or to
an ad valorem equivalent of 20 percent, whichever is lower. The principal
exceptions to this formula are dyes and sulfa drugs, duties on which would
be reduced to 30 percent and 25 percent, respectively. In addition, the United
States would reduce the 8 percent and below rates subject to the 20 percent
cut in the Kennedy Round package by a further 30 percent and further re-
duce by more than 50 percent a few other items to the 20 percent level. These
reductions would provide a combined weighted average cut on United States
chemical tariffs in the Kennedy Round and ASP packages of about 48 percent
on $325 million of imports.
2. Tl~e European Economic Community would reduce its chemical tariffs by
an additional amount so as to achieve a combined Kennedy Round-ASP
package reduction of 46 percent on $460 million of chemical imports from
the United States. Virtually all EEC chemical tariffs would be at rates of
12% percent or below. Belgium, France, and Italy w-ould also modify road-
use taxes so as to~ eliminate discrimination against American-made auto-
mobiles.
3. The United Kingdom would reduce most of its chemical tariffs accord-
ing to the following formula: Items at present dutiable at 25 percent and
above w-ould be reduced to a level of 12% percent, for a 62 percent combined
Kennedy Round and ASP package reduction. Tariff items with duties of
less than 33 percent would generally be reduced by the amount necessary
to achieve a combined reduction of 50 percent in the two packages. U.K.
plastics tariffs which would be above the reduced EEC rate on the same
item would be cut to that level and bound. The combined weighted average
reduction in the level of British chemical tariffs on United States trade
would be approximately 41 percent on $170 million of imports from the U.S.
After these reductions virtually all British chemical tariffs would be at rates
of 12% percent or below. The United Kingdom would also reduce by 25
percent its margin of preference on imports of tobacco.
4. Switzerland would eliminate limitations on imports of canned fruit
preserved with corn syrup.
Tewtile Sector.-Most importing countries reduced tariffs on cotton, man-made,
and w-ool textiles less than their average reduction in other industrial products
as a whole. The United States agreed to tariff reductions which, on a weighted
trade basis, average approximately 14 percent for the three fibers. Cotton textiles
were reduced 21 percent; man-made textiles, 15 percent; and wool textiles, 2
percent.
Negotiations on cotton textiles involved three elements: the extension of the
Long-Term Cotton Textiles Arrangement (LTA) ; more liberal access to import
markets protected by the LTA; and tariff reductions. The principal concessions
by exporting countries of interest to importing countries was the extension of
the LTA in its present form until September 30, 1970. In return, importing comi-
tries agreed to enlarged quotas under LTA provisions and to tariff reductions.
Within the context of the LTA, the United States negotiated bilateral agree-
ments with its main supplying countries. These agreements typically provided for
a 5 percent annual increase in LTA quotas, a one-time bonus for LTA extension,
and certain other administrative improvements.
The United States agreed to cotton textile tariff reductions that amounted to
a weighted average reduction of 21 percent. Reductions on apparel items averaged
17 percent; fabrics tariffs w-ere reduced 24 percent; and yarn, 28 percent.
PAGENO="0019"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 15
The EEC reduced cotton textile tariffs by about 20 percent. It also reached bi-
lateral understandings with major suppliers providing for improved access to the
EEC market. Noting that it already accorded liberal access for imports from
Hong Kong, India, and other Commonwealth sources, the United Kingdom made
token cotten textile tariff reductions toward other suppliers.
The United States agreed to a weighted average tariff reduction of 15 percent
on imports of man-made fiber textiles, including fibers. Man-made fiber apparel
duties were reduced by an average of approximately 6 percent, fabrics by 18 per-
cent, yarn by 37 percent. Other countries made significant reductions on these
textiles.
The United States agreed to tariff reductions on very few wool textiles. The
weighted average duty reduction on wool fabric was about 1 percent; on wool
apparel about 2 percent. On total wool textile imports the average duty reduc-
tion was 2 percent. Other countries made considerably greater reductions on
wool textiles.
Paper, Pulp, and Lumber.-Multilateral sector negotiations were planned for
paper and pulp, largely in an effort to get the EEC to make meaningful tariff
reductions of interest to the Nordic countries and Canada as well as the U.S.
Although some multilateral discussions were held, negotiations were essentially
bilateral. A long series of discussions resulted in EEC cuts of 50 percent on pulp
and about 25 percent on paper. Canada and the EFTA countries also made sig-
nificant concessions on paper products exported by the U.S. In return, the United
States made comparable concessions.
NONTARIFF BARRIERS
Antidumping Code.-A major accomplishment in the field of nontariff barriers
was the negotiation of an antidumping code. In addition to the United States, the
major participants in this negotiation were the United Kingdom, the European
Economic Community, Japan, Canada, and the Scandinavian countries.
Negotiation of the antidumping code centered on the consideration of interna-
tional standards. Although United States legislation is consistent with the GATT,
foreign complaints were directed against United States procedures. These con-
cerned, particularly, the frequent withholding of appraisement during antidump-
ing investigations and the length of time taken in investigations. (Withholding
of appraisement postpones the final determination of customs duties until an anti-
dumping investigation is completed. However, imports may be released under
bond from Customs' custody after appraisement is withheld.)
The antidumping code supplements the provisions of Article VI of the GATT
with rules and procedures to be followed in antidumping actions. United States
legislation and administrative regulations contain detailed provisions relating `to
the determination of sales at less than fair value and injury, but most countries'
procedures lack such specificity.
The principal advantages of the antidumping code to the United States will be
the adoption by other countries of fair and open procedures along the lines of
present United States practices. The code will provide both an opportunity and
a basis for United States exporters to defend their interests in foreign anti-
dumping actions. In particular the new common antidumping regulations that
are being developed by the European Economic Community will conform with the
code.
Of special benefit to the United States will be the adoption by Canada of an
injury requirement in its antidumping legislation. The lack of such a require-
ment has impeded United States exports for many years.
Because the antidumping code is consistent with existing United States law,
no legislative changes are required. However, the Treasury Department will
revise its regulations to conform with the code. The principal change in present
procedures will concern limiting the time period during which appraisement is
withheld to a maximum of 90 days in most cases. Both foreign exporters and
domestic importers and producers favor a reduction of the time taken in anti-
dumping cases. Also, investigations will not be initiated unless there is evidence
of injury.
Other Nontariff Barriers-In addition to the negotiation of an antidumping
code, described above, the principal nontariff accomplishment is the agreement
to take action on the nontariff barriers included in the conditional chemical pack-
age, that is, the elimination for certain chemicals of the American Selling Price
system of valuation by the United States, the elimination of the discriminatory
PAGENO="0020"
16 TI~ FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
aspects of automobile road-use taxes in France. Italy, and Belgium. and the
modification by Switzerland of regulations on canned fruit, as well as a reduc-
tion by the United Kingdom in the margin of preference on unmanufactured
tobacco.
There were also a few other nontariff achievements as a result of bilateral dis-
cussions. In the negotiations Austria agreed to eliminate the discriminatory
effect of automobile road-use taxes on larger engined U.S. automobiles. Canada
eliminated a restriction prohibiting imports of fresh fruits and vegetables in
three-quarter bushel baskets. Canada also ceased applying the Canadian sales
tax to the full value of aircraft engines repaired in the United States. The 11
percent sales tax is now applied only to the value of the repairs. In addition.
Canada modified restrictive standards applying to aircraft engines repaired
abroad.
Although not a subject for negotiation, quantitative restrictions were elimi-
nated or modified by several countries. Of particular importance to the United
States are the elimination of restrictions in the United Kingdom on fresh grape-
fruit and in Denmark and Finland on many agricultural products. Japan agreed
to liberalize quota restrictions on some products.
Several developing countries specified action on various nontariff measures as
part of their contributions to the negotiations. These included the introduction
of certain tariff reforms, the liberalization of licensing systems and foreign ex-
change controls, and the elimination or reduction of prior deposit requirements
and tariff surcharges.
AGRICULTL~RE
The United States originally set as a goal in the agricultural negotiations
the same broad trade coverage and depth of tariff cut as achieved for industrial
products. This did not prove negotiable. however. The European Economic Com-
munity, w-hen the negotiations got under way, was still in the process of develop-
ing its Common Agricultural Policy. It was reluctant to make substantial cuts
in the level of protection at the same time it was formulating a Common Agri-
cultural Policy among the six members. The results of the agricultural negotia-
tions with the Community are therefore considerably more modest than the re-
sults achieved in industry. Nevertheless, progress was made in the negotiations
in reducing barriers to agricultural trade.
The United States was able to obtain significant agricultural concessions from
Japan, Canada, and the U.K., the Nordic countries, and Switzerland. The EEC
made tariff cuts on agricultural items of trade value to the United States of over
$200 million.
No progress was made in negotiating down the trade restrictive effects of the
variable levy system of the EEC. Offers made by the Community on the basis
of this system were not accepted.
The agricultural negotiations were divided into so-called commodity groups
and non-group or tariff items. The commodity groups included meats, dairy
products, and grains. Of the commodity groups only grains yielded positive
results.
Grains.-A new grains arrangement was negotiated that establishes a minimum
price for U.S. #2 hard red winter ordinary wheat f.o.b. Gulf ports at $1.73 per
bushel. This represents an increase of about 21.5 cents per bushel over the
equivalent minimum price for U.S. hard red winter ordinary under the present
International Wheat Agreement. There will be a comparable increase in the
minimum price of other grades and qualities of wheat under the new arrange-
ments.
Market prices are currently above the minimum prices of the new arrange-
ment but the new minimum prices should establish an effective floor under U.S.
wheat exports for the three years of the arrangement. Adequate provision is
made for adjusting differentials for various grades and qualities of wheat as
required if trading prices should fall to the minimum. There is nothing in the
arrangement that will prevent U.S. wheat from being priced competitvely, as
required.
Participating countries have agreed to contribute 41,4 million tons of cereals to
a multilateral food aid program. The U.S. share of this program will be 42 per-
cent of the total, or slightly less than 2 million tons. Importing countries as
a whole will contribute about 2 million tons of the total. The grains arrangement
thus represents further progress toward one of the United States' key objectives
of foreign aid, the multilateral sharing of the food burden.
PAGENO="0021"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 17
Meat and Dairy Products.-During most of the Kennedy Round, the countries
principally involved in world trade in fresh, chilled, and frozen beef and veal,
and in butter, cheese and dry milk, sought to negotiate general international
arrangements for these products. The purpose of these negotiations was to pro-
vide for acceptable conditions of access to world markets in furtherance of a
significant development and expansion of world trade in agricultural products,
consistent with the principle agreed by the GATT Ministers at the outset of the
negotiations. Although these negotiations continued until late in the Kennedy
Round, it was not possible to work out an acceptable multilateral arrangement.
Countries then shifted to bilateral negotiations, through which they were able
in some cases to negotiate improved access to important markets.
The U.S. made no offers on fresh, chilled, or frozen beef or veal. The duty
on canned ham was bound but no reduction made. No offers were made on any
products subject to section 22 quotas, including butter, dry milk and certain
types of cheese. On certain non-quota cheese, cuts averaging 13 percent were
made.
AgricuZtura~ Tariff Items.-The United States achieved a wide range of conces-
sions from its principal negotiating partners which should improve the export
opportunities for such products as soybeans, tallow, tobacco, poultry, and horti-
cultural products, including citrus and canned fruit.
In particular, the United States and Canada negotiated a balance of agricul-
tural concessions covering a substantial range of products.
THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
The United States negotiated with the developing countries on the basis of the
plan adopted by the Trade Negotiations Committee. One of the objectives of the
negotiations, that of reducing barriers to exports of developing countries to the
maximum extent possible, was taken into account in the plan. The plan also took
into account the Ministerial Decisions to the effect that developed countries could
not expect to receive full reciprocity from the developing countries in trade
negotiations and that the contributions of developing countries should be con-
sidered in the light of the development, trade and financial needs of those
countries.
Accordingly, the United States made concessions of benefit to developing
countries, including non-participants, which cover over $900 million of their
exports. Included in these concessions will be the complete elimination of the
duty on more than $325 million of imports from these countries. Moreover, the
elimination of duties on $45 million of these products do not need to be staged
over a four-year period and thus meet one of the more important desiderata of the
developing countries. Since many of the concessions on tropical products were
negotiated in the context of joint action by industrialized countries, the total
benefits which developing countries will receive were further increased.
Ten developing countries made concessions benefiting the United States, and
these concessions will be appended to the Protocols as the schedules of these
countries in the General Agreement.
Mr. ROTH. And then I would like, Mr. Chairman, to say just a few
words on the Kennedy Round.
I think it is true that so far there has been a good reaction from
industry and from labor on the Kennedy Round to the extent that they
know what was achieved. It has now been fully made public what the
cuts in our tariffs have been. And t.here has been made public in a
more general way what we have received from other countries. Until,
however, we have made the complete analysis the whole picture will not
be seen.
But out of this I think two things have become clear and have been
recognized. One, that we have a reciprocal deal and that we did not give
more than we received; and, two, that we took particular care to be
sure that those industries that were particularly sensitive to import
competition were protected.
PAGENO="0022"
18 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
In our~ initial presentation to American businessmen last Friday.
before the chamber of commerce, I think the discussion indicated that
there was an acceptance in large part of these facts.
Briefly, what we achieved out of the Kennedy Round was, first, as
I said, a reciprocal deal, including something of benefit to agriculture.
For the first time in a. major trade. negotiation something of benefit
to agriculture was achieved.
And then, Senator Miller, I would like, to have the opportunity
during questioning time to comment in some detail on the problems
you raise.
We also achieved a very full agreement. with Canada in which tariffs
were sharply cut on both sides of the border. In many areas where our
tariffs were under 5 percent we in effect went into free trade. In an
area of particular export interest to the United States, production
machinery, the Canadians made sharp cuts, from 22½ to 15 percent
in the tariffs.
We negotiated a wheat agreement-which again, Senator Miller,
goes back to your question-which I think will prove to be of sub-
stantial benefit to American wheat producers. Representatives of those
producers were with us in Geneva at. the time of the final negotiation
and worked closely with us.
Finally, a firstmajor breakthrough in the area of nontariff barriers-
we negotiated an international code on dumping. And, Mr. Chairman,
I would like to read two paragraphs from what I said to the chamber
of commerce the other day on this subject, because it is a critical one:
A major acomplishment was the negotiation of the antidumping code, commit-
ting other countries to fair and open procedures along the lines of the present
United States procedures. The new common antidumping regulations that are
being developed by the European Community will conform with the code. Of
special interest to the United States will be the adoption by Canada of an injury
requirement in its -antidumping legislation. The lack of such a requirement has
impeded American exports for many years.
For our part, we have agreed to certain useful refinements of the concepts we
presently use in our antidumping investigations, once preliminary measures are
taken against allegedly dumped imports. I would emphasize, contrary to what
you may have read in the newspapers lately, that all our obligations in this
agreement are consistent with existing law. and in particular that we have not
agreed to the simultaneous consideration of price discrimination and injury.
And finally, before leaving the Kennedy Round, let me sa.y that I
think many of us who worked in this have felt that one of the great
advantages of a. successful Kennedy Round was that we averted some-
thing quite terrible-that is, a failure. If there had been a failure, I
feel-and I think all of us who worked in this felt-that it would have
set back the. growth of a liberal world trade policy many years. And
therefore we are grateful that it was, in the final analysis, possible
to put such an agreement together.
Having said this, I would then focus my remarks on the immediate
future. to include, first. the issues that we face as a result of the Ken-
nedy Round and. second, the question of what- we envision as the means
of meeting the President's request for a major administration review
of trade policy.
If this approach is agreeable to von. Mr. Chairman, I will proceed
to the discussion of our immediate post-Kennedy Round problems.
Chairman BOGGS. Go right ahead.
PAGENO="0023"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
19
Mr. ROTH. These problems are essentially three:
1. The negotiating authority of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962
has expired, leaving the United States without an important means
of conducting its normal international trade relations.
2. The criteria for making available the *adjustment assistance
provided for the Trade Expansion Act appear to be so stated as
to make such assistance more difficult to obtain than we had originally
expected.
3. In order to bring into effect a valuable package of concessions
worked out during the Kennedy Round, Congress is to be asked to
agree to the abandonment of the American selling price system of cus-
toms evaluation.
NEED FOR NEGOTIATING AUTHORITY
In regard to negotiating authority, we do not contemplate any
further major initiative in trade liberalization in the immediate fu-
ture. With the Kennedy Round just over, we believe that the present
need is for review and reflection in preparation for any renewed effort
to stimulate and expand international commerce. A major review of
trade policy will be undertaken for the President.
Nevertheless, some minimal negotiating authority is needed during
this period.
May I take an example. Under section 351 of the Trade Expansion
Act-the so-called escape-clause provision-the President has au-
thority to increase a duty or to impose a quota if he determines that
such action is necessary to prevent or to remedy serious injury to a
domestic industry that is caused by increased imports that in turn
have resulted from tariff concession.
Under the established international rule, we would be obliged to
see that some further adjustment was made to compensate the supply-
ing countries for their loss through this emergency action of the tariff
concession. The preferred method would be to lower one or more
tariffs on other goods imported into the United States. If we were not
able to make such compensatory tariff concessions, we would have to
face the retaliatory withdrawal by the supplying countries of tariff
concessions which they have granted on goods which we export to
them.
In order to be in a position to make compensatory tariff concessions
in connection with the escape-clause actions which we may have to
take, we should have authority under the TEA to negotiate compensa-
tory tariff settlements.
Let me take one more example. There may be times in the future
when we may wish to revise upward one or more tariff concessions.
This has been necessary in the past when legislation has been enacted
to change tariff classifications, with the effect of increasing duties.
Although these cases may be rare, they do pose the problem of negotiat-
ing a settlement with the other countries. Just as in the example I cited
above, there are two basic alternative adjustments that may be made:
to lower one or more of our duties on other products in compensation
to the other countries, or to face~ retaliatory tariff increases against our
exports. Our preference is obviously to negotiate for compensatory
tariff reductions. This again makes desirable the existence of some
negotiating authority.
PAGENO="0024"
20 THE FUTtJRE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
The GATT rules have brought a large measure of order into inter-
national tradmg relations. The cost of the obligations they place upon
the United States are far outweighed by the benefits we derive, as
the world's biggest trader.
It is in order to maintain our GATT obligations, and to be able to
act with initiative and flexibility within the GATT framework, that
we need some negotia.t.ing authority. It need not be very substantial.
It has been suggested, although no final decision has yet been taken,
that the Trade Expansion Act negotiating authority simply be ex-
tended for 3 years, giving us the use of that part of it that was not
exhausted in tile Keimecly Round.
AD~USTMEXT AssIsTANcE MODIFICATION
Turning to tile adjustment assistance question, we find ourselves
dea.ling with the probability that the Congress, in writing the pro-
visions of tile Trade Expansion Act, intended far more readily avail-
able recourse to adjustment assistance than has proved possible.
These provisions were designed to authorize quick and substantial
assistance to any worker or firm injured as a result of increased im-
ports caused by tariff concessions. The underlying concept was that
rather than restrict imports it was far preferable to help firms and
workers meet problems created by import competition through im-
proved productivity.
Unfortunately, however, the adjustment assistance provisions have
not had the expected beneficial effect because in practice the present
test of eligibility to apply for the assistance has proved too strict.
In fact, in no case brought under the act have any firms or workers
been able to prove eligibility.
The present test of eligibility requires (1) that tariff concessions be
shown to be tile major cause of increased imports, and (2) that such
increased imports be shown to be the major cause of injury to tile
petitioner.
In tile complex environment of our modern economy, a great variety
of factors affect the productive capacity and competitiveness of Amer-
ican producers, making it virtually impossible to smgle out increased
imports as the major cause of injury. In fact., it has usually been im-
possible to prove that tariff concessions were the major cause of
increased imnorts.
Under these circumstances, it. is apparent that action must be taken
to make tile intended assistance a reality. We now have under consid-
eration several formulations that might meet the requirements of the
situation. No final decisions have yet been taken, but it is the int.elltioil
of tile administration to propose congressional action to modify
the present provisions of the act.
Tile new test of eligibility would insure that adjustment assistance
would be available only in those cases of injury which are the result
of tariff concessions. The specific kinds and levels of benefits would
remain unchanged.
Also unchanged-and this is important, I believe-would be the
provisions for relief for entire industries-as distinguished from in-
dividual workers and firms-which suffer serious injury through tariff
concessions. Tile so-called escape clause makes possible the imnpositioii
PAGENO="0025"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 21
of quotas and increased tariffs. However, this is a drastic form of relief
and one which costs other industries either tariff protection at home
or export opportunities abroad, as I have suggested in my earlier
discussion of G-ATT provisions for compensation and retaliation in the
event of increased tariffs. We believe that the standards for escape-
clause relief should be retained in their present form.
After this rather summary discussion of the first two of the three
post-Kennedy Round problems, I would like to go into more detail
on the question of the American selling price system (ASP) which, as
Senator Javits has indicated, is one of the most controversial we face,
and, as I have said, will be a matter for congressional consideration.
THE ASP ISS~JE
ASP, as it applies to chemicals, is often referred to by critics abroad
as the symbol of nontariff barriers. I should like to confine my com-
ments to only three aspects of ASP-why it apears to us to be an un-
desirable impediment to trade, what the effects of its removal will prob-
ably be, and, finally, how we appraise the balance of what we gave
and received in this area in the recent trade negotiations.
In 1922 the Congress determined that our then infant chemical in-
dustry, specifically that part of it which manufactures products de-
rived from coal tars, required extraordinary protection. The Congress
was apparently reluctant to raise the statutory duties to the levels
it deemed necessary to provide adequate protection under the circum-
stances then existing. Instead, the Congress provided that any im-
ported coal tar product, now referred to as benzenoid, which is coin-
petitive with a similar domestic product should be valued on the basis
of the Tatter's American wholesale price. This statute has remained in
effect for 45 years, although the American chemical industry has grown
rapidly since then and is today one of the largest and strongest not only
in this country but in the world, and even though coal tars are now less
frequently involved, the major raw materials now being byproducts of
our petroleum industry, itself the largest and probably most efficient
in the world.
This system has long been criticized by other countries, and for
various reasons. Some of them can be summarized as follows:
1. It provides extraordinary protection, both in comparison to the
duties which now apply to other U.S. industries and in comparison
with duties in effect abroad. The statutory rates for benzenoids alone
are already higher than those applying to most other products en-
tering the United States and higher than those typical of other na-
tions' tariff schedules. When further applied to American wholesale
prices, these rates produce effective rates often many times higher
than the apparent duty. Some are actually above 100 percent and the
peak, as recently determined by a Tariff Commission study, is 172
percent.
2. The system is inconsistent with the customs practices of all our
trading partners for nonagricultural goods. Moreover, it would be in
violation of the standards of customs valuation laid ~iOWfl by the Gen-
eral Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. But for the fact that its use in
this country antedates our adherence to the GATT and was made
permissible under a "grandfather" clause.
PAGENO="0026"
22 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
3. Under the ASP system a domestic manufacturers has unique
and unfair advantages. Within the limits of the effectiveness of com-
petitive forces in the U.S. market, a. manufacturer can adjust the level
of his tariff protection against his foreign competitor by the whole-
sale price he sets for his product. Moreover, if he is not artually mak-
ing a product "like or similar" to one currently imported, he can
decide to produce or merely to "offer to sell" a. "like or similar"
product and thereby he triggers an increase, usually substantial, in
the tariff wall tha.t imports must surmount.
4. The foreign exporter of a product potentially subject to ASP,
consequently, cannot know at the time he. signs a contract and ships
the product whether it will he subject to ASP nor what the. ASP
will be until it has passed through our customs. This uncertainty as
to the amount of duty is a burden on trade with no counterpart in the
vast hulk of other international commerce in industrial goods.
The normal method of valuation, I might add, which applies to
virtually all other U.S. imports as well as to imports into all other
countries is export value, that is, the wholesale price of the product as
offered in arm's-length transactions in the country of origin. For the
reasons I have cited and the. fact that this particuTar system deviates so
sharply from t.he common practice, other countries consider it an
unjustified anomaly in our trade policy. From the very beginning of
the negotiations they made it a major issue, even though we made it
crystal clear that we had no authority to change it under the authority
of t.he Trade Expansion Act.
Because of the validity of those complaints and because our national
stake in world trade in chemicals is so large-we export some S2.7
billion in chemicals and our net export surplus is no less than $1.8
billion-so that we have much to gain from liberalization of barriers
throughout the world in this industry-we undertook a. series of in-
tensive studies of this issue over a 2-year period. And now I come
to my second point, what the effects of the removal of ASP and its
conversion to the normal basis of valuation would be.
EFFECTS o~c CJ~MICAL IxD~sTnY
I recognize that t.here are those who would have the Congress and
the public believe that the economic effects on this industry would,
and I quote, be "disastrous." So serious a cha.rge properly merits a
painstaking examination. I am sure when the Congress examines
the legislation which the President will be submitting that a vital
and objective review of all t.he facts will be made. We shall at the
appropriate time provide all of the reasons we have found that lead
us to conclude that no disaster lies ahead. I can understand the self-
interest of t.hose who have benefited for 45 years from an extraordi-
nary system of tariff a.djustment and from the very high level of
protection it creates in perpet.uat.ing that system. Nevertheless, the
national interest and the posture of our trade policy t.hroughout the
world requires a. full evaluation of all pertinent considerations.
Ve~ briefly, what our studies found was a remarkable record of
growth and a well below average problem with imports. And, I might
add t.hat the studies were based on evidence submitted by the industry
in four se.parate public hearings, two of which dealt entirely with
PAGENO="0027"
THE FTJTURE OF TJ.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 23
the ASP issue, as well as on extensive consultations with firms in the
industry.
Let me cite but a few figures, both for all of the chemical industry
and for that portion protected specially by ASP. It is not always
meaningful, I should note, to attempt to concentrate only on the
benzenoid portion of the chemical industry. Useful data are not al-
ways available for benzenoid activities only. Perhaps more important,
we found that some of the major chemical companies-large, inte-
grated, and diversified firms-also dominate the benzenoid sector,
though their benzenoid production and sales are often but a small
fraction of their total corporate activity. In such cases it is not rea-
sonable to examine only the small fraction and overlook either the
largest area of their activity or the close interrelationships between
the parts.
We found that in 1964, the base year for data for our negotiations,
the chemical industry sold products worth $36 billion of which $3
billion were protected by ASP. ASP imports, in turn, were $50 mil-
lion, of which only about half were deemed by the Customs Bureau
to compete with American-made chemicals. This works out to an im-
port "penetration" less than 1 percent of our domestic market for
competitive products, far below the national average for all manu-
facturers.
`We found further that not only has the chemical industry generally
been one of our fastest growing industries, as is well known, but also
that its benzenoid segment has a growth record-overall from 7 per-
cent to 8 percent per year-that is impressive indeed. I probably need
not detail our export record in chemicals. The average increase has
been no less than 10 percent per year. We have not only the significant
export surplus I noted earlier, buta surplus with each of our major
trading partners-with Japan, with Canada, the EEC, and the United
Kingdom.
Our chemical exports, further, have grown even faster than average
into those foreign markets where the local firms have an advantage
over our producers by virtue of customs unions or free trading areas,
such as the EEC and the EFTA nations. Our share of the EEC im-
port market, for example, is equal to that of Germany, our strongest
competitor and one with favored tariff treatment in selling into the
other EEC member states.
The picture for benzenoids alone, though the figures are less com-
plete, is much the same. Our exports in 1964 probably exceeded $300
million. We exported at least six times as much as we imported or
better than a tenth of production. We exported more than we im-
ported, substantially more in most cases, iii each of the major benze-
noid product groups-in intermediates, in dyes, in pigments, to name
the presumedly more sensitive ones, and clearly more in those groups
where our competitive strength is seldom called into question-in plas-
tics, in pesticides, plasticizers, and surface active agents.
We also found great concentration of production and sales in the
hands of a few large firms. While small firms, often specializing in
a few products or special services, are found in many benzenoid prod-
uct lines, we also found, for example, that five integrated and diversi-
fied companies account for two-thirds of total U.S. production of ben-
PAGENO="0028"
24 Ti~ FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
zenoid intermediates. Imports of all intermediates, by the way, were
less than 2 percent of sales in 1964, and exports were well in excess of
$100 million.
Much has been and undoubtedly will also be heard about our dye
industry, which is also protected by ASP. `We found that. four firms
make more than half of all sales in our domestic market and 10 have
three-quarters of the total, that sales have experienced an average
growth of 8 percent per year, and that imports of competitive dyes
were again less than 2 percent in 1964.
Another area of which much has been said is the pigment sector
of this industry. Here we found that a single large firm has 25 percent
of all sales; another four bring the share up to 60 percent of the mar-
ket. Again, the growth rate has been well above the national average.
Imports were almost all deemed not competitive with LT.S. pigments
and barely accounted for 1 percent of total consumption.
These are but a few of our specific findings. In reaching our con-
clusions bot.h on conversion of the ASP system and on the rate reduc-
tions that we negotiated in the Kennedy Round or those we shall be
submitting to the Congress, we applied the same standards as we
observed in determining the reductions we could offer on all other
products of American agriculture and industry. `We examined care-
fully all available evidence on the individual companies and their
workers, the prospects for future growth. the ability to adjust to in-
creased competition, and the potential for benefiting from new oppor-
tunities to expand exports. `We reached a judgment on whether tariff
reduction would cause serious injury and whether t.he industry has the
competitive strength to adjust to such concessions, taking into ac-
count the adjustment provisions of the Trade Expansion Act. In the
end we found that most parts of the benzenoid industry would not be
seriously injured by elimination of ASP and reduction by 50 percent
in the equivalent duties computed on the normal basis of valuation.
For others, we found that elimination of ASP would have no adverse
effect, but that reduction of duties by 50 percent would. In such cases,
we have proposed lesser tariff reductions.
I cannot leave this subject without taking note of the criticism
which has been made of the manner in which we achieved a satisfac-
tory negotiation of the ASP issue. We insisted, you may recall, that
any negotiation would have to be separate and distinct from t.he chemi-
cal negotiations in the Kennedy Round, so that the Congress would
have a. full and free opportunity to judge the issue on its merits and to
determine, as well, whether reciprocity would be obtained in return
for abolishing the system. We also insisted that a satisfactory balance
of concessions in chemicals be achieved within the Kennedy Round
in keeping with the purposes of the Trade Expansion Act. as well as
to prevent "overloading" the separate. ASP package and thereby im-
pair the free deliberation of its merits by the Congress.
These results were not easily achieved. Until virtually the last week
our negot.i ating partners refused to spin off, so to speak, what they
considered to be a major negotiating objective or to pay additional
coin in return for its elimination. In the end, however, we were able
to achieve a. separate ASP package. as well as a balanced deal within
the. chemical sector in the Kennedy Round.
PAGENO="0029"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 25
BALANCE OF BENEFITS
This brings me to my third point. A proper appraisal of the benefits
gained and given in a trade negotiation necessarily involves a com-
posite judgment based on the nature and volume of the trade subject
to concessions, an evaluation of the potentials thereby created for f u-
ture trade expansion, and on the depth of the concessions made. Com-
bining all these factors, the United States negotiated a balanced ex-
change with each major participant, within the Kennedy Round while
retaining ASP and, should the Congress approve legislation elimi-
nating ASP, we shall obtain further valuable concessions both to the
chemical a.nd other industries. Together, the two packages commit the
major nations to make the same average overall percentage reductions
in chemical tariffs and to eliminate significant nontariff barriers
against the trade of their partners.
In each of the two packages, the concessions `received by the United
States cover a substantially larger volume of our exports than the
volume of imports on which concessions were granted. Taking into ac-
count both trade covered by concessions and the depth of the conces-
sions, the United States thus stands to, benefit on balance in each pack-
age. This positive balance also holds in our bilateral trade with each
major participant. Our chemical industry, in short, stands to derive
substantial benefits.
We should derive substantial benefits not only on balance but, criti-
cally, in the areas where it most counts. Foreign tariffs on our most
rapidly growing export products will be drastically reduced, while the
exceptions to a 50-percent concessions by others should not adversely
affect our future trade to any significant degree.
If ASP is eliminated, our negotiations will result in tariffs abroad
being uniformly reduced to extremely low levels, thereby providing
very considerable opportunities for our chemical industry. With very
few exceptions, there will be no rate in the United Kingdom or in the
EEC above 12.5 percent. Tariffs on plastics, for example, will almost
all be 10 percent or less in the rapidly growing EEC and United King-
dom markets if ASP is, eliminated. In 1964 we exported nearly $150
million of plastics to these two markets alone. Another of our burgeon-
ing overseas markets is in organic chemicals, .other than plastics. The
United Kingdom here will `bring its many `331/3-percent rates down to
12.5 percent. Some $50 million of T3.S. exports of organics go to the
United Kingdom alone. The EEC, in turn, will be cutting by nearly
50 percent on an even larger volume of our exports.
Most Japanese duties will be below 15 percent, as will Canadian
rates. By comparison, U.S. tariffs in certain key benzenoid sectors will
still be 20 percent, while sulfa drugs will be 25 percent and dyes and
pigments will be dutiable at 30 percent, substantially above comparable
rates in other countries.
We are confident' that rates such as these will provide a sufficient
level of tariff protection for the U.S. benzenoid industry, a strong and
efficient industry with a demonstrated record of international cOm-
petitive ability. On the other hand, the concessions we have gained
should permit. it, in turn, and the rest of the chemical industry as well
to continue to expand significantly their already substantial export
surpluses.
PAGENO="0030"
26 Tm FUTURE OF IJ.S. FOREIGY TRADE POLICY
LOOKING FORWARD
Now I would like to turn briefly to the far more distant future.
There are many ways the United States could move on from the
Kennedy Round. We could simply seek another general round of tariff
reductions. We could pursue specialized negotiations on certain prod-
ucts, or with certain countries. We could concentrate on some, or on
all, nontariff harriers. There is a very wide range of alternatives.
The President has asked, as I said, f or a major study of U.S. trade
policy to determine, which courses of action would be desirable in
the coining years. This study will give us all a chance to catch our
breath and to give close scrutiny to the likely effects of the Kennedy
Round, while evaluating what remains to be done. It is my hope that
Members of Congress will take an active interest in this study.
The range of issues which will require careful thought, and on
which we shall be seeking your athice, is wide.
Many of these issues relate to the special trade problems of the devel-
oping countries. These countries are acutely conscious of the. need for
expanding their exports, and have been pressing in recent years for a
new, general kind of discriminatory treatment. As you know, what
they want is preferential access for all developing countries into all
major industrialized countries. Such a step would, the developing coun-
tries claim, give them reasonable opportunity to export, while putting
all of the developing countries on an equal basis. These countries have
pressed their desire for preferences very hard, and many developed
countries now appear to be willing to provide such preferred access.
The President indicated at Punta dcl Este that he was willing to
consider whether a common effort among the developed countries was
desirable. and feasible.. Exploratory disc.ussions a.long these lines ai~
now underway in the OECD.
Meanwhile, proliferation of special trading arra.ngements between
developed and developing countn es continues. These arrangements
tend to harm many countries while favoring only a few, and thus
threaten to offset many of the good effects of most-favored-nation
tariff reductions such as those most recently achieved. Proliferation of
discrirnination~ if carried further, could hurt, most of all, the develop-
ing countries themselves, with a chosen few receiving modest benefits
from certain highly industrialized countries, and many others being
left as orphans. Somehow, we feel, a way must very soon be found to
halt this trend.
Looking at trade more generally, tariffs will in the future be much
lower, and in a number of cases remain only at nuisance levels. And as
I said, in the case of Canada, we have actually gone to free trade in
many areas. And this raises a. ftmdamental question of approach.
Should future trade negotiations adopt the same across-the-board
basis as the Kennedy Round, or should they be focused upon particular
commodities, as Eric Wyndharn-White, the Director General of
GATT, has suggested.
In the agricultural field, tariffs are becoming even less important
relatively to other impediments or artificial stimulations to trade. We
must try to see if the United States can obtain significant liberaliza-
tion of agricultural trade for our exporters, because we are quite aware
that in the Kennedy Round we made a start, but only a start. But at
PAGENO="0031"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 27
the same time we shall have to ascertain what present U.S. protection
we might have to give up to buy such liberalization. In trade, as you
know, nothing is free. A major effort may be needed to limit the use of
export subsidies, especially in countries where high price supports are
in operation.
One of the most difficult, complex, and far-reaching areas with which
our future trade policy must deal is that of nontariff trade barriers.
The obstacles to the unimpeded, nondiscriminatory flow of goods other
than tariffs take many forms. Moreover, they have very deep roots in
the fiscal, social, and economic policies of each nation and by that token
can be only slowly and. painfully removed through international
negotiations. Their impact on trade and their distorting effects on
international competition are often not readily apparent, which makes
them all the more arduous to negotiate and eradicate.
A difficult question, therefore, that we will face is what of our own
NTB's we shall be prepared to give up in exchange for the dropping
of other nations' barriers.
As part of our study, we will attempt to compile a complete index
and analysis of all nontariff barriers, both foreign and domestic. In this
effort, we will be seeking the cooperation of business and of agriculture.
We are pleased to find that the national chamber of commerce has
recognized the inadequacy of data in this field and is working on its
own compilation.
It may well prove useful to us in this project, as well as in other
aspects of our study, to hold public hearings.
There is need again for careful thought about what can and should
be done toward improving American export performance. In particu-
lar, we must see whether American exporters are disadvantaged in any
way in comparison with foreign exporters working under the benefit
of their government's export programs or tax systems. We need to
consider whether new U.S. export incentives are feasible and consist-
ent with orderly development of world trade. At the same. time we
should consider what actions may be necessary to control the unjusti-
fied use of export incentives by other countries.
Export incentives are only one aspect of export performance. A good
deal more thought is needed concerning the relationship between ex-
ports and foreign investment by American firms. We shall also need to
know more about the extent to which tariffs will act as an incentive to
invest abroad to get behind tariff walls despite the Kennedy R.ound re-
ductions. The trade flows within major interna.tional firms, many of
which have lost their national identities, is a.nother area. about which
we need to know much more. The worldwide flow of technology, invest-
ment, . and trade within some industries may very well provide appro-
priate conditions for free trade in the products of those industries.
The many interrelationships between trade and investment in eco-
nomic growth and development today have another crucial bearing
upon our trade policies. As the importance of the truly int.ernational
corporation grows and the two-way flow of trade, capital, and tech-
nology accelerates, what is done in one field or in one geogra.phic area
inevitably affects our policies and our performances in others. If, for
example, we would have other countries welcome our subsidiaries and
our steadily growing direct investments, and if our investors abrOad
PAGENO="0032"
28 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
are to expect continued equal and reasonable treatment, then we must
see to it that the legitimate economic interests of other countries are
also taken into account in the determination of oui~ own policies here
at home.. An industry with as large and promising a stake in foreign
markets as the chemical industry, for instance, should be aware of
the intensity of the grievances abroad over the tariff barriers we have
erected against the chemical products of other countries.
DOMEsTIC ADJUSTMENTS
`\~Te must give further thought to means by which our domestic eco-
nomic adjustmehts to increased trade are facilitated. It is clear that
improved adjustment assistance provisions are needed to ease the
plight of those adversely affected by increased imports resulting from
concessions which are of more general benefit. There has been a tend-
ency in the past to turn to protectionism when economic dislocations
threatened to occur. Ad hoc measures to protect certain products may
continue to be needed from time to time if emergencies come about. On
the whole, however, if international trade is to he. further expanded,
the beneficiaries of this trade, including the United States, must strenu-
ously resist adoption of special protectionist devices. At home we shall
have to give much thought to finding the desirable balance-of-trade
promoting, and protective devices des.igned to ease the process of eco-
nomic dislocation. And finally, we should have another look at existing
restrictive programs to see whether they can be adapted to the 1970's,
or whether they should be gradually phased out.
In these remarks, Mr. Chairman, I have touched upon some of the
problems which need to be studied in coming months. There are many
more which need to be studied because, as you know, trade policy is ex-
tremely complex. In order to grasp this wide range of issues we are
planning to establish a number of task forces within the executive
branch, which will include consultants from universities and from in-
dustry. We intend to maintain close ties with various industry, labor,
and agricultural groups around the country. Most important, we wel-
come your active interest in all aspects of the trade policy investigation.
Our intention is to consult Members of Congress as we proceed with
the study for the President. as we. did in the Kennedy Hound. New
steps, asSenator Javits suggested, inevitably, require le~isiation, mak-
ing it a matter of paramount importance that the views of the Congress
be fully considered in the formative stages of recommendations. In
this way, we can plan new steps toward increased world trade and
prosperity, with the knowledge that our policies and our actions repre-
sent the best interests of the Nation as a whole.
The Kennedy R.ound was only a step in the march toward freer
world trade. And the goal of world economic benefits must be pushed
vigorously.
Thank you very much.
Chairman BOGGS. Thank you very much. Mr. Roth.
For the purposes of the record I ask unanimous consent that the
statement by Mr. Schnittker, Under Secretary of Agriculture be in-
cluded in the record.
Without objection, it is so ordered.
(The statement follows:)
PAGENO="0033"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 29
STATEMENT OF JOHN A. SCHNITTKER, UNDER SECRETARY OP
AGRICULTURE
Mr. SOHNITTKER. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to have the opportu-
nity to report to you on agriculture in the Kennedy Round because I
have a very definite personal interest in this trade negotiation and in
agricultural trade policy issues, and in Kennedy Round problems. As
you know, during the final weeks of negotiation I headed our agricul-
tural contingent in Geneva. This has been interesting and rewarding
work. It is work, I might add, which is vital to the improvement of
farm income in the United States. Exports of farm products constitute
a large and growing part of our sales. This year they will reach a new
record of $6.8 billion or more. We think a total of $8 billion by 1970
is a probability, and we see $10 billion by 1980 as a distinct possibility.
Many factors enter into export expansion, but the one vital factor is
access to world markets. The Kennedy Round has given us better access
to our foreign agricultural markets. Concessions won at Geneva will
mean substantially larger sales for many of our farm product exports.
We gained considerably in fruits and vegetables, oilseeds, tobacco,
variety meats, tallow, and a number of other products. The concessions
granted by others covered over $900 million in their imports from the
United States in 1964. On products accounting for over $700 million-
where we have an important export interest-duties were cut. These
cuts averaged over 40 percent.
The Kennedy Round has also given us a new grains arrangement
which will provide additional price insurance to U.S. wheat producers.
This arrangement contains, also, significant food aid provisions, com-
pletely unprecedented in any multilateral accord of which I am aware.
Apart from their intrinsic humanitarian worth, and this in itself is
adequate justification for them, these provisions should open new com-
mercial outlets for wheat and to some extent, feed grains.
U.S. duties on some products also came down and imports can be
expected to increase moderately. Duties covering around $500 million
were cut by an average 39 percent. The existing duty or duty-free
status of an additional $290 million was bound against upward change.
Many of these concessions relate to tropical products which we do not
produce. They were granted for the benefit of the developing nations.
Bargaining is never completely without pain, however; some of our
producers will be exposed to increased competition, and some to
sharper competition than others. To my knowledge, though, no pro-
ducer will be exposed to serious economic injury.
To be able to report this much success is a pleasure. But I would be
less than frank if I did not hasten to say that I also have a sharp feel-
ing of disappointment. In this negotiation we were unable to im-
prove our position with respect to the EEC variable levy system. That
system, which insulates home producers from the effects of outside
competition regardless of the difference in efficiency, is perhaps the
greatest unsolved problem in international agricultural trade today.
Now let's look at some of the specifics:
Grains
The bargain struck in grains has been discussed to a considerable
extent in recent days so I will review only the highlights, the most
important of which is that the grains arrangement is good for Amen-
82-181-67-vol. I-3
PAGENO="0034"
30 T~ FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
can agriculture in spite of the fact that we didn't get the guaranteed
access we sought.
Pricing provisions will raise the world price floor from the current
level by 23 cents a bushel. The "reference wheat" is No. 2 Hard Winter
whea.t, ordina.ry protein, gulf location. This increase gives U.S. wheat
farmers additional price insurance. The current $1.50 minimum under
the existing International Wheat Agreement relates to about $1.15 a
bushel at the farm, whereas the new minimum of $1.73 relates to $1.38
at the farm. Obviously we have helped our farmers.
Food aid provisions of the agreement call for the industrialized
countries to provide the less-developed countries 4.5 million metric tons
a year. Helping the less-developed countries wa,s one of the objectives
of the Kennedy Round. I have mentioned that we reduce.d and elimi-
nated duties on many of the products which they have to sell-this
was a major contribution by the United States. The food aid provisions
of the grains arrangement are another major contribution. Hopefully
this program will form the nucleus of a larger and truly multilateral
attack on hunger in the world. Moreover, because importing industri-
alized countries will furnish 1.9 million tons of the 4.5 millon ton pro-
gram as wheat or feed grains, our farmers should enjoy some expan-
sion of their foreign comumercial trade.
Let me point out in this connection that we set a new aU-time record
for commercial exports of wheat and wheat products in the marketing
year that ended June 30, 1967. In that year we sold for dollars some
430 million bushels-94 million more than last year.
Our total wheat exports for the year are expected to be in the neigh-
borhood of 735 to 740 million bushels-just about equal to our target.
A decrease in Public Law 480 has been balanced by the increase in
commercial sales.
All this is evidence to me that we are moving in the right direction.
We prefer to sell for dollars whenever we can. The developing coun-
tries would prefer to buy their grain for dollars whenever they can.
The sharp expansion of dollar sales shows that we can move-that we
are moving-toward sounder trade patterns, greater self-help on the
part of the developing nations, and increased sharing by other
countries.
To my mind, the extent to which we expand food exports for dollars
is one measure of our success in helping the developing countries meet
their food problem. Conversely, an expanding need for Public Law 480
food, other than needs growing out of emergencies, should be cause
for concern.
A negotiating conference to work out an International Grains Ar-
rangement will he held in Rome on July 12. The new pact is expected
to replace the existing International Wheat Agreement, substantive
features of which will expire July 31, 1967.
Oil~eed and related products
We did well on oilseeds. Japan cut the duty on soybeans by 54 per-
cent, a.nd on safflower seed by 50 percent. These are significant cuts.
Japan's soybean trade had a value of $154 million in 1964 and safflower
seed $22 million.
The United Kingdom completely eliminated its Commonwealth
PAGENO="0035"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 31
preference on soybeans. Our exports in 1964 were worth over $19
million.
Concessions we gave other countries in this category had an aggre-
gate value of around $41 million. We are not major importers of oil-
seeds or oilseed products.
Livestock and meat products
We got many useful concessions on the products we export in this
sector. The EEC cut its duty on variety meats from 20 to 13 percent ad
valorem, eliminated its low duty on inedible tallow and cut the duty
on edible tallow. Our sales of variety meats to the EEC amounted to
$31 million in 1964, our sales of tallow to $36 million. Japan reduced
it~s duty on tallow from 4 to 2.5 percent. Our sales here amounted to
$35 million. Altogether these concessions amounted to a trade of $140
million. The United Kingdom cut its duty on variety meats from 20
percent to 10 percent ad valorem. These are some of the major
reductions.
On our side, we reduced the duty on fresh pork-and Canada did
likewise. This is one of the items where we and the Canadians main-
tain the same duty. Trade in fresh chilled and frozen pork moves back
and forth across our border. Our import duty on lamb was cut in half-
from 3.5 cents per pound to 1.7 cents per pound and our duty on canned
beef was also cut. Lamb imports over the past 5 years have been stable.
They amount to only 2 percent of U.S. production.
We did not reduce U.S. duties on fresh chilled and frozen beef, veal,
and mutton, on cooked beef, on feeder cattle, or on wools finer than
44's. These products accounted for about $370 million in U.S. imports
in 1964-by far the bulk of our dutiable imports in this livestock sector.
No cuts were made in the duties on canned pork, although the current
rate of duty-3 cents a pound-was bound at that level.
Fruits, vegetables, edible nuts, and wiines
On fruits and vegetables, we negotiated the most meaningful
bargains with the United Kingdom and the other EFTA countries.
The United Kingdom made significant concessions on fresh vegetables,
fresh fruits, canned fruit-notably peaches and fruit cocktail, raisins,
almonds, and pecans. The Scandinavian countries made attractive
tariff cuts on fresh, canned, and dried fruit.
Canada, our principal market for fresh vegetables, accounted for
nearly three-fourths of the concessions we got in that category, as well
as making significant cuts on numerous other products. On a number
of products-such as fresh apples-we were able to negotiate the elim-
ination of duties by both ourselves and Canada. This continues a long
and mutually beneficial process of eliminating restrictions where the
trade between ourselves is largely a two-way affair. The EEC made
a few cuts on fresh grapefruit and canned grapefruit juice, cut duties
slightly on canned fruit cocktail and grapefruit sections. We were
sharply disappointed, however, in that we were unable to resolve either
the sugar added duty problem or the fresh fruit reference price prob-
lem with the EEC. Both of these remain to be dealt with.
We gave concessions covering less than one-fourth of our competi-
tive imports of fruits and vegetables. Among the U.S. cuts of most
PAGENO="0036"
32 T~ FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
interest to U.S. producers were those on canned tomato paste and sauce
where the duty was cut by 20 percent and on canned whole tomatoes
where the cut reached 30 percent. We reduced the duties slightly on
champagne and vermouth, but not on the major still wines.
Tobacco
On tobacco our major negotiation was with the EEC. The EEC
agreed to scale down from 28 to 23 percent the ad valorem duty on
unmanufactured tobacco and to set the maximum charge at 15 cents
a pound instead of 17.2. This will help. Even though U.S. tobacco
will have to pay the maximum, it will pay less than it did formerly,
which means we'll be on more even terms with our competitors. In re-
turn, we cut our duty on oriental cigarette leaf by 10 percent, for the
benefit of Greece and Turkey-EEC affiliates. We did not cut duties
on cigar tobaccos nor on cigarettes.
When the United Kingdom cuts its Commonwealth preference of
21.5 cents to 17.2 cents, as proposed, our leaf will be more competitive
in the British market. The United Kingdom proposal is tied to our
removal of the American selling price system of valuation.
* Austria., Denmark, and Sweden granted duty-free bindings on to-
bacco, and Finland cut its duties 50 percent.
We were disappointed in not obtaining tobacco concessions from
Australia., which has erected very high trade barriers around its to-
bacco industry.
Dairy and pou~try products
We also hoped for more than we got in the dairy a.nd poultry a.rea..
Our biggest disappointment was the continued failure of the EEC
countries to give us ma.rket access for fresh frozen poultry and to agree
to meaningful limits on EEC chicken export subsidies. We did get a
19-percent reduction on canned poultry from the EEC, but exports to
that area a.re small when compared to the market for the frozen produce
we had up to 1963. This remains a problem for us.
Jauan reduced the dlltv on whole. turkeys from 20 to 15 percent.
Our principal concessi~ns in the dairy a~rea were tariff cuts on Swiss
and Roquefort, and certain Italian cheeses. These types do not come
unuer the section 22 quota. system.
Those a.re the highlights of the concessions exchanged. I would
characterize the net result of the Kennedy Round as "modest liberaliza-
tion." It will improve our access to markets.
LOOKING AHEAD
American agriculture came to the Kennedy R.ound in a. spirit of
expectation. We sought a. general lowering of agricultural trade bar-
riers which would give efficient farmers, ours and in other countries, a
greater opportunity to sell competitively in the world's expanding
markets. We looked on the Kennedy R.ound as a means of helping
world trade in general and our own export drive in particular.
To some extent, our expectations were realized. Considering the
problems encountered, we emerged with far *better results than we
thought possible during some of the darkest da.ys when negotiations
almost broke off.
PAGENO="0037"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 33
But while the negotiation has given us modest trade liberalization,
it also has made us aware of the problems we still face in bringing
more order to world agricultural trade. To me, this is the really sig-
nificant result at Geneva.
The Kennedy Round has shown beyond doubt that we cannot buy-
with reductions in duties-removal of the major barriers standing in
the way of a substantial and orderly trade in farm products.
The Kennedy Round has also shown that a massive, multilateral
trade negotiation involving all countries and all products is not an
appropriate way to get at the root of agricultural trade problems. It
provides too much opportunity for avoiding the real business at hand.
The Kennedy Round ended up being primarily a tariff negotiation.
Tariffs remain an important means of protecting producers in many
parts of the world. But in agriculture, pa.r~.icularly, other barriers are
nurneous and complex. Negotiators met with only limited success in
removing or lowering them and, on the really hard-core products, had
no success at all.
Overall, the problem. of liberalizing trade stems from the almost
general disparity in income between farm and nonfarm people. As a
rule of thumb, around the world a farmer gets only about one-half as
much income for his labor and investment as the nonfa.rm sectors of
the respective countries enjoy. That disparity poses an obligation on
every government to protect the incomes of its farmers and still make
sure that all the people have enough food and fiber and other products
of agriculture. It is an obligation that has called forth price and in-
come programs in every country in the world. These take many differ-
ent forms.
The European Economic Community for most products attempts to
keep domestic agricultural prices high through a variable levy system.
The EEC sets the prices, and the variable levies remove the effect of
outside competition, because they always are high enough to offset
any competitive advantage the outside product might have. This is
truly a formidable barrier to trade. The variable levy on grains, for
example, is about 100 percent ad valorem.
The United Kingdom favors the deficiency payment support system.
Here internal consumer prices are allowed to seek their own level. But
producer returns are kept at Government-set levels through producer
payments which make up the difference between these levels and what
they receive in the marketplace. The impact of this system on exporters
is more obscure, but severe nevertheless. I-ugh producer prices increase
domestic self-sufficiency, and the effort of an exporter to hold his sales
in that market leads to artificially low and unremunerative prices.
We have our support programs in the United States also, as you
know. In some cases-in cotton and wool-the program is a combina-
tion of deficiency payments and tariffs or quotas. In dairy, it is a com-
bination of a support price and quotas and tariffs. In grains, we use
a certificate program. Our system is different from most, however, in
that we use, in many cases, production controls to prevent our programs
from leading to ever-increasing excess output.
Government support programs often lead not only to import con-
trol, but also to export assistance. The EEC has export subsidies. Den-
mark uses a two-price system in which prices for products marketed
PAGENO="0038"
34 THE. FIXTURE 0F ILS. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
at home are held at one level, while exports af~e marketed well below
that. Other countries use marketing boards that have great flexibility
in price practices. These practices are widespread.
Let me share with you a concrete illustration of the kind of prob-
lem I have been talking about. Just the other day we had to make the
very difficult decision to recommend sharp restrictions on imports of
dairy products into the United States. This was not a pleasant decision,
as a country which exports as much as we do must be prepared to im-
port as well. But the trade was not a healt.hy one. Under the EEC sys-
tem of high dairy support prices protected by variable levies, produc-
tion has increased to the point that heavy surpluses of butter and
cheese are a glut on the EEC market. Under such circumstances, the
EEC export subsidy counterpart of the variable levy operates almost
automatically to move these surpluses out of the EEC irrespective of
their impact on the trade of more efficient suppliers or on the econo-
mies of importers. They move to wherever t.hey can find entry at what-
ever price they can command.
EEC butter, therefore, being produced at a price of 60 to 65 cents
per pound was being sold in the United States for around 22 cents
per pound. It was entering the United States as a butterfat-sugar mix-
ture in circumvention of existing U.S. import controls on butter, and
in quantities which were interfering with the operation of our own
support program. This was a situation which caused major difficulties
for us and for all our traditional trading partners. We could not allow
it to continue. The butter came to the United States because it could not
go elsewhere. Some years ago, the United Kingdom, faced with al-
most the same problem, instituted quotas to protect her suppliers-New
Zealand, Australia, and Denmark. Japan imposes tight quantitative
restrictions, as does Canada and others.
You will recall that not too many years ago the United States also
had burdensome surpluses of dairy products. WTe didn't dump ours in-
discriminately into the international market. We stored them, used
them at home in school lunch programs and to feed our needy. We
moved them abroad only when the demand was such that they did not
disturb the international market. It is a pit.y that other major producers
have not practiced similar restraint.. Their practices will make it dif-
ficult for all of us in the years to come. I might say, parenthetically,
that we in Agriculture are determined to prevent export subsidiza-
tion from undercutting our producers, either in our own country or
in their foreign markets.
Even if countries were agreed. therefore, on the kind of order they
wanted to put into the international trading system, the task of re-
shaping its numerous and complicated barriers to do this would be a
formidable one. Even to catalog and understand them is difficult. To
deal with them all in a comprehensive way is virtually impossible.
This the Kennedy Hound has made clear to us.
How can we deal with these barriers? What kind of plan can be
used? What should our agricultural trade policy be? Ambassador Roth
has mentioned the trade policy study which he will undertake over the
next year. This will help us decide and I cannot anticipate it. I can
suggest, however. that he explore carefully the following principles,
which I think are essential.
PAGENO="0039"
THE FUTTJRE' OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 35
The underlying objeétive in U.S. agricultural trade policy must
continue to be of orienting agricultural trade flows on the basis of
efficiency. In other words, those who can produce abundantly, inex-
pensively, and well should produce and should be leaders in trade.
There will be exceptions, of course. If some countries insist on pro-
ducing at heavy cost simply because they are so inclined and have the
money, we can't prevent them. But we can try in every way we know
to show them that they are wrong and where they are wrong.
We should focus our attention on individual products or, at most,
product groups, and we should seek to deal in depth ~with the barriers
affecting these so that when we have reached an accord, we have some
hope that it will stick. It doesn't help to lop off one barrier only to have
another take its place because we have not gotten at the root of the
trouble. And I think we should start these explorations among key
countries in the very near future.
We must recognize that we have to work with and adapt the sup-
port systems which exist to the international economy we want. In
the Kennedy Round, the United States supported this kind of prag-
matic approach. We wanted to isolate the system in each country and
see the full depth and scope of the barrier in its own setting. The EEC,
however, supported a different approach. They seemed to want to
introduce certain common elements into every country's system, such
as international reference prices and variable levies, which charac-
terize their system. This was clearly impossible. With patience and
effort, existing systems can possibly be oriented toward freer inter-
national trade based on efficiency in production. They cannot be
abruptly overturned or replaced, however, to accord with anyone's
preconceived plan for market organization.
THE DEVELOPING WORLD
Let's also recognize that the Kennedy Round had more significance
for the industrialized nations than it had for the developing countries.
The United States tried hard to make it a more meaningful round
for the less developed countries. In agriculture we cut and in many
cases eliminated duties on tropical products valued at almost $120
million-products such as Indian cashew nuts, Brazil nuts, Philip-
pine desiccated coconut, and so on. We committed ourselves not to
put duties on fresh bananas and other products now duty `free amount-
ing to about another $140 million. And we also cut duties on some
temperate products-in which the developing countries had a trade
interest approaching $70 million. I know of no other area of the world
that did as much in this way as the United States.
The legitimate needs of the developing countries can be only par-
tially met through this conventional trade route. President Johnson
said last April, at Punta del Este:
We are ready to explore with other industrialized countries-and with our
own people-the possibility of temporary preferential tariff advantages for all
developing countries in the markets of all the industrialized countries.
These are ways in which we can help the developing countries to
grow-to develop their agricultural economies, for economic growth
in Asia, Africa, and Latin America depends to an increasing extent
upon agricultural development.
PAGENO="0040"
36 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Agriculture performs several functions in promoting economic
growth. It supplies the food required by urban populations, other-
wise precious foreign exchange must be used for food imports. It must
generate some of the raw materials for industry, earn foreign ex-
change, and make labor available for industrial construction and ex-
pansion. Agriculture also must provide part of the capital accumu-
lation needed for further growth, as well as being a market for such
industrial products as fertilizer, farm machinery, and a broad variety
of manufactured consumers' goods. To the extent that a country's
foreign agriculture promotes general economic growth, to that extent,
it creates a basis for commercial trade.
U.S. help with this agricultural development goes far beyond just
being a. good market. We are spending hundreds of millions of dollars
to finance the transfer of American farming techniques; improvement
of transportation, marketing, and irrigation facilities; establishment
of extension service, cooperatives, credit systems; purchases of Amer-
ican-made farm equipment, pesticides, and fertilizer; and research
on soils and seeds.
For many years the TJnitecl States has been loaning know-how
through the Agency for International Development and its prede-
cessor agencies, and through programs operated by State. universities
and private consulting organizations. More recently these programs
have been broadened to include the Department of Agriculture,
through establishment of an International Development Service,
which is financed by and works closely wit.h AID.
We have furnished over $18 billion worth of food aid since 1954.
lYe insist now that this aid be accompanied by a major self-help effort
on tim part of the countries receiving it. We also are insisting these
days that other countries help us carry a part of t.he burden, through
the India aid consortium, world food program, and othe.r multi-
national aid efforts.
Altogether, progress is being made in meeting the world's food
problem. And progress is being made. almost everywhere in the vital
area of economic development.
IX COXCL~5IOX
American agriculture has immense influence in world affairs. This
influence will grow as both populations and per capita. incomes of the
world's people rise a.nd strengthen demand for the food and fiber we
can produce with such efficiency.
But trade, ultimately, is the conduit through which the bounty that
is ours can reach foreign consmners. Funda.menta.l to that trade is
the extent to which the world's people allow comparative a.dvantage
to function. That's why the solution of tra.de problems is so important.
The Kennedy Round resolved only. some of agriculture's trade prob-
lems. Many remain. But I think the Kennedy Round did help clarify
the thinking of our own participants and of our trading partners.
It gave us new insight and perspective as we try again; and we must
t.ry again and keep trying. 0n1y a.s trade in food and agricultural
products is allowed to flow in a relatively unrestricted manner will
the world's people share, as they should, in all the good things that
our modern science and technology can make available.
PAGENO="0041"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 37
Chairman BOGGS. Senator Miller?
Senator MILLER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Ambassador, 1 would like to touCh on some of the agricultural
matters. As I understand it, as far as grain is concerned, there ~was no
agreement regarding the guaranteed access or reduction in tariffs on
the part of the Common Market, is that correct?
Mr. R0TI-I. That is correct.
Senator MILLER. I understand further that we did take the position
that we should have a guaranteed access, that was our original position,
was it not?
Mr. ROTH. That is correct.
Senator MILLER. And may I ask, what was the percentage that we
asked for?
Mr. ROTH. We in effect asked a percentage that would give us what,
during the base period, was our actual access. I think that was about
25 percent.
Senator MILLER. And what was the base period?
Mr. ROTH. 1964-66.
Senator MILLER. 1964-66. During that base period we had 25 per-
cent of their domestic market. So what was asked for? May I ask,
what would that mean in tons? Do you have a figure readily available?
As I recall, it was around a million tons.
Mr. ROTH. Mr. loanes says about 17 million, both feed grains and
wheat.
Senator MILLER. 17 million. Since we didn't get that, we did obtain
an agreement that the Common Market would furniSh a certain amount
of feed grains per year, am I correct?
Mr. R0TI-I. Yes, about a million tons for food aid.
Senator MILLER. A million tons.
Mr. Ambassador, are you sure that that 25 percent is of 15 million
tons? I did not have the impression that it was anywhere near that
amount. We are talking about the 25 percent.
Mr. ROTH. That is for total imports. Are you talking just about the
United States?
Senator MILLER. I am talking about the United States access to
the Common Market based on the base period 1964-66, which, as I
understood it, in the case of grains amounted to 25 percent, which
was the point that you were seeking.
Mr. ROTH. That would be about 9 million tons as the American
share of the 17 million.
Senator MILLER. 9 million tons. So that our proposition originally
was that we would be guaranteed an access of 9 million tons of grain
shipments to the Common Market per year. And they refused to give
us that. And in place of that we obtained an agreement that they
would put up 1 million tons of food aid per year, is that correct?
Mr. ROTH. Plus agreement to a higher minimum price.
Senator MILLER. Yes, but I am talking now about buying.
Now, according to Mr. Schnittker, in the article I referred to from
the New York Times of May 19, 1967, he said that the United States
gave up trying to get guaranteed access to the market because the
Community's final offer had no value. What was the Commimity's
final offer on that access?
(The article referred to by Senator Miller follows:)
PAGENO="0042"
38 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
[From the New York Times, May 19, 19671
U.S. FARM TARm' NE~0TIATOR SAYS ACCORD WilL AID EXPORTS
WASHINGTON, May 18-The United States won ~very signiflcant~ reductions
in some barriers to America's agricultural exports in the Kennedy Round of trade
talks, the chief United States farm negotiator said today.
John A. Schnittker, Under Secretary of Agriculture, just back from Geneva
where the negotiations took place, gave additional information on the new grains
agreement that came out of the Kennedy Round. He declined to discuss other
products in detail.
Mr. Schnittker gave his views at a news conference as Allan Shrivers, president
of the United States Chamber of Commerce, issued a statement saying, "There is
widespread approval among American businessmen of the results of the Kennedy
round of trade negotiations."
Mr. Shrivers said new efforts to liberalize trade "should begin with further
elimination of nontariff barriers."
Mr. Schnittker gave these estimates of the effects of the new grains agreement,
affecting primarily wheat:
The export price of standard hard winter wheat at United States Gulf ports
will range over the next three years from $1.80 to $1.95 a bushel. This compares
with an average of $1.70 over the last three years and $1.83 now.
The increase will have the effect of raising slightly the price to United States
wheat farmers, but it will not affect the price of bread to the consumer.
The United States gave up trying to get guaranteed "access" to the market of
the European Economic Community because the community's final offer had "no
value." However, the United States sees a "reasonable chance" that total grain
exports to the Common Market (as the community is generally known) will be
maintained because production there may grow no faster than consumption and
because the community will now have to export more grain under the new food aid
agreement for poor countries.
The net effect of the new grains agreement-including the sharing of the burden
of food aid to the extent of two million tons by countries that are now importers-
will be "a higher dollar value" for the United States in its wheat exports, though
probably not much change in the physical volume. The high value would come
both from the higher price and the probability that a larger share of United
States exports would be for dollars rather than on a "concessional" basis to poor
countries.
(The following letter was subsequently submitted by Mr. Roth:)
OFFICE OF `~E SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVES
FOR TRADE NEGOTIATIONS.
EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESmENT,
Washington, July 12, 1967.
Hon. HALE BOGGS,
Chairman, Svbcoinnvittee on Foreign Economic Policy, Joint Economic Com-
mittee, Congress 01 the United States, Waahington, D.C.
DEAR Ma. CHAIRMAN: At yesterday's hearing, Senator Jack Miller asked about
the value to American agriculture of the higher minimum prices in an inter-
national grain arrangement.
There is no question that the American wheat farming community believes that
the new minimum price provisions are valuable. This is certainly the view of
Herschel Newsom of the Grange and Tony DeChant of the Farmers Union, as
well as Allen Tom of the National Wheat Growers Association and Ralph Ball
of Great Plains Wheat. All of these farm group representatives were in Geneva
with us at one time or the other during the negotiations, and they all concurred
in the notion that the higher minimum prices will be of great benefit to Amer-
ican wheat producers.
The new prices of $1.73 per bushel, f.o.b. Gulf, for No. 2 Hard Winter Ordinary
wheat is about 2.3 cents higher than the minimum in the existing International
Wheat Agreement. Today, Hard Winter Ordinary at the Gulf is bringing about
$1.76 per bushel, whereas a month ago, the price for this grade of wheat at the
Gulf was about $1.86. Obviously, what has happened is that the weight of sup-
plies on the market, not just the United States but in other exporting countries
has put pressure on prices. In part, this is also due to smaller import demands
in certain areas such as the Soviet Union.
PAGENO="0043"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 39
Moreover, the same downward drift in international wheat prices has `been
noticeable in other `classes of American wheat `and, in one `of them, Soft Red
Winter whea't, current market prices at the Gulf are below the minimum indicator
level of 1.60 per bushel proposed in the new International Grains Arrangement.
Again, `the basic reason is the same-increased U.S. and world supplies in rela-
tion to demand. There is therefore no question in my mind that a new inter-
national grain arrangement `with prices 23 cents a bushel higher than in the
current International Whea't Agreement would give us `the possibility of `working
with other exporters to translate those higher minimums into higher returns
for producers.
Sincerely yours,
WILLIAM M. ROTH,
Special Representative.
(The followiug item was included at the subsequent request of Sen-
ator Miller:)
TRADE BLOC SEEKS GRAIN OUTPUT RISE
MOVE WOULD SERIOUSLY OUT NEED TO IMPORT FEED CEREALS FROM UNITED STATES
(By Edwin L. Dale, Jr., `Special to The' New York Ti~mes)
WASHINGTON, July 12.-In a move that cOuld cost the United States millions of
dollars of badly needed exports, the European Common Market has quietly set in
motion a change in its farm program to increase the production of corn and other
feed grains. `
This ha.s become known here in the last few days and has caused concern, if not
alarm, in both the government and the grain trade.
Th'e move follOws the completion' Of the Kennedy round of trade negotiations,
in which the United States won major reductions in the CommOn Market tariff on
industrial goods but relatively little trade liberalization in agriculture.
The Common Market action is a proposal by `the Executive Commission in Brus-
sels, still not formally published, to raise substantially the minimum price support
levels for corn, barley and rye, without any change in the price level for wheat.
TWO-FOLD RESULT
The result, in the view of both American and European officials, would be two-
fold, both elements reducing the huge present European need to import feed grains
for cattle and poultry. The United States is by far the largest supplier o'f these
grains, chiefly corn.
First, the higher price support levels Would induce European farmers to grow
more feed grains, thus cutting the need for imports.
Under the Common Market system of variable levies at the frontier, imports
form a "residua'l" supply, uieeting only needs not filled by domestic production.
Second, with feed grains more costly, it would become profitable for some Euro-
pean wheat production to be used as feed for animals rather than for human con-
sumption. This `again would cut the need for imported feed grains.
FEED GRAIN DIVERSION
Diversion of wheat for use as feed would reduce the amount available for
export by the Common Market, almost all France. But this would not help the
United States because French wheat is of a different quality from United States
wheat and is sold to markets where United States wheat is not competitive.
Thus, if the proposal is adopted, the United States would lose feed grain ex-
ports to the Common Market and would not make up the difference in wheat
exports. Total grain exports to the community are about $500-million a year,
mainly feed grains.
The proposal by the Common Market commission still must be approved by the
ruling Council of Mini's'ters. I't would affect the crop year beginning July 1, 1908.
SHIFT OF EMPHASIS
The Common Market commission is reliably reported to be frankly desirous of
changing the "balance" of community agriculture, with more emphasis on feed
grain production and less on wheat. The six member nations taken together are
huge importers of feed grains, yet not exporters of wheat.
PAGENO="0044"
40 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Mr. ROTH. They had developed a formula which we said would be
acceptable to determine access, based upon the so-called self-sufficiency
ratio, that is the ratio of production to consumption. In this base
period we felt that domestic production shouldbe aroimd 85 to 86 per-
cent of total consumption. Their last offer was considerably in excess
of that. In other words, what they wanted was a. level for imports
which would give their own producers some possibility of growth.
The EEC was insistent on this. and the British were insistent on it.
That was one part of the problem.
The second part of the problem-
Senator MILLER. May I ask you before you leave that part of the
problem, what was wrong about that from our standpoint?
Mr. ROTH. From our standpoint, in an agreement that lasted at the
most for 3 years, we felt that at no time during that period would
the access formula actually come into effect and that their formula
allowed their own producers too much room to grow. And it wasn't
worthwhile paying for this, as we felt that in the feed grain area our
exports to the Community, which is more and more a meat consuming
area, will grow.
Senator MILLER. But may I ask, the way it came out, haven't we
given them just as much if not more room to grow?
Mr. RoTH. But we are not paying for it.
I will come back to this, but may I go on to some other aspects of this
problem?
Senator MILLER. Yes.
Mr. ROTH. In order to have an access formula that really works, at
a point you get almost into a rigid sharing of markets when the
formula comes into effect. We found domestic resistance to this con-
cept. We also felt that a complicated formula such as the self-sufficiency
formula would be very difficult to explain. It would be very difficult
in particular to explain why we paid something that wouldn't really
give us what we thought. we were getting. It was much simpler to get
a. minimum price that would set a higher base than present world
wheat prices, and secondly, to get some help in food aid which would
do two things: one, take part of the burden, which we have carried
alone off our shoulders; and secondly, take a certain amount of wheat
off the commercial market.
There is one other a.spect of this. The Comnmirnity and the British-
but the Community in particular-said that if you want a minimum
price for wheat you should also accept one for feed grain. We couldn't
accept that, because the way our trade goes in feed grains we have to
have price inflexibility, and because we didn't feel Congress would
accept this. But we were caught in this position, saying we wanted
a minimum price on wheat but not on feed grains.
So basically what we did in the final weeks was to negotiate an
agreement that relates just to wheat. In feed grains, as I said, we
feel that we have an expanding market. And this access formula was
not that imnortant.
Senator MILLER. On this 1 million tons of food aid, which was one
of the trade offers, do I understand that this 1 million tons of food aid
from the Common Market countries represents a. net increase of 1 mil-
lion tons of food aid over and above what they have now been
supplying?
PAGENO="0045"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 41
Mr. ROTH. Of course; since they have not been supplying food aid.
Senator MILLER. There has been no food aid from France or West
Germany or the other Common Market countries to any developing
country anywhere, Africa, the former French colonies, or any other
country in the world?
Mr. ROTH. Practically none in the grains area. The most recent
attempt by the United States was not quite a year ago when we tried
to put together an Indian consortium. The Japanese agreed to make
a contribution, but as far as I know to date we have not been success-
ful in Europe. So this is a new ~
Senator MILLER. Now, are there any strings to this 1 million tons as
to what countries will be the recipient of it? For example, is it open
to France to ship its food aid to some developing country of its own
choosing? How does that work out?
Mr. ROTH. Part of it still has to be worked out, by the way. The
International Wheat Agreement group is starting a meeting this week
in Rome to work out all the details of this.
Senator MILLER. I am sorry. I didn't hear that last sentence.
Mr. ROTH. I said that the agreement is not entirely worked out in all
these phases. We still have perhaps another 3 to 4 weeks of negotia-
tions. The negotiators meet later this week in Rome under the auspices
of the International Wheat Agreement.
Mr. I0ANEs. There will be agreement that the aid will have to go to
developing countries. And there will certainly be a procedure where-
by, to the extent that the programs are operated bilaterally, as we op-
erate our programs, reports will have to be made to the Wheat Council
and a subsidiary body of that Council showing the country of destina-
tion and the terms. There will be provisions in the agreement about
terms that are acceptable to make them true aid conditions rather than
commercial conditions.
Senator MILLER. Do you know whether or not that will include some
kind of an understanding by which countries will be the recipient? To
come back to my question, will France, for example, be free to deter-
mine what country or countries its share of this food aid will go to?
Mr. IOANE5. I think that each donor country will have the right-
within a definition of developing countries, so that we don't get into
the countries that are not developing countries-to determine the coun-
try to which its commodities will go. And for our part, this is a con-
dition we would almost have to insist on to make sure that our com-
modities go to the countries that we could consider eligible under our
statutes.
Senator MILLER. And then is it your thinking that because the Com-
mon Market will be putting up 1 million tons of food aid which they
have not heretofore been doing that this will open up 1 million tons
for our access?
Mr. I0ANE5. Well, certainly to the extent that areas of the world,
such as the EEC, the United Kingdom, Japan, and the other exporting
countries, contribute grain or cash to buy grain to go to developing
countries on concessional terms, this should open up in part, I would
say, commercial markets for the rest of the world. I say in part be-
cause I cannot cleanly tell you that there might not be some production
increases somewhere in the world specifically designed to meet this
PAGENO="0046"
42 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
need. But to the extent that it is taken out of the commercial stream
that exists, this will open our commercial market for exporting coun-
tries, including the United States.
Senator MILLER. I am speaking now of the EEC.
Mr. loAxEs. Yes, sir.
Senator MILLER. And the 1 million tons that they are going to put
up. Is it the thinking that this 1 million tons that they are going to
put up will open up commercial markets of 1 million tons in EEC?
Mr. loAxEs. Not necessarily in the EEC, but in the EEC or third
countries.
Senator MILLER. From which the EEC would buy if necessary to
meet its commitment?
Mr. I0ANEs. No, Senator. We would assume that the million tons
of grain would come from the Community's own production. But they
have exported about 7 million tons of grain in recent years, at least,
about 7 million tons. So they will have the option of reducing their
exports by that amount, or, say, of taking it out of home consumption
and importing food grains to replace their own wheat.
Mr. ROTH. I think that the net answer is "Yes," one way or another.
It would remove grains from the commercial market, Senator Miller,
and the thinking is that we will be able to obtain that or a good chunk
of that, isn't that so?
Mr. loAxEs. Correct.
Senator MILLER. Was any consideration given to the possibility that
the Soviet Union might take it over?
Mr. RoTh. The question of whether the Soviet Union, which is a
member of the IWA, would at a point also become a part of this
agreement, remains an open question.
Chairman BOGGS. Would the Soviet Union take over the 1 million
tons of commercial market that would be opened up under this
agreement?
Mr. ROTH. It could compete for it, obviously, if in any particular
year they were in a good export position.
Senator MILLER. I have nm beyond my 10 minutes, and I apologize
to the chairman. I would like to come back when it is my turn.
Chairman Bocos. Surely.
Mr. ROTH. Could I make just one remark?
As I watched from the sidelines, it semed to me that the most com-
plex pa.rt of the negotiations, other than the chemicals, was a two-way
negotia.tion in grains, first among the exporters, and then between the
exporters and the importers. We found it terribly important as we
got to the very end to bring people other than those in Government to
Geneva-Tony Decha.nt of the Farmers Union, Herschel Newsom of
the Grange, Alan Tom of the National Wheat Growers Association,
and others. Wha.t we tried to do is bring back, first, something that
is simple and, second, is a great advantage to the American producer
and is workable. And I hope we have done this.
Chairman Boms. I will call on Congressman Reuss in just a minute.
In connection with the questions of Senator Miller, what is the total
amount of trade today between this country and the Kennedy Round
countries?
Mr. RoThi. The total trade coverage of the Kennedy Rohmd sections
was around $4 billion all told.
PAGENO="0047"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 43
Chairman BOGGS. I am talking about between this country-
Mr. ROTH. In the case of the United States-if you take both the
imports and exports, you are covering about $7½ billion to $8 billion
each way.
Chairman B0GG5. What increase do you expect in a period of, let's
say, 5 years or 6 years?
Mr. ROTH. In world trade?
Chairman BOGGS. No; in trade between the United States and the
Kennedy Round countries.
Mr. ROTH. I have no forecast for you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman BOGGS. Would you make it percentagewise? You have
already forecast a very substantial increase of grains.
Mr. Romi. I would hesitate at this point to make any judgment~
particularly until our final analysis of what came out of the Kennedy
Round is complete, which will be some time ahead. As you know, also,
the decreases in the tariffs will be phased over 4 years, so it is going
to be a gradual process. I couldn't pick a number out of the air that
would have any validity at this point.
Chairman BOGGS. Just one other question. Unless Congress acts to
extend some kind of authority, what basis do you have for any type
of adjustment assistance today?
Mr. ROTH. We fall back on the provisions in the 1962 Trade Expan-
sion Act, which labor feels and we feel contain criteria which are too
strict.
Chairman B0GG5. Yes; `but my question is-
Mr. ROTH. The negotiating authority expires.
Chairman BOGGS. But only the negotiating authority?
Mr. ROTH. The rest of the act continues.
Chairman BooGs. Continues as is?
Mr. ROTH. Yes. My job continues.
Chairman B0GG5. What you are asking is that in any extension that
we have certain modifications of the adjustment provision?
Mr. RoTh. That is right, sir.
Chairman BOGGS. That is all for now.
Mr. Reuss?
Representative Rnnss. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I wanted to add my congratulations to Ambassador Roth and his
associates for the remarkable job they have done.
We `have already had some discussion of chemicals and `agriculture.
Those aside, Mr. Ambassador, wh'a't do you foresee `as the great export
opportunities for the United `States that will result from tariff lower-
in~ under the Kennedy Round?
Mr. ROTH. Thank you very much, Congressman Reuss.
I `think the export opportuni'ties are really very much across the
board. And they vary from country to country. For instance, as I said,
in the case of Canada, where production machinery and associated
electrical machinery now covers $5 to $6 million in terms of our ex-
ports, they have made very substantial reductions, from 221/2 percent
to 15 percent. `The Canadian agreement in particular is a rather unique
one, because both sides made maximum efforts in very large areas.
Take lumber, where from `Canada unfinished raw lumber comes into
this country, and from the United States `finished lumber goes back
PAGENO="0048"
44 THE FUTURE OF tJ.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
to Canada. In this whole area we go to free trade. So I think in both
agriculture and industry-rnachrnery parts is another area-we will
have an expansion of trade with Canada that could be fairly major.
The big disappointment-to talk about the negative as well as the
positive-the biggest disappointment in terms of what we got from
the European Community was their failure to make substantial cuts
in the area. of advancmg technology, such as business machines. In
steel, ahumnum, and textiles, none of the countries made very sub-
stantial cuts. But in most other areas of industry, I think we have
the opportunity for substantial increases in exports.
Representative R.EUSS. Without anticipating the detailed studies
which you are now in the course of making, pick off some other bright
spots. You have said electrical production machinery for Canada is
down from 22% to 15. Obviously that is all good. What are some of
the other bright spots that can bring smiles to some of our American
exporters?
Mr. ROTH. May I perhaps go to another question and look up some
of these major areas?
Chemicals, for instance, would be one, particularly if Congress
passed the America.n Selling Price.
Representative REUSS. Perhaps you and your associates could file
at this point in the record a fuller detailed listing. I think that might
be very good.
Mr. ROTH. I would be glad to.
(The list requested was subsequently filed for the record a.nd ap-
pears beginning p. 50.)
Representative REUSS. I have one question addressed to Mr. loanes.
In Mr. Schnittker's statement he said, as a general principle of
world agricultural trade, that those who can produce abundantly, in-
expensively and well should produce and should be leaders in trade.
How does that excellent precept apply to world production of sugar
and particularly tropical sugar? Is that the way we are doing things
in this commodity?
Mr. T0ANEs. It doesn't fit in exactly. The most efficient producers of
sugar in the world are centered primarily in Latin America. And the
United States has for some time under legislation provided, as you
know, for a division of the market between home producers and im-
porters, and has shown preference in this area. Our costs of produc-
tion are higher than in most parts of the world. So to that extent
there may be some clash between the principle and the acts we do.
Now, for this to really work we must take the major developed
countries of the world and sell this principle. In other words, it will
be impossible to sell the concept of reduced production, greater un-
ports of a commodity like sugar, to the United States unless the other
major consuming and relatively less efficient producers are also pre-
pared to reduce their protection.
Representative REUSS. German and French beet sugar, for example,
is uneconomic.
Mr. TOANES. There is no question about this. Their costs are higher
than ours. And the Community is not only moving to a position of self-
sufficiency in sugar beets, they are probably moving to an export posi-
tion. So if this principle became one that an area like the EEC woi~Td
observe, we would have to anticipate their moving in another direc-
tion, moving away from self-sufficiency.
PAGENO="0049"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 45
Representative REUSS. Would you agree on the basis of this that
world sugar, with particular reference to the foreign exchange needs
of our Latin American friends, should be high on the agenda of im-
mediate international discussions?
Mr. TOANES. I am a brave man. And I would say it certainly is an
item that should be discussed. I would think again, Mr. Congressman,
that the extent to which this would be a real possibility would depend
on our ability and the rest of the world's ability to adjust programs
in a number of countries, not just the United States.
Representative REUSS. So far there has not been the international
discussion of sugar that there has been in wheat, has there?
Mr. T0ANEs. No. There was at one point a suggestion that there be
discussion of sugar as there was on grain. This got dropped at the
last minute, and we never really had a serious discussion.
Representative REUSS. Thank you very much.
Chairman B0GG5. Congressman Widnall?
Representative WIDNALL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ambassador Roth, New Jersey ranks first in the Nation in the num-
ber of chemical plants and the workers that are currently protected
under the American selling price system. On June 30, I believe it was,
all 15 members of the Republican and Democratic delegations from
New Jersey wrote rather strong letters to President Johnson and to
you calling for release of the Report on the Economic Future of the
American Benzoate Chemical Industry. To date, to the best of my
knowledge, such requests have been refused by you for the 1966 full
study by the Tariff Commission on dropping the American selling
price. Why isn't it being released to Congress?
Mr. Rorri. Mr. Chairman, the Congressman's question was brought
up in the questions by industry on Friday in the chamber of com-
merce. We pointed out that the Tariff Commission's report contains
very confidential material from a great many firms, information that
would affect their competitive position. We said, however, that we
realized that some of this data would be valuable in assessing our pro-
posed American selling price. And we are considering and have un-
derway a letter to the chemical companies concerned asking if they
would approve the release of their confidential information. If it is
possible to get such approvals, then I think it is possible that we could
make some of this information available.
Representative WIDNALL. Mr. Ambassador, it doesn't seem to me
that we can act intelligently in connectioii with this matter unless
we do have available to us the same type of information that you
have available to you. I understand your reasons for saying that you
want to protect certain people who give information to you. But I
believe that those who are going to be vitally affected by this, the
people in the chemical industry, are entitled to know the basis that is
used for the approach that you and the other negotiators have made
to other chemical industries. It seems to me quite apparent that there
is a great upset within that industry, and not a general acceptance of
your decisions over there. This greatly concerns the future of their in-
dustry, and they seem terribly disturbed about it.
Mr. RoTH. Mr. Congressman, I agree very much with what you said.
I would 111cc to say only that it is not a question of our policy about
releasing this information until we get releases from the companies
82-181-67-vol. I-4
PAGENO="0050"
46 THE FUTIJRE OF IT.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
concerned, it is a ma.t.te.r of law. We are, however, hopeful that we can
get such releases.
I would like to say tha.t the Tariff Commission report is oniy one
element that went into our analysis of the problem. `We went back to
many chemical companies and got as much new information, much
of it, confidential, as we could, in order to make as objective appraisal
as possible. So we are, sir, working on this.
Representative WIDX~LL. In New Jersey they are particularly con-
cerned because of the amount of unemployment within the chemical
industry. And I think these figures are significant. Fifty-two percent
of the dye workers are Negroes and Puerto Ricatis. So the layoff of
these workers would have a. significant effect, because these are the
workers who have the maximum difficulty in transferring to other
jobs. The retraining a.nd reemployment of the majority of these people
will be difficult, because they earn about $7,500 a year in the industry
at the present time. So it will be very disturbing if it isn't worked out
to the sat.isf action of the other chemical industry.
Are there other systems such as the ASP which you feel are major
barriers to trade which should be abandoned in the nea.r future?
Mr. ROTH. On our part, Mr. Congressman, or on the part of other
countries?
Representative WmNALL. On our part and on the part. of other
countries.
Mr. ROTH. The area. of nontariff barriers is so complex-often you
get into relatively small problems, but they have a. large effect, whether
it is labeling, or whether it is a policy of Government procurement.
Let me say that in t.he nontariff barrier area we are all sinners.
In terms of the American Selling Price, which in a way is a variable
levy. I pointed out to the European Economic Community that I con-
sidered the variable levy that they have around their agricultural
products as not unsimilar. But more and more as we work with busi-
ness, have worked with business, and will be working with busi-
ness, we have to get into specific instances where nontariff barriers
impede trade and gradually try to work these out. Many of them-
we mentioned a few-have to do with special products. There are a few
very substantial ones. One of these is dumping, and here we have
achieved an agreement in the Kennedy Rotmd. Looking to the future,
a most difficult one is the question of border taxes.
Representative. WIDNALL. `Would border tax nullify any efforts made
through the Kennedy Round?
Mr. ROTH. No. sir.
Let me state a little about this border tax issue. Under interna-
tional law as expressed in the GATT it is legal to offset the domestic
sales tax or an added value tax at the border by a tax on the import
that equalizes the tax payment made by the domestic producer and
the importer. And there is not supposed to be, although it may creep
in, any protective incidence in this tax. It is based on the economic
theory that an added value tax is passed on in the price, whereas a
corporate tax is not.
Now, the economic theory, I ga.ther, not being an economist, has
changed in the 20 years since GATT was founded. And there is more
question now whether the corporate tax is passed on more than. or less
than, t.he added value tax. So this is something that we have to, and
are beginning to, talk about, both in GATT a.nd in the OECD.
PAGENO="0051"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
47
But I think anyone would be very hard put to be able to prove that
the substantial tariff cuts negotiated in the Kennedy Round will be
nullified by border taxes that are presently in being.
Representative WIDNALL. The reason I raise the question, I have
in front of me a statement recently made that in the Kennedy Round,
West German Government tariffs will be cut by an average of 20.
percent. That is about 21/2 percentage points. However, West Germany
will increase its border tax on imports by 5 percent, 5 percentage
points, double the Kennedy Round cut. Where do we come out there?
Mr. RoTH. You have to remember that the increase in border taxes
is to offset an increase in domestic added value tax. In other words,
it is not supposed to be a penalty against imports. We, however, made
a unilateral statement that is a part of the Kennedy Round record
saying that, if our tariffs are in effect nullified by any protective in-
cidence in the border tax, we would want to consult and take appro-
priate action.
May I say, because this is such a difficult area, that we have tried
working with industry to have more studies made on what the effects
of border taxes would be. One group of industrial concerns was going
to pay for a study that the National Industrial Conference Board
had made. But a lot of work has to be done to even know the nature
of this problem. You can't make a sweeping statement in this area; it
is too complicated.
Representative WIDNALL. But if our only recourse to being hurt is
to go to a committee and make a complaint and have a hearing and go
through something like an appeal to the Tariff Commission, where
you end up with a decision on this thing maybe 2 or 3 years later, in
the meantime we can be hurt badly. And I think we should understand
fully what the advantages are that West Germany will gain through
the imposition of the border tax.
Mr. ROTH. If we can prove that they gain an advantage in terms of
additional protection for their market, then we will have a case. But
we have to prove it. And as I said, the theory of the border tax is
that it offsets on a 1-to-i basis the internal tax that the domestic
producer pays.
Representative WIDNALL. Mr. Roth, I have one more question. Do
you agree with the president of the American Iron & Steel In-
stitute, Mr. Roach, that the steel industry cannot improve its export
position unless nontariff barriers are removed?
Mr. ROTH. The simple answer is "No." The more complicated one
is that it would be necessary in steel, as in many other of the important
industrial sectors, to continue to work to remove nontariff barriers.
There are many areas, including that of Government procurement,
where it is very difficult to get into other markets. And it is also diffi-
cult under our law sometimes to get into our markets. But certainly
steel is not an area. were nontariff barriers are critical. I don't think
that the U.S. steel industry cannot expand their exports without fur-
ther movement in this field.
Representative WIDNALL. Thank you, Mr. Ambassador, my time
isup.
Mr. ROTH. Mr. Chairman, could I just say something about what
we did on steel in the Kennedy Round, because I think it is rather
important.
Chairman BOGGS. Surely. Go right ahead.
PAGENO="0052"
48 TIII FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Mr. ROTH. We originally in steel had almost a total 50 percent offer
across the board, with very few exceptions. But two things happened.
One, economic changes in the industry came about in the last several
years. But more importantly, we felt that other countries were unwill-
ing to make full 50-percent cuts. And, therefore, we withdrew most
of our steel offer, about 80 percent of it, and came out with an overall
reduction of 7 percent, whereas the British made a cut of 20 percent,
and the Coimnunity something like that.
But the most important thing we got, which I was most anxious to
achieve, was the binding of the principal countries' steel tariffs. Before
the Kennedy Round the United States was the only major country
with bound tariffs on steel, that is, we couldn't change them under
the GATT without paying compensation. The Community, the British,
the Japanese, all had unbound tariffs, and they are now bound. In addi-
tion, all the major countries in steel have tariffs bunched together
rather closely.
Chairman BOGGS. Mr. Ambassador, I have just one or two questions
before we go back to Senator Miller again.
Senator Javits, who has gone, had a question he wanted me to ask.
What specific legislative measures do you leave in this Congress? I
happen to be on the Legislative Committee as well.
Mr. Ro~m. We hope, sir, to appear before you shortly with what will
probably be a single bill with separate titles. As I said today, the first
will be the extension of the Trade Expansion Act-probably by a sim-
ple change in the date for an interim period, say, for 3 years.
Chairman BOGGS. And this would continue the present negotiating
authority?
Mr. Ro~. Yes. Since most of tha.t authority was spent in the Ken-
nedy Round, it would mean having just a. residual amount. We would
then establish legislative history that we don't intend any major nego-
tiations in the next year or two. In other words, this residual authority
would only be used for housekeeping purposes.
Chairman BOGGS. What in addition to that?
Mr. ROTH. Secondly, the adjustment assistance change, which would
make the criteria in determining whether injury has been suffered by
workers and firms more liberal.
Third, of course, a subject I talke.d about at some length, the elimi-
nation of American selling price.
Chairman Bo~os. What about the antidumping code?
Mr. ROTH. The ant.iclumping codes, as I mentioned, was done within
present law, requiring some changes, not very great, in our adminis-
trative practices. But we are not required to come back and ask for a
change in the dumping law.
Chairman BOGGS. So that insofar as the Kennedy Round itself is
concerned, the only legislation that you specifically need is the legis-
lation dealing with ASP?
Mr. Ro~m. Tha.t is right, sir.
Chairman Bocos. But insofar as certain housekeeping aspects are
concerned, you want an extension of the present negotiating authority
without any addition to that? And you want certain amendments t.o the
adjustment assistance provisions of the existing law?
Mr. ROTH. Mr. Chairman, we are also considering other minor mat-
ters. In particular, although we are not prepared to make a recom-
PAGENO="0053"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 49
meñdation at this time, the separate funding of the United States con-
tribution to GATT as a~part of the bill. Although we do not have to
come back to the Congress as a whole on the wheat agreement, it will
be in the form of a. treaty, and therefore we will come to the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee.
Chairman B0GG5. What complaints have you had from business and
industry other than certain segments of the chemical industry?
Mr. R0TI-i. We have really had surprisingly few. And I hope we
are not being lulled into a euphoric restfulness. Originally there were
some statements by the steel industry. But I think that when they look
at this agreement in detail they will see that, at least in terms of the
Kennedy Round, their concern is not justified. There was some concern,
and there is some concern, I think, on the part of the textile industry,
particularly the manmade part. In this section we had full cuts, with
very few exceptions, on the table 2 years ago. But the industry's
position changed from being a net exporter to a net importer. And we
withdraw in the final 30 days of the negotiation two-thirds of our
offers on manmade textiles.
Beyond that, although our own reductions have now been published,
many companies, perhaps, have not studied them in depth. But we
haven't heard very much concern. There was some expressed by the shoe
industry. But here again in the most competitive areas we didn't make
full offers.
Chairman BOGGS. I have one question that Senator Javits wanted
me to ask.
Would you comment on proposals that have been made as a result
of the free trade zones among the nations of the Atlantic Community
of the North Atlantic area?
Mr. ROTH. Mr. Chairman, 2 years ago, as you remember, France in
effect withdrew from the Community for almost a year over the contro-
versy on the common agricultural policy, and the negotiations bogged
down really seriously. We at that time within the Government looked
at all possible alternatives to a multilateral trade negotiation that
would bring all barriers down. But we found that anything that we
could come up with, including a free trade area excluding from the
Community, was very much a second best. Because of the tremendous
flow of trade between EFTA and the EEC, if there were not reductions
in tariffs between those two trade blocs overall world trade would be
disadvantaged.
So I would say this is one reason perhaps why we do need a period
of study here, not only to look at domestic trade problems, but to allow
what is happening in Europe to take its course-will the United King-
dom become a member of the Community, for instance?
Until some of these things are clearer it will be very difficult to know
which way to go, and what would be the value of a particular free
trade area, et cetera. But I think basically we feel strongly that in
terms of total world trade, the nearest way we can do this on an over-
all multilateral basis the better.
Chairman Boecs. I have one final question. Do you personally feel
that we have made substantial progress as a result of these negotia-
tions?
Mr. ROTH. Yes, I do.
Chairman Boocs: Would you be so sanguine as to say you are rather
enthusiastic about it, or would you be less than that?
PAGENO="0054"
50 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Mr. R.o~. May I say first that I was surprised that in the end we
were able to put together so substantial a package. Even 2 weeks before
the end I had my doubts. As it turned out, I was absolutely delighted.
I think we have something which is of great value both to this country
*and to the world.
Chairman BoGes. Thank you very much, Mr. Ambassador.
I think Senator Miller has some questions.
Mr. RoTH. Mr. Chairman, could I in answer to Congressman Reuss
put a few areas of export growth in the record?
Chairman Boc~s. I think it would he perfectly satisfactory to the
members of the committee if you would elaborate on any phase of
your testimony that you would care to.
Mr. ROTH. I just wanted to mention some of the major area*s where
we would get export-
Chairman BOGGS. I think that would be very helpful.
Mr. ROTH. I will do it in detail later. But just now let me mention
production machinery, paper and paper products, automobile and au-
tomobile parts, finished wood products, photo equipment, leather, kraft
liner board, scientific equipment, aircraft., chemicals, of course, as I
have mentioned, and, in agriculture, soybeans, citrus, tobacco, variety
m~a.ts, various fruits and vegetables. and. tallow-and as a. matter of
fact, bourbon whiskey, which. is considered in Europe an agricultural
product., to an American a necessity.
I think these are some of th~ general categories. But may I put in
for the record a rather specific analysis?
Chairman BOGGS. Very well.
(The following material was submitted subsequently by Ambassador
Roth:)
AREAS OF SIGNIFICANT EXPORT POTENTIAL
SELECTED AUSTRIAN CONCESSIONS OF INTEREST TO THE UNITED STATES
Tariff No.
Brief description
Most-favored-nation rates of duty 1
Imports
from
United
States,
1964
(thou-
sands of
U.S.
dollars)
Pre-Kennedy Round
Final
ex2O.06 Canned pineapple 300 (51 percent) 25 percent 1
ex2O.06 Canned peaches 400 (51 percent) 32 percent ~1, 166
ex2O.06 Canned mixed fruit 12 percent plus 400 12 percent plus 300~_
(50 percent).
ex24.O1 Unmanufactured tobacco 1,500 (90 percent) 750 3, 477
ex28.28 Molybdic anhydride Free (unbound) Free (bound) 468
ex28.47 Other molybdate 18 percent 12 percent 167
40.14 Other articles of unhardened vulcan- 28 percent 20 percent 198
ized rubber.
73.13 Electric sheets and plates of alloy and 10 percent 7 percent 544
high carbon steel.
84.1OF Pumps, other 23 percent 17 percent 294
84.12 Air conditioning machines 16 percent 8 percent 307
84.22B Mechanical lsaders 13 percent 7 percent 2, 214
ex84.23 Excavating machines, weighing over 10 percent 5 percent 1, 224
5,000 kg., other.
84.33 Paper-cutting machinery, etc.; other 18 percent 9 percent 181
machinery for making up paper. I
84.45 Metalworking machine tools 25 percent I 20 percent 297
ex85.14 Microphones and loudspeakers 20 percent 10 percent 193
ex87.01 Other tractors weighing over 5,000 kg~ 10 percevt 5 percent 1,489
ex9O.19 Hearing aids 13 percent 7 percent 303
1 Rates are expressed in parcent ad valorem or in Austrian ncillings per 100 kilograms unless otherwise indicated
(26 Austrian schillings equal U.S. $1). Ad valorem equivalents (1962) of specific or compound duties sheave in parentheses.
PAGENO="0055"
* THE FIJTTJRE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 51
SELECTED CANADIAN CONCESSIONS OF INTEREST TO THE UNITED STATES
Most-favored-nation rates of duty
Imports
from
United
States,
Tariff No.
Brief description
Pre-Kennedy Round 1
Final
1964
(thou-
sands of
U.S.
dollars)
7d
93
99c
130
152(b)
192 (part)
197
198
199
352
353(b)
354
362c
382(2)
400
415b
427(1)
427b(3)
427k(1)
428c
428e
438a
438f
439b
445f
445g
445k
446a
446g(1)
519(1)
519(2)
522(1)
522(3)
523a
561b
562a(1)
Fresh port meats, not otherwise pro-
vided for in the tariff.
Apples, fresh
Raisins, packages of 2 lbs. each or
less.
Shrimp
Orange juice
Tarred paper and prepared roofings........
Paper of all kinds, not otherwise pro-
vided for in the tariff.
13~ cents per pound
(4.2 percent).
3~ cent per pound
(3.9 percent).
3 cents per pound
(13~~ percent).
5 percent
73/~ percent
20 percent
22~ percent
3~ cent per pound
Free
13.~ cent per pound____
Free
5 percent
15 percent
do
do
$11,713
3, 308
2, 815
4,488
14,352
14,283
7, 302
6,953
Ruled and border and coated papers
Papeterien, envelopes, and all manu-
facturers of paper, not otherwise
provided for in the tariff.
Brassandcoppernails,etc.,andrn~nu-
factures of copper, not otherWise
provided for in the tariff.
Aluminum bars, rods, plates, etc
Manufactures of aluminum, not other-
wise provided for in the tariff.
Nickel-plated ware, gilt or electro-
plated ware.
Sheet or strip of iron or steel, cold-
rolled, not otherwise provided for in
tariff.
do
do
20 percent
3 cents per pound (5
percent).
223.~ percent
do
15 percent
*
17~'~ percent
do
.
2 cents per pound
17~ percent
do
121,~ percent
9,937
20,994
8,680
16,767
12,600
12, 007
6, 405
Fittings and couplings of iron or steel, 20 percent 1)7~~ percent
nut otherwise provided for in tariff.
Washing machines 223.~ percent 20 percent
All machinery of iron orsteel, not do 15 percent
otherwise provided for in tariff, of
class or kind made i n Canada.
Ball and roller bearings, not otherwise 173.~ percent do
provided for in the tariff.
Metalworking machinery 225~ percent do
Engines and boilers and parts 20 percent do
Dienejand semidiesel engine~ over do do
500 horsepower and parts, not
otherwise provided for in the tariff.
Autos, trucks, and parts (not under 173.~ percent do
free-trade arrangement).
Replacement parts for automobiles 25 percent do
(imports from United Staten, 1966).
Cars, trailers, and mobile homes, 223~fl percent 17~ percent
wheelbarrows, roadscrapers.
Electric dynamos, generators, trans- do 15 percent
farmers and parts.
Electric motors and parts, not other- do do
wine provided for in the tariff.
Electric apparatus and parts, not do 17~ percent
otherwise provided for in the tariff.
Manufactures of iron or steel, not do do
otherwise provided for in the tariff.
Electric welding apparatus 20 percent Part, 15 percent; part,
10 percent.
Furniture of wood 25 percent 20 percent
Furniture, metal do 173.~ percent
Woven cotton fabrics, not bleached, 20 percent do
mercerized or colored.
20
10, 050
96,910
6,933
12, 610
12, 647
9,421
26, 176
46, 506
~
9, 096
8, 267
13,038
81,326
95, 557
7, 023
6, 505
7,236
11, 658
24, 032
Colored woven cotton fabrics 223'~ percent
percent
Clothing, wearing apparel, of woven 25 percent 223'~ percent
cotton fabrics.
Yarns and rovings of manmade fibers: 223/b percent (mini- 10 percent pius 10
threads, etc. mum, 22 cents per cents per pound.
pound).
Woven fabrics of manmade fibers, 30 percent plus 20 25 percent plus 15
over 12 inches wide. cents per pound. cents per pound.
8,283
9, 314
26, 394
PAGENO="0056"
52 ~ FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
SELECTED CANADIAN CONCESSIONS OF INTEREST TO THE UNITED STATES-Continued
Tariff No.
i
Brief description
~
Most-favored-nation rates of duty Imports
from
United
States,
1964
Pre-Kennedy Round 1 Final ~(thou-
sands of
U.S.
doNors)
563
568(1)
588
616(1)
618
618b(2)
711
Clothing, wearing apparel, of man-
made fibers.
Knittsd garments, fabrics, and goods,
not otherwise provided for in the
tariff.
Coal, coal screenings, and coal dust,
not otherwise provided forte the
tariff (bituminous).
Rubber, crude, unmanufactured, not
otherwise provided for in the
tariff.
Manufactures of rubber, not otherwise
provided for in the tariff.
Tires and tubes of rubber
All goods not elsewhere enumerated.~
273~ percent
35 porcent
50 cents per ton
(10 percent).
5 percent
20 percent
223.~ percent
20 percent
25 percent
273~ percent
Free
2~»=~ percent
173.~ percent
do
do
11,007
7,763
38, 424
14, 078
20,249
6, 847
18, 147
lAd valorem equivalents (1964) of specific or compound duties shown in parentheses.
SELECTED DANISH CONCESSIONS OF INTEREST TO THE UNITED STATES
Tariff No.
Brief description
Mont-favored-nation rates of duty a
Imports
from
United
States,
1964
(thou-
sands of
U.S.
dollars)
566
1,404
483
1 598
`
2,477
816
1, 226
437
413
5,197
300
4, 049
522
800
2, 109
1, 303
610
1,452
402
Pro-Kennedy Round
Final
08.02
08.12B
10.06B
ex2O.06B
ex2O.06B
27.1OA
48.01
51.04
84.01
84.02
84.06
~
ex84.15
84.23
84.35
84.45
ex87.02
87.07
90.1OB
90.28
98.03
Citrus fruits 5 percent
Dried fruits except apple 10 percent
Rice, husked do
Canned pineapple and peaches 27 percent
Canned fruit cocktail do
Clear lubricating oils and greases 0.05 krone per
kilogram.2
Paper and paperboard, machine-made 5 percent
Woven fabrics of continuous man- 20 percent
made fibers.
Steam boilers and parts 8 percent
Auxiliary equipment for steam boilers do
Internal combustion piston engines, 5 percent
except outboard motors or bicycle
motors.
Refrigerating equipment with capacity 12 percent
over 250 liters and parts.
Excavating, leveling, extracting, etc., 10 percent
machinery.
Printing machinery and parts 5 percent
Metalworking machine tools 10 percent
New passenger cars 12 percent
Work trucks of the types used in 4 percent
factories, etc.
Other apparatus for photo labs 8 percent
Electrical measuring, testing, etc., 10 percent
instruments.
Penu and pencils and parts 12 percent
Free
5 percent
do
13.5 percent
do
0.025 krone per
kilogram.
2.5 percent
16 percent
4 percent
do
2.5 percent
6 percent
6 percent
2.5 percent
6 percent
7.5 percent
2 percent
4 percent
7.5 percent
6 percent
I Rates are expressed in porcont ad vatorem or in Danish crowns per kilogram unlesn otherwise indicated (6.9 Danish
crowns equal U.S. ~1).
2 Ad valorem equivalent of this specific rate of duty is 8.5 psrcent.
PAGENO="0057"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
53
Edible offals of beef and pork:
Livers
Others
Dried peas and beans
Lentils
Grapefruit, fresh
Various field seeds
Industrial use unrendered fats of bo-
vine cattle, sheep or goats, tallow.
Other than industrial use
Prepared or preserved meat of poultry
(conned).
Canned fruit with sugar added in con-
tainers of less than 1 kg.:
Fruit cscktsil
Other, excluding grapefruit sec-
tions, mandarins, and ginger.
Beet pulp, bagasse, and other waste of
sugar manufacture; brewing sad
distilling waste, etc.
Unmanufactured tobacco valued at less
than $280 per 100 kg.
Coal:
West Germany
Other member states
Petroleum and shale oils, other than
crude; preparations not elsewhere
specified or included containing not
less than 70 percent by weight of
petroleum or shale oils, these oils
being the basic constituent of the
preparations:
l!I. Lubricating oils and othera___
Dihydric alcohols
Nitrile-fuection campounds
Chemical products, n.e.s
Polyesters including alkyds
Unspecified condensation products
Sheep and lamb okins, leather
Unbleached and bleached chemical
woodpulp, sulfate and sulfite.
Kraft paper and paperboard, not for
manufacture of yarn, and certain
paper, flea.
Yarn of synthetic textile fibers
Turbojet engines, thrust more than
2,500 kilograms.
Parts for reaction and turboprop
engines.
Certain other pumps for liquids
Pumps and compressors, other n.e.s_ --
Ref rigerators and refreigeratieg
equipment.
Heat treating machinery and equip-
ment other than nonelectric hot
water heaters.
Certain automotive loading, lifting
and handling machinery.
Other lifting and handling machinery_ -
Harvesting and threshing machinery
and similar agricultural equipment.
Parts for statistical and puschcard
machines.
Parts for office machines other than
electronic calculators.
Other machinery, n.e.s.
Circuit control apparatus and other
electrical circuit apparatus.
Electronic tubas, other than cathode
ray tubes.
Certain motor vehicles, including autos_
Aircraft, unhadea weight of over 15,000
kilograms.
Parts for aircraft
Games other than playing cards
10 percent 7 percent
21 percent 17 percent
25 percent 22 percsnL_ 1
do 24 percent I
Free (unbound) Free (bound)
16 percent 12 percent
12 percent 9 percent
10 percent 5 percent
- - - do do
12 percent 6 percent
do do
10 percent 5 percent
11 percent 5.5 percent
do do
do do
9 percent 4.5 percent
8 percent 4 percent
11 percent 6 percant
12 percent 6 percent
13 percent 6.5 percent
15 percent 7.5 percent
22 percent 11 percent
10 percent 5 percent -
do do
17 percent 8.5 percent
SELECTED EUROPEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY CONCESSIONS OF INTEREST TO THE UNITED STATES
Most-favored-nation rates of duty I
Imports
from
United
Tariff No.
Brief description
Pre-Kennedy Reund
Final
States,
1964
(theun-
sands of
U.S.
dollars)
20 percent
9 percent
5 percent
12 percent
8 percent
2 percent
14 percent
12 percent
4.5 percent
2 percent
6 percent
6 percent
Free
31,417
8,888
3,012
3,246
3,545
28,354
8,001
3,457
26,263
16,965
105, 899
28 percent with mini-
mum charge of $29
and a maximum of
$38 per 100 kg.
23 percent with mini-
mum charge of $28
and a maximum of
$33 per 100 lag.
$5 per metric ton $2.50 per metric ton_ - - 285 161
Free (unbound) Free (bound)
02.OlBlIb
07.05A
exO7.05B
08.02
12.03 B
1 5.02A
15.02 B
16.02 B I
20.O6BI lb
23.03
24.01
27.01
27.10
29.04C1 I
29.27
ex38.19Q
39.O1CI II
39.O1CVI II
41.O3BII
47.01 B
48.01
51.O1A
84.O8Alb
84.08D I
ex.84.100
ex.84.llAl I
84.15
84.17FI I
ex84.22B
84.22C
84.25
84.55B
84.55C
84.59E
85.19A
85.21AII I
ex87.O2AI
ex88.O2BI I
88.03
97.04B
12 percent
19 percent
17 percent
18 percent
20 percent
18 percent
10 percent
6 percent
6 percent
16.4 percent
15.2 percent
14.4 percent
16 percent
14.4 percent
5 percent
3 percent
35,293
13,854
14,277
14,354
11,421
11,669
10,653
43,260
33,131
17,008
13,095
29,567
18,414
17,355
14,118
10,203
20,508
16,313
12,458
14,726
20,393
31,273
35,687
16,027
15,039
94,761
97,100
13,265
1 Plus $5 per hectahiter per degree of alcohol if in containers of less than 2 1. Ad valorem equivalent of final duty based
on 1964 would have been approximately 26 percent.
PAGENO="0058"
54 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
SELECTED JAPANESE CONCESSIONS OF INTEREST TO THE UNITED STATES
Sweet almonds 15 percent
Soya beans 13 percent
Safflower seed 5 percent
Rendered pig let, acid value exceeding do
2.
Beef tallow 4 percent -
Lubricating oils, specific gravity more 20 percent
than 0.8494 at 15° C.
Butyl alcohol, ethylene glycol, propy- do
ieee glycol.
Certain antibiotics 17 percent
Aluminum and its alloys, unwroughL. j13 percent
Cranes, conveyors, lifts, hoists, etc___l 15 percent
Machinery for cleaning, drying, and do
finishing textiles and printing repeti-
tive designs on textiles, poper, lie-
oleum, etc.
Rolling mills, rollers, and p~rts
Gear-cutting machines, n.e.s., and
gear-finishing machines.
Bending machines, presses, shearing
machines, forging machines, and
other machines for working metal,
n.e.s.
Handtools, pnoumatic or with self-
contained nonelectric motor.
Calculating machines, accounting ma-
chines, cash registers, etc. incorpo-
rating a calculating device (except
digital computers and auxiliary ma-
chinery; electric calculating ma-
chines with 3 rules or more; elec-
tronic bookkeeping and accounting
machines with 3 rules or more; and
cash registers with 5 or more totaling
devices).
Transmission shafts, cranks, bearing
housings, gears and gearing, and
parts.
Electric furnaces, ovens, and induction
and die-electric heating equipment
and parts; electric welding me-
chines, except those operated by
numerical control systems.
Electrical apparatus for making, break-
ing, or protecting electrical circuits
and parts thereof.
Instruments and apparatus for measur-
ing, checking, automatically con-
trolling flow, depth, pressure, tem-
perature, etc. of liquids or gases.
Parts of instruments or apparatus for
measuring or checking falling within
BTN headings No. 90.23, 90.24,
90.26, 90.27 or 90.28.
Recording tapes, cures, sheets, etc.
n.e.s.
Equipment for indoor games, parts,
and accessories, n.e.s.
Golf requisites, parts, and accessories,
flee.
I
Most-favored-cation rates of duty
Imports
from
United
Tariff No.
Brief dsscriptios
Pre-Kennedy Round
Final
States,
1964
(thou-
sands cf
U.S.
dollars)
10 percent
2.4 yess per kilogram
(6 percent AyE).
2.5 percent
Free
2.5 percent
15 percent
do
8.5 percent
9 percent
7.5 percent
do
do
Part, 10 percent; part,
7.5 percent.
7.5 percent
do do
do do
do
do
do
exO8.05-4
12.01-1
12.01-7
15.01-1(2)A
15.02-1
ex27.10-1(5)B
ex29.04
ex29.44-2
76.01
84.22
84.40
84.44
ex84.45-1(6)
ex84.45-2
84. 49
Ex84.52
84.63
Ex85.11
85.19
90.24
90.29
Ex92.12-3(2)
97.04-3
Ex97.06-3
2.746
154, 045
21,589
6,241
28,382
24,762
5,014
3,230
2,348
3,029
4,371
8,478
4,458
39,562
2,965
4, 443
6,503
4,852
10,485
3,970
11,695
2,296
5,204
2,935
do do
do do
do do
do do
do do
20 percent
30 percent
20 percent
10 percent
15 percent
10 percent
PAGENO="0059"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
SELECTED NORWEGIAN CONCESSIONS OF INTEREST TO THE UNITED STATES
55
Most-favored-nation rates of duty 1
Pre-Kennedy Round
Final
Tariff No.
08.12A
ex15.02A
ex2O.O6C2b
24.01
29.35B
37.02 B
38.14
68.06A
73.40C
84.06C
84.1OA
ex84.19 B
84.23B
84.51
84.53
ex87.02A
ex87.06B3
ex9O.14B
Brief description
Dried prunes 0.12 (4.0 percent)
Inedible tallow 0.08 (7.2 percent)
Canned pineapple, peaches, mixed 0.06 (29 percent)
fruit.
Tobacco, raw Free (unbound)
Heterocyclic compounds 30 percent
Photo film 4.00 (5 percent)
Antiknock preparations 20 percent
Abrasive paper 0.16 (3 percent)
Articles of iron and steel, n.e.s 10 percent
Outboard motors do
Pumps for liquids 15 percent
Dishwashing machines 20 percent
Rotary rock drills 10 percent
Electric typewriters do
Statistical machines do
Passenger cars do
Passenger car parts and accessories_ - - 25 percent
Navigational instruments 20 percent
Imports
from
United
States,
1964
(thou-
sands of
U.S.
dollars)
899
298
1,700
5,680
149
405
433
161
297
386
174
338
385
217
972
1, 236
679
234
rd (Norwe-
arentheses.
Free
0.04
0.30
Free (bound)
15 percent
2.00
15 percent
0.08
5 percent
do
7.5 percent
10 percent
8 percent
5 percent
do
8 percent
12.5 percent
10 percent
I Rates are expressed in parcant ad valorern or in Norwegian crowns par kilogram unless otherwise indicat
gian crowns 7.14 equal U.S. $1). Ad valorem equivalents (1962) of specific or compound duties shown in I
SELECTED SWEDISH CONCESSIONS OF INTEREST TO THE UNITED STATES
Brief description
Most-favored-nation rates of duty I
Pre-Knnnedy Round
Final
Imports
from
United
States,
1964
(thou-
sands of
U.S.
dollars)
Tariff No.
exO8.02
exl9.08
ex2O.02
ex2O.06
ex2O.07
24.01
27.01
ex4O.06
84.06
84.10
84.11
84.15
84.19
84.23
84.49
84.52
85.01
85.19
85.21
87.01
87.02
90.10
90.24
Lemons
Biscuits and wafers
Canned asparagus
Canned pineapple, peaches, mixed
fruit.
Canned citrus juices, unsweetennd____
Unmanufactured tobacco
Coal
Adhesive-backed materials
Internal combustion piston engines__....
Pumps for liquids; liquid elevators_ - - -
Air and vacuum pumps, compressors,
fans, etc.
Refrigerators and refrigerating equip-
ment.
Bottling, dishwashing, packing ma-
chinery and parts.
Excavating, leveling, boring machinery
and parts.
Handtools, pneumatic or with non-
electric motor.
Calculaffng, accou iting, and similar
machines.
Generators, motors, converters, etc.,
and parts.
Electrical circuit apparatus
Thermionic cathode valves and tubes,
etc.
Tractors
Passenger cars, new and used
Photographic and motion picture lab-
oratory eqsiprnent.
Apparatus for measuring, etc. the
variables of liquids and gases.
5 kronor per 100 kg.
(4.3 percent).
10 percent
75 kronor per 100 kg.
(28 percent).
25 kronor per 100 kg.
(17 percent).
20 kronor per 100 kg.
(29 percent).
Free (unbound)
do
10 percent
- - - do
do
do
do
do
do
do
do
do
Part 10 percent; part
15 percent.
10 percent
do
15 percent
10 percent
do
Free
5 percent
65 kronor per 100 kg__
12.50 kronor per 100
7.50 kronor per 100
FrJ (bound)
do
5 percent
do
do
do
do
do
do
do
do
do
Part 7 percent; part
10 percent.
5 percent
8 percent
10 percent
5 percent
7 percent
$655
622
960
3,772
599
21,157
13,383
1,380
8,693
1,393
1,576
1,727
3,227
5,154
1,669
3,050
2,906
5,559
4,847
3,774
11, 447
1,110
1,051
IRates are expressed in percent ad valorem or in Swedish crowns per 100 kilograms unless otherwise indicated (5.18
Swedish crowns equal U.S. $1). Ad valorem equivalents (1962) of specific or compound duties shown in parentheses.
PAGENO="0060"
56
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
SELECTED SWISS CONCESSIONS OF INTEREST TO THE UNITED STATES
Raisins
Canned asparagus
Canned pineapple
Canned peaches
Canned fruit cocktail
Adhesives on nonrubber backings
Tires and tubes, except solid
Fur skins, tanned or dressed not as-
sembled.
Woven synthetic fabrics, bleached or
dyed.
Wadding end articles of wadding
Corsets, brassiers, etc., of manmade
textiles.
Pumps for liquids, weighing 25 kg. or
less.
Air or gas compressors, weighing not
over 5,000 kg.
Refrigerators, finished
Lifting, handling, etc., machinery,
weighing 10,000 to 25,000 kg.
Excavating, leveling, etc., machinery,
weighing 10,000 to 25,003 kg.
Machinery, etc., for typefounding or
typesetting.
Handtools, pneumatic or with nonelec-
tric motors.
Calculating, accounting machines, etc.,
weighing over 100 kg.
Statistical and accounting punchcsrd
machines.
Transmission shafts, cranks, gears,
etc., weighing 25 kg. or lens.
Handtools with self-contained electric
motor.
Electrical circuit apparatus, weighing
0.3 kg. or leso.
Photographic cameras with 2 shutter
speeds.
Sound recordings and articles for re-
cording sound.
Skis and ski sticks
Most-favored-nation rates of duty 1 Imports
from
United
Tariff No.
Brief description
Pm-Kennedy Round
Final
States,
19~4
(thou-
sands of
U.S.
dollars)
exO8.04
ex2O.02
ex2O.06
ex2O.06
ex2O.06
ex4O.06
ex4O.1l
ex43.02
exSl.04
59.01
exGl.09
ex84.10
exE4.11
ex14.15
ex84.22
ex84.23
ex84.34
84.49
ex84.52
84.53
ex84.63
85.05
ex85.19
exSO.07
92.12
ex97.06
8(7.2 percent) 5
38 (14.8 percent) 20
40 (34.7 percent) 25
45 (328 percent) 30
45 (32.8 percent) 40
60 (5.0 psrcent) 30
20 (3.8 percent) 16
45 (0.3 parcent) 30
Part, 700; part, 750 500
(22.7 percent)
Part4O;partlO(6.9 30
percent).
1,200 (12.5 psrcent)_ - - 600
60 (3.4 psrcunt) 35
IPart 30 (4.2 percent)~ Part 15
Part 40 (5.7 percent)_.~ Part 20
[Part 50 (4.6 porcent)....j Part 30
90 (19.2 percent) 45
20 (6.1 percent) 10
20 (3.7 percent) 10
10 (2 percent) 5
70 (2.4 percent) 35
300 (3.8 percent) 230
200 (2.9 percent) 100
60 (5.7 percent) 30
70 (2.4 parceot) 40
150 (4.5 percent) 120
150 (4.5 percent) 100 I
200 (6.1 percent) 110
150 (7.4 percent) 75
485
2,194
1,172
2,426
1,090
1,000
1,338
1,748
394
1,472
830
490
1,021
8,554
717
904
1,026
5,905
1,138
428
1,415
668
629
741
I Rates are expressed in Swiss francs per 100 kilograms (4.3 Swiss francs~U.S. Si). Ad valnrem equivalents (1962) of
specific or compound duties shown in porentheses.
PAGENO="0061"
THE FUTTJRE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 57
SELECTED UNITED KINGDOM CONCESSIONS OF INTEREST TO THE UNITED STATES
Tariff No.
Brief description
Most-favored-nation rates of duty 1
Imports
from
United
States,
1964
(thou-
sands of
U.S.
dollars)
Pre-Kesnedy Rosnd
Final
exO2.OlBla
02.01 BIb
07.050
08.04B
16.04C
29.15
29.27B
ex48.01
76.01A2
84.10
84.23A
85.19C
87.01A2
90.07A2
90.24
Beef tongues
Edible offals of beef and veal, othei.___
Dried white beans
Raisins
Canned salmon
Polyacids and their anhydrides
Nitrile-function compounds
Kraft linerboard
Alloys of aluminum
Pumps and parts
Power-operated excavating machines -
Circuit breakers, other
Tracklaying tractors, drawbar horse-
power exceeding 50.
Photographic cameras, other
Instruments for measuring, checking,
or controlling flow, depth, or pres-
sure, etc.
Free (unbound)
20 percent
8 percent
8s. 6d. per hundred-
weight (7.4 percent).
5 percent
33.3 percent
33.3 percent
13.3 percent
10 percent
14 percent
12 percent
16 percent
15 percent
40 percent
16 percent
Free (bound)
10 percent
4 percent
4s. per hundred-
weight.
2.5 percent
23 percent
23 percent
10 percent
5 percent
7.5 percent
do
8 percent
7.5 percent
20 percent
8 percent
4,874
5, 642
11,766
3, 077
5, 963
22, 094
3, 519
7, 706
15, 844
17, 615
2,965
3, 314
2,754
1 Rates are expressed in percent ad valorem or in British pounds, shillings, and/or pence per hundredweight converted
at rate of $2.80 (United States) psr British pound. Ad valorem equivalents (1961) of specific or compound duties shown
in parentheses.
Chairman BOGGS. Senator Miller?
Senator MILLER. Mr. Ambassador, can you tell us, are there any im-
port duties now in the EEC on our feed grains and feed shipments?
Mr. ROTH. Are you talking about wheat or feed grains?
Senator MILLER. Wheat or feed grains, our export to the EEC, are
there any duties that have to be paid over there?
Mr. ROTH. There are. But let me ask Mr. loanes.
Mr. TOANES. There are variable levies.
Senator MILLER. There is no change in those, as I understand it.
Mr. IOANES. No change.
Senator MILLER. No reduction?
Mr. I0ANE5. No, sir.
Senator MILLER. Did the EEC agree to reduce any of its duties on
meat?
Mr. ROTH. On certain variety meats. We early decided that in dairy
products and meat, as well as in grains, we would try to have a sector
negotiation. In dairy products this proved impossible, and it was cer-
tainly difficult for the United States. In meat it proved impossible.
The Community was very much against opening their own market.
But finally they agreed to a bilateral arrangement with the Argen-
tinians. To the extent that the Argentinians, or, say, the Australians,
could get meat into the Community and take the pressure off the U.S.
market, this was to our advantage.
Finally, an agreement, as I say, was reached between the Argen-
tinians and the Community. At that point in France there were very
strong reactions by the farming groups, and the agreement was can-
celed by the Council of Six. And the Argentinians at that time almost
left the Kennedy Round. They didn't. But the answer in short is that
PAGENO="0062"
58 TIlE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
the EEC has not opened theii market to meat to any great extent, ex-
cept to some variety meats that we were particularly interested in.
Senator MILLER. We have been shipping some meat over there, espe-
cially to France. But I am not asking a question about opening their
market, I am askmg a question about whether or not they reduced any
of their trade areas.
Mr. ROTH. Edible off als and variety meats.
Senator MILLER. What do you mean by variety meats?
Mr. IOANES. The heart, liver, tongue, and innards of animals. This
is about a. $30 million trade item.
Senator MILLER. To the EEC?
Mr. IOANES. Yes, sir. And the reduction was from a duty of about
20 percent down to about 10 percent.
Senator Mu~ru. On poultry, as I understand it, there is no reduc-
tion of tariffs, except as to canned poultry.
Mr. ROTH. Canned, preserved poultry.
Senator MILLER. No reduction on any other. As I understand, just
since the negotiation was concluded, the EEC put another 3 cents a
pound on poultry. There are no reductions there.
Mr. ROTH. When we settled the so-called great poultry war we took
action against them, as you remember, in a number of products of
interest to the Community. During the Kennedy Round they were
terribly anxious to get these tariff increases back down again, particu-
larly on Volkswagen trucks. We refused to unless they did something
about poultry of advantage to us. And they couldn't. So we stand as
we did.
Senator MILLER. And on dairy I sa.id there was nothing done?
Mr. ROTH. No, sir, except we made some cuts on a very few cheeses
that do not come under section 22.
Senator MILLER. Now, on our side, did we reduce our import duties
on any of their meats coming into this country from the EEC?
Mr. Rom. We reduced no duties that I remember on meats. We
bound an item, but didn't reduce it-canned hams, of particular interest
to the Scandinavian countries, of which the Community was a. second
supplier. And we gave a reduction on goose liver paste.
What we did in the nongrains negotiations with the Community was
to try to give them a sprinkling of offers in various areas as t.hey did
us. But we ga.ve them less than we received.
Senator MILLER. Then as I see it, to summarize, there were no reduc-
tions by the EEC with respect to grain, there was no access with respect
to grains, there was some reduction with respect to meats, and there
was no reduction with respect to poultry except with respect to the
canned chickens, no reductions with respect to dairy foods. And what
I come up with is that there is concern over the implementation of the
policy which has been stated by the president and by Mr. Herter and
by you publicly on several occasions, and privately to me in correspond-
ence, by both Mr. Herter and by you, that consistently any trade agree-
ments would have to include "meaningful concessions by the European
Community with respect to their agricultural trade barriers."
PAGENO="0063"
THE FUTTJRE OF ILS. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 59
What I am running into, Mr. Ambassador, is criticism of the failure
to implement that policy. And it may be that for a few people who ex-
port those specialty items that you referred to that this will be helpful.
But looking at the agricultural community as a whole, and especially
the exporters of grain, feed grains, and wheat, and the exporters of
what we normally consider meat, I don't see any meaningful con-
cessions. I recognize that there is this food aid angle, but I don't look
upon that as a concession in the lowering of trade barriers. And of
course there is no access that may necessarily accompany that. We just
take our chances with other exporting countries that 1 million tons of
food aid that might open up the market in the EEC will be available to
our suppliers, but there is no guarantee that our farmers are going to
get that. There is no guarantee that our 9 million tons a year of grain
shipments to the EEC will continue.
Now, this is the kind of criticism I receive. And I have just laid
it out on the table for you to comment. on. Because I certainly don't
want to have my own criticism misdirected. And I want to be responsive
to the critics. So I would appreciate your comment on that.
Mr. RoTH. Senator, I thank you very much for giving me this op-
portunity, because I think your questions are very fair ones.
Let me say that I think the criticism that I have seen distorts the
issues somewhat. Because, one, the critics are talking about our trade
with only one of our agricultural ma.rkets; namely, the European
Community.
Senator MILLER. But they are talking about it, Mr. Ambassador,
in the light of the publicly expressed policy that any trade agreement
will have to include meaningful concessions by the European Coin-
munity with respect to their agricultural trade barriers.
Mr. ROTH. I am aware of this.
Secondly, when they say we did not get anything substantial from
the European Community, they are talking about those areas-and
poultry is one of the best examples-where the variable levy exists,
where the common agricultural policy has come into being. We would
like to have seen the EEC change their basic policy. There was ab-
solutely no opportunity to do this. They would not. They had six
countries that came together over a period of years and put together
a policy which may in the future be changed, because it is too expensive
over the years, but it could not be changed in the Kennedy Round.
They made us some offers based on variable levies, say, in some of
the fruit areas, where we presently have bindings of tariff reduc-
tions. We turned those offers down, because we said, as long as you
have a variable levy these offers are meaningless, and rather than
accept a bad offer we will keep our bindings.
But in spite of this-and this comes back to the first part of your
question-we got offers of value from the Community, not just in
variety meats, but in tobacco, dried vegetables, citrus, fruits and
nuts, tallow-
Senator MILLER. What did you get on tallow, may I ask?
Mr. ROTH. I think that was a 50-percent reduction.
PAGENO="0064"
60 THE FTJTTJRE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Might I say that, after 4 years of negotiations, 30 days before the
end of the negotiation we had from the Community on the table S50
million worth of agricultural offers. And I made it a point at that
time that this was not acceptable, that we could not conclude the
Kennedy Round with merely token offers on the table. And this was
made strongly time after time a.fter time. And finally, point by point
in the final hours of the negotiation before May 15 we got this up to in
excess of $200 million in terms Of trade coverage.
So it is not correct to say that we did not get something of sub-
stance, or something of importance in the Kennedy Round from the
EEC. We would like to have gotten more. And looking to the future,
we have to find some way to deal with the common agricultura.l policy
and variable levy. But never before in a trade negotation have we made
this hind of breakthrough in agriculture.
Senator MILLER. You said you had $200 million covered in agri-
cultural items with the EEC.
Mr. ROTH. In excess of that.
Senator MILLER. In excess of that. Looking at it from the industrial
products' side, how many millions of dollars did you have covered,
how many were included in your agreement with the EEC?
Mr. Rorn. $2.4 billion.
Senator MILLER. $2.4 billion. Now, the $2.4 billion would be roughly
45 percent, I believe, the total volume of trade with the EEC, would
it not?
Mr. ROTH. I am sorry, sir?
Senator MILLER. The $2.4 billion which you said was covered by the
industrial negotiations would comprise approximately 45 percent
of the total trade in 1966 with the EEC. According to my figures,
we had total exports of $5.2 billion to the EEC in 1966. So that the
$2.4 billion would comprise about 45 percent of the total exports. As
a mater of fact, the $5.2 billion total exports minus $1.5 billion of ag-
riculture would leave $3.7 billion which probably would embrace
industrial items. And you have tabled $2.4 billion worth, which is
well over 50 percent of the industrial loans. But when it came to ag-
riculture you tabled $200 million worth as against $1.5 billion of
total agricultural exports.
So, looking at it from the standpoint of a ratio, well upward of 60
percent of our industrial items were tabled, but only about 7 percent
of our agricultural items were tabled.
Do you follow me?
Mr. ROTH. I follow you, Senator. I am not certain about your
figures, but I would like to provide our own.
Senator Mu~ER. These figures can be substantiated, they a.re in our
Joint Economic Committee report at page 89.' And they were based
on G-overmnent reports.
(The tables referred to by Senator Miller are reprinted herein:)
`Senate Report No. 73, 90th Cong., first sess., 1967, Joint Economic Committee Report.
PAGENO="0065"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
TABLE IV.-US. IMPORTS, 1964, 1965, AND 1966
61
[In millions of dollorsj
Total
exports
1964
1965
1966
1961-63 average
1964-66 average
To European Economic Community:
1964
1965
1966
1961-63 average
1964-66 average__ -
To United Kingdom:
1964
1965
1966
1961-63 average
1964-66 average
To Japan:
1964
1965
1966
1961-63 average
1964-66 average
To Canada:
1964
1965
1966
1961-63 average
1964-66 average
Agricultural
exports
$26,086 24
27,003 23
29,912 23
26
23
4,481 1,416 32
4,904 1,476 30
5,264 1,561 30
32
31
1,445 440 30
1,537 398 26
1,645 471 29
38
28
1,894 720 38
2,042 876 43
2,312 942 41
35
41
4,653 `615 13
5,486 2620 11
6,487 3626 10
14
11
`Includes $160,000,000 in transit shipments.
2 Includes $176,000,000 in transit shipments.
Includes $140,000,000 in transit shipments.
82-181-61--vol. I-5
Total
imports
Agricultural
imports
Agricultural
imports as
percent of
total
imports
1964
1965
1966
1961-63average
1964-66 average
From the European Economic Community:
1964
1965
1966
1961-63 average
1964-66average
From United Kingdom:
1964
1965
1966
1961-63average
1964-66average
From Japan:
1964
1965
1966
1961-63average
1964-66 average
From Canada:
1964
1965
1966
1961-63 average
1964-66 average
$18,600
21,282
25,408
2,831
3,316
4,098
1,132
1,403
1,761
1,763
2, 401
2,948
4,227
4, 813
6,106
$4,082
4,088
4,492
258
270
306
23
24
30
40
37
37
176
234
240
22
19
18
24
20
9
8
7
10
8
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
~
2
4
5
4
~
~
TABLE V-U.S. EXPORTS, 1964, 1965, AND 1966
[In millions of dollarsj
Agricultural
exports as
percent of
total
exports
$6,347
6,229
6,885
PAGENO="0066"
62 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Mr. ROTH. I think we are using different years.
Senator MILLER. I am talking about 1966.
Mr. ROTH. We are using 1964.
Senator MILLER. I could take 1964 if you like.
Mr. ROTH. I think you make your point.
(The following table was later supplied:)
KENNEDY ROUND CONCESSIONS-UNITED STATES AND EEC TRADE
[1964, millions of dollars, c.i.f.J
Dutiable imports (except
grains)
Total Conces-
sions
Average
cut,
dutiable
Free,
bound in
Kennedy
Round
Grains
(trade
coverage)
Total:
(a) U.S. imports from EEC 2,656
(b) EEC imports from United States_ 3, 065
Agricultural:
(a) U.S. imports from EEC 202
(b) EEC imports from United States 445
Nonagricultural:
(a) U.S. imports from EEC 2,454
(b) EEC imports from United States 2,620
2,136
2,627
117
223
2,019
2,404
Percent
34
29
13
13
36
32
4 3
289 452
1 3
19 452
3
270
Senator MILLER. And the point is that when it comes to working out
an agreement with the EEC, we tabled about 60 percent of the indus-
trial volumes. But when it came to agriculture we only tabled about
7 percent.
Mr. ROTH. If you are talking in terms of U.S. offers-
Senator MILLER. I am sorry, about 15 percent..
So when it came to getting down to negotiations on agricultural
items, we only got together on about 15 percent of our trade items.
And on industrial items we got together on about 60 percent. And my
point is that it doesn't look like we came out very well on agriculture
overall, certainly not compared to industry, to the other industrial
items. And I say this just to make t.he record straight. I understand
and appreciate the difficulties you people face. But I come back to that
basic policy that there weren't going to be any t.rade agreements with
the EEC until they made meaningful concessions on agriculture. Now,
what is meaningful is something that you get into semantics on; $200
million offhand sounds meaningful. But the ratio that I point out,
amounting to only 15 percent of our agricultural trade, I suggest to
you is woefully weak compared to the industrial items of 60 percent..
Mr. ROTH. Senator, I feel that your point is well taken. Certainly
more was done in the industry, and we expected to do more, than in
agriculture. I think we did get offers of real substance in agriculture
from the EEC. And, secondly, we only paid for what we got..
But there are many areas in agriculture unlike in industry, or more
so than in industry, which are very difficult to negotiate in. Take dairy
products; they wanted to negotiate in dairy products more than any-
thing else, but we couldn't, because, except for Roquefort, and certain
other cheeses, everything was under section 22. And most recently;
namely, a week ago, the President and the Secretary of Agriculture
PAGENO="0067"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE PoLICY 63
had to announce certain changes in cutback, because of problems domes-
tically in the import of cheese. We couldn't go into that area. We were
quite frank. Then they came back time after time and said, why can't
you negotiate in the agricultural area of the greatest interest to us.
And we had to say that each country in agriculture does have problems.
They are more difficult than in industry, because they are related to
farm income, and varying elements such as that.
So all I can say, Senator, is that in this area all the coimtries-I am
not talking only about the Community and the United States-made a
very substantial first step. But it is only a first step.
Senator MILLER. One more point. In connection with the wheat price
the point was made that the wheat price would range from, well, a min-
imum of $1.80. Another criticism 1 hear was that this was meaningless
because the world price at gulf ports is substantially over that. What
is your answer to that?
Mr. ROTH. Senator, finding the right mean price, which came out
at $1.73 U.S. No. 2 Hard Winter at the gulf, was a very difficult
one. The other exporters, and the Canadians in particular, having
in mind advance contracts with markets other than those we serve-
the Soviet Union, China-were interested in as high a price as pos-
sible. So were many of our producing groups; $1.85 is where we started
in the negotiations with the others, which was a price much too high
principally for the Japanese and the United Kingdom, and even for
the Community. And so we realized that this would be a price that
we might have to lower.
On the other hand, the U.S. grain traders felt that we should in-
crease the price as little as possible, because too high a price would
undermine U.S. competitive position.
So we had to find a price in the proper range.
I would like to add that when we first began talking to the exporters
about a minimum price, we tried to develop a rather rigid mechanism
that would protect that minimum when the price fell that low. And
we came basically to a kind of sharing-the-market concept. Many farm
groups had great trouble with this, and certainly the grain traders
did, too. So we threw that out. Now we have a consultative mechanism
under the agreement which operates when you begin to a~iproach the
minimum price. But it is a much more flexible arrangement.
I am sorry to be so long in explaining what our thinking is. This
position developed over almost a year and a half, in close consulta-
tion both with producers on one side and the grain traders on the
other.
Senator MILLER. I can see and understand that this is a complex
matter, and that it would be something that would require a lot of
weighing of fact. My only point is that I am not able to see-and
I must agree with the critics on this point-I am not able to see any
particular advantage to the American grain farmer of having a $1.80
per bushel world price when the world market is now at $1.83. It
may be that the market will go down and the $1.80 had been helpful,
but nobody knows that. And I think that the statement that this was
a great boon to the grain farmer, especially the wheat farmer, may
be a little euphoria. I just want to get this thing in perspective. And
I cannot reply to the critics right now by saying, oh, well, maybe the
PAGENO="0068"
64 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
price will go back down below $1.80 and you will be protected; they
are going to come back at you and say, you don't know what the future
will bring. I take it you were trying to put a. floor under this.
Mr. ROTH. That is right, Senator. We didn't want a minimum price
so high that the world price for large parts of the year would rest
on that minimum. We wanted and expected an increase underpinning
which would permit the world price to float above it, so that we could
maximize our competitive position.
Senator MILLER. One last question. I know it is not easy to gaze into
a crystal ball, but you must have done this, especially in consultation
with your agricultural adviser. Is it your evaluation that as a result
of the Kennedy Round of negotiations our export of grains to the
Common Market will not decrease?
Mr. ROTH. My simple answer to that would be yes. Perhaps Mr.
loanes would like to add something?
Mr. IOAXES. I would certainly agree to this. We took no a.ction in
grain or ally other item that would decrease our exports. We already
talked of the benefits that would come with the million ton food aid
package, either from the Community itself or from third markets.
And I can think of no other action we took that would result in a
downturn in our grain marketing to Europe.
Senator MILLER. My question, by the way, should include soybeans
as well. Would your answer hold to that?
Mr. loAxEs. Soybeans were already bound duty free, and continue
to be.
Senator MILLER. And it is your forecast that they are in their
rolls-
Mr. loAxEs. I would be optimistic with reasonable certainty that
our marketing of soybeans would continue to expand in future years
as it has in the past.
Mr. ROTH. And we also have a decrease in our soybeans tariff to
Japan.
Senator MILLER. Yes, I understand.
I appreciate very much the testimony of not only the Ambassador,
but his colleagues. And I thank my chairman for his indulgence in
giving me so much time.
Chairman BOGGS. Thank you very much, Mr. Ambassador, and the
i~~nbers of your staff for coming here.
We will adjourn until 10 a.m., tomorrow, Wednesday, July 12, when
we will meet in room S-407 of the Capitol.
(Whereupon, at 12:25 p.m., the committee was adjourned to re-
convene at 10 a.rn., Wednesday, July 12, 1967.)
PAGENO="0069"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 1967
CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES,
SUBCOMMITTEE ON FOREIGN ECONOMIC POLICY,
JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE,
Washington, D.C.
The subcommittee met at 10 a.m., pursuant to notice, in room S-407
the Capitol, Hon. I-Tale Boggs (chairman of the subcommittee)
presiding.
Present: Representatives Boggs, Reuss, and Widnall.
Also present: John ILL Stark, executive director; John B. Hender-
son, staff economist; and Donald A. Webster, minority staff economist.
Chairman B0GG5. The subcommittee will come to order.
I am informed that Assistant Secretary Solomon is, unfortunately,
ill this morning.
We have his deputy, Mr. Joseph A. Greenwald, Deputy Assistant
Secretary for International Trade Policy, with us.
Mr. Greenwald will incorporate the Secretary's statement into the
record, and also make the statement that the Secretary would have
made had he been here.
We are very happy also to have Assistant Secretary McQuade,
with his deputy, Robert L. McNeill.
We will hear from all of these gentlemen this morning.
Thank you very much for coming. You may go right ahead.
STATEMENT OP HON. LAWRENCE C. MOQUADE, ACTING ASSIST-
ANT SECRETARY OF COMMERCE FOR DOMESTIC AND INTER-
NATIONAL BUSINESS; ACCOMPANIED BY ROBERT L. McNEILL,
DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR TRADE POLICY
Mr. MCQUADE. I am very pleased to be here today to take part in
this evaluation of our foreign trade policy. I believe that hearings of
this type are useful in defining problems and seeking to determine
precisely what our national objectives should be.
Six years ago this committee held hearings on our foreign trade
policies, and a great deal of credit belongs to this committee for the
passage of the Trade Expansion Act, which laid the groundwork for
the successful Kennedy Round negotiations just completed. The re-
sults of these negotiations have not been fully revealed but I can
assure you that in a few days complete details on the concessions
granted by other countries will be made public and those interested
in this area can see the fruits of our work. I think, given the aggressive
65
PAGENO="0070"
66 TI~ FUTURE OF LT.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
and imaginative character of U.S. businessmen, that it will open up
great new opportunities for them in the international markets.
However, I do not plan to make any further remarks about the
Kennedy Round other than to note at this time that there is still some
unfinished business. The administration will be submitting to the Con-
gress proposals for implementing the second part of the agreement on
chemicals dealing with elimination of the American selling price sys-
tem of valuation. The Department of Commerce supports elimination
of the American selling price system of valuation. The Department
of Commerce supports the chemical agreement and we will be testify-
ing before the appropriate committees urging enactment of the im-
plementing legislation. Action by the legislatures of other coimtries
is required for fulfilling some of the obligations they have assumed.
In brief, the Kennedy Round will be occupying part of our time for
some months to come.
Other issues of trade policy which lie before us can be divided into
two categories-those of immediate importance calling for action in
the next few months and those of a longer term nature. I will discuss
them in that order.
Perhaps the most immediate problem before us, other than the legis-
lation dealing with chemicals, is additional tariff cutting authority for
the President to replace that which expired on June 30. Basically our
need is for a relatively small reduction authority which will provide
us with tools for handling day-to-day housekeeping problems of com-
pensating other countries for increases in U.S. tariff rates. Such in-
creases, as you imow, may be brought about by legislation enacted by
the Congress, by escape clause actions which might be approved by
the President increasing rates on items now subject to tariff conces-
sions, and by decisions of customs courts. We might also need such
authority to modify existing tariff concessions in order to take care
of technical problems or close loopholes which may arise. We antici-
pate that proposals on this subject will be presented to the Congress
in the near future.
Probably the second matter of immediate importance arises from
th~ fact that the concessions granted by the United States will go into
effect on the first of next year. This will necessitate, in our judgment,
amendment of title III of the Trade Expansion Act to improve the
provisions relating to applications for adjustment assistance. Failure
of any firm or groups of workers to meet the act's tests for injury or
the threat of injury from imports over the last 5 years indicates that
the provisions may be too rigid. This matter is being discussed within
the administration with a new view to submitting appropriate legis-
lation to the Congress.
These are the problems in the immediate future which require ac-
tion. Now I would like to concentrate on some of the longer range is-
sues. While I cannot do so here today, I think it is proper to note that
the problems have to be related to the economy of our country and to
the impact on our balance-of-payments position when we try to define
our national interest.
One of the problems which will be given considerable study is the
effect of removing trade barriers on the flow of investment both into
and out of the United States. While our Imowledge in this area is
PAGENO="0071"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 67
limited it is clear that a relationship does exist, as almost one-quarter
of our total exports is to overseas subsidiaries of U.S. firms. As you
know, when U.S. firms seek to enter international markets they have
a variety of ways they can go about it. One of these is by exporting,
another is direct investment, and a third is licensing. And they seek
to be effective in international markets by the appropriate mix of these
three methods.
This is reflected in part in the extraordinary growth over the last
decade of the international firm. We know these firms are making very
considerable contributions to economic growth here as well as abroad.
We also know that these firms have great flexibility in shifting sales
and purchases among suppliers of various countries. We believe we
should look further into this relatively new aspect of international
business so that we can take into account more fully the effects of
policy decisions on the operations of these firms.
Much has been said and written about nontariff barriers and in the
Kennedy Round the first real progress was made in tackling these
restrictions on a multilateral basis. Nontariff barriers are different
things to different people. Some European countries, for example, con-
sider that the U.S. tariff is itself a nontariff barrier because the United
States has not adopted the Brussels tariff nomenclature system. We, of
course, reject such contentions but the very argument illustrates the
variety of things which someone may regard as a trade barrier. Deal-
ing with these subjects is very difficult and requires a great deal
of time and effort and understanding as well as constructive think-
ing on the part of all interested parties. The agreement on inter-
national rules for dumping emerged from the Kennedy Round be-
cause all countries agreed after long discussion that there was a
common problem and that individual attention to it by each country
only compounded the difficulties.
This area is very broad and we believe that we should pick up
from where we stopped in the Kennedy Round and proceed to see
what we can do. Some of the important nontariff barriers of particu-
lar concern are in the areas of national procurement, quotas, purchas-
ing policies of State enterprises and monopolies, and safety and
health regulations.
But let's not forget that, like negotiations on tariffs, negotiating re-
moval of nontariff barriers to trade is also a two-way street. We have
to be willing to put our own house in order when demanding that
others do likewise. The handling of the ASP legislation will be a major
test in this respect.
Many consider that the border taxes imposed by a great number
of the developed countries constitute a nontariff barrier. We do not
disagree, but there is a strong relationship with the general problem
of tax policy. This issue is extremely difficult in that we are dealing
with national tax structures and any solution will have to be approved
by a host of national assemblies. Some theorists argue that border taxes
have no trade effects. However, it is another thing to explain to a
businessman that a border tax of 10, 15, or 20 percent on top of import
duties does not have any effect on his exports, or that exemption from
such taxes of exports to this country does not have an effect on the
prices in the markeplace in the United States. We do not yet have
satisfactory answers to the border tax question but we will be looking
PAGENO="0072"
68 TBE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
for some in the near future. Some think it. would be best to seek amend-
ment of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to wipe out. the
distinction between direct and indirect taxes so that the United States,
which largely relies on direct taxes, could legaly adopt the same
arrangement now followed by most European countries. Perhaps some
constructive suggestions for dealing with this problem will emerge
from these hearings.
The problems of the developing countries will be covered rather fully
by Mr. Greenwald, so I need not dwell a great deal on that subject
at this time. The problem in its simplest terms is whether we can
properly adopt trade policies which would help promote economic
growth in those countries and assist them in earning sufficient foreign
excha.nge so that they can join the developed countries in a. trading
world free of restrictive devices.
One, current suggestion toward this end is a. proposal by the develop-
ing countrie.s that the industrial nations grant to less-developed coun-
try exports the tariff cuts of the Kennedy Round right away instead
of staging them over 5 years. We need to examine the. implications of
such action in terms of its impact. on our indust.ries and the. general
problem of preferences for the exports of developing countries. We
know, of course, that many of t.he products of the developing countries
are not competitive with domestic production and that these will pose
no problem whatever-some, of course, would pose a problem. We
still want to give this matter further consideration, however, befor~
making specific proposals.
Second, there are a. number of materials needed by American in-
dustry and not available in the United States which are subject to
import. dut.ies. Some of these could be made free of duty without any
difficulty. The Congress seems to be in general sympathy with this
idea, for it has a.pproved a number of suspensions of duty in recent
years to relieve industry of unnecessary costs. Congre.ss has also given
the executive bra.nch authority to negotiate elimination of dut.ies for
a few such products, namely nickel and limestone for making cement..
We would like to look further int.o this area. and possibly make some
recommendations for eliminating duties which would not only help
reduce the costs of our domestic industry but would also benefit the
developing countries.
Next is the issue of tra.ding with the countries of Eastern Europe
and the Soviet Union. This is a matter whiëh is already being discussed
wit.hin the Congress. We support the principle that the United States
should improve its trade relations with these countries. In fact, we
believe it is in the national interest to do so. In addition to the foreign
policy advant.ages involved in which we would defer to the Depart-
ment of State, these countries constitute useful markets for our in-
dustrial a.nd agricultural output. We should not, of course, rush head-
long into blanket MFN treatment of all such countries, but we should,
in my view, authorize the President to make individual MFN ar-
ra.nge.ments on a. country by country, quid pro quo, basis where the
benefits are clear.
I mentioned earlier that other nations have urged us to adopt the
Brussels Tariff Nomenclature system to make our tariff and product
classification system consistent with most of the deve'oped countripg
of the `world. Without prejudicing t.he issue one way or another I think
PAGENO="0073"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 69
we should give this idea consideration. A universal tariff classificati?n
is obviously desirable and I am sure it would be very helpful to us m
the Government and those in business to be able to use statistical data
without having to go through complicated and tortuous comparisons
of nomenclature. On the other hand, our present tariff was designed
to meet our needs. So, the issue is important enough, I think, to merit
our consideration in coming months.
Now, Mr. Chairman, I have briefly identified a number of trade
policy issues which seem important to us in the Department of Com-
merce. There are others, of course. We will he following these hearings
closely and we will do everything we can to cooperate with this com-
mittee in its examination of our foreign trade policy. We expect your
deliberations to make an important contribution to the Nation's as-
sessment of the next steps in this field.
Representative Bocos. Thank you very much, Mr. McQuade.
I think before going into questioning we will hear from Mr. Green-
wald.
Mr. GREENWALD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would like to apologize for the fact that Mr. Solomon is not able
to appear this morning. He was particularly looking forward to it. I
think he attaches a great deal of importance to the work this committee
is doing and particularly wanted to be present here to participate in
the discussion.
I think you already have the rather lengthy statement which was
prepared for Mr. Solomon. It wasn't his intention to read you that
lengthy statement. And I will follow his own purpose and just com-
ment very briefly, summarize it very briefly, extemporaneously, if that
is all right.
Ohairman BOGGS. We will incorporate the statement in the record,
without objection.
STATEMENT OF HON. ANTHONY M. SOLOMON, ASSISTANT SECRE-
TARY OF STATE FOR ECONOMIC AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF
STATE
U.S. FOREIGN TImADE POLICY AND THE DEVELOPING `COUNTRIES
INTRODUCTION
The developing countries, as that phrase is now commonly used, con-
sist of well over ~100 political entities. There are marked differences
among them in size, population, degree of industrialization, and eco-
nomic growth-so much so that it is misleading to speak of them in
aggregate terms as though they were a homogeneous group of coun-
tries. But they do share certain characteristics in common: their per
capita income is low; their level of industrialization is low; a large
part of their ia~bor force is engaged in agriculture with low produc-
tivity per acre and per man; and they all want to modernize their
economies. Indeed economic growth `has become a symbol of national
worth and dignity. In human terms, the overwhleming majority of
their people face the kind of grinding day-in, day-out, year-in, year-
out poverty that leads to the "harsh, bru.ti~h `and short" lives which is
the prevailing condition in most of the world. (Table 1.)
PAGENO="0074"
70 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
T&BI~z 1.-G-ross izatianal product per capita, by country
[U.S. dollars]
Kuwait 3, 200
United States 3. 020
Sweden 2,040
Switzerland 2, 030
Canada 1,940
Luxembourg 1, 770
New Zealand 1,700
Australia 1, 730
Denmark 1, 050
Iceland 1, 550
France 1, 540
Germany, Federal Republic of~ 1, 540
Norway 1, 520
United Kingdom 1,500
Belgium 1.460
Finland 1,440
Netherlands 1,200
Czechoslovakia 1,200
Germany (East) 1, 120
Israel 1, 070
Austria 1, 020
Puerto Rico 980
Poland 930
U.S.S.R. 890
Hungary 890
Italy 850
Ireland 800
Venezuela 780
Rumania 710
Japan 660
Bulgaria 050
Argentina 650
Trinidad and Tobago 590
Uruguay 540
Cyprus 530
South Africa 530
Spain 530
Greece 510
Mongolia 480
Singapore 460
Chile 450
Panama 450
Mexico 430
Jamaica 430
Malta 410
Lebanon 390
Yugoslavia 390
Albania 380
Cuba 360
British Honduras 300
Costa Rica 380
Barbados 360
Portugal 340
Surinam 330
Nicaragua 320
Hong Kong 320
Guatemala 290
Gabon 280
Colombia 270
Peru 270
El Salvador 260
Malaysia 260
Guyana 200
Turkey 240
Iraq
Ghana
Algeria
Mauritius
Brazil
Oceania
Jordan
Libya
Dominican Republic
Korea (North)
Rhodesia
Iran
Ivory Coast
Paraguay
Honduras
Ecuador
Saudi Arabia
China, Republic of_~_
Syria
Tunisia
Liberia
Morocco
Senegal
Zambia
United Arab Republic
Philippines
Bolivia
Mauritania
Congo (Brazzaville)
Ceylon
Korea (South)
Cambodia
Sierra Leone
Cameroon
Thailand
Vietnam (South)
Nigeria
Vietnam (North)
China (Mainland)
Malagasy Republic
Sudan
Central African Republic
Pakistan
Yemen
India
Kenya
Afghanistan
Gambia
Togo
Swaziland
Uganda
Niger
Haiti
Chad
Congo, Democratic Republic of
the
Dahomey
Guinea. Republic of
Indonesia
Nepal
Tanzania
Bechuanaland
Mali
Burma
Basutoland
240
280
230
220
220
220
220
210
210
210
210
210
200
200
190
190
190
190
180
180
iso
170
170
160
150
140
140
140
140
130
120
120
120
110
110
110
100
100
9~5
95
95
90
90
90
90
90
85
85
85
85
80
75
75
70
70
70
70
70
70
70
05
05
`35
130
PAGENO="0075"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 71
TABLE 1.-aross national product per capita, by country-Continued
{U.S. dollars]
Laos 60 Somali Republic 50
Angola 60 Ethiopia 50
Burundi 50 Upper Volta 45
Rwanda 50 Malawi 40
Source: World Bank Atlas of Per Capita Product and Population, IBRD, September
1966. The data are for GNP and relate to 1963 and 1964. It is stressed by the Bank
that the figures should not be regarded as official and must be taken with some reserve.
These countries are moving forward with varying degrees of suc-
cess. A few are sprinting ahead; a few are stagnating. On the average
there has been progress but the pace of improvement is uneven and
slow. In the first half of the sixties, proclaimed by the United Nations
as the development decade, there has been no acceleration in the rate
of economic growth of the developing countries as a whole. The rate
of growth of per capita income, about 2 percent in 1960-65, was lower
than in the preceding decade owing to an acceleration in the rate of
population increase. (See table 2.) Thus the gap between the per capita
incomes of industrialized and developing countries has continued to
widen during the first half of the development decade.
TABLE 2.-GROWTH OF REAL GROSS PRODUCT OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES BY REGION, AND OF DEVELOPED
COUNTRIES, 1950-65
Developing countries `
Percapita
Asia
Per capita
Latin America
Per capita
Developed market economy countries
Per capita
Socialist countries of Eastern Europe and Asia 2
Per capita
Annual corn
1950-55
~
2.7
4.2
2. 2
5.0
2. 9
4. 7
3.4
9. 8
8. 2
pound growth rates (percent)
1955-GO 1960-65
~ 5
1.9
3.8
1. 5
5.0
1. 3
3. 3
2.0
8. 2
6. 6
4.6
2.0
4.3
1.8
4.9
2. 0
5. 0
3.7
6. 7
5. 4
I Includes the following African and Middle Eastern countries: Algeria, Congo (Kinshasa), Ghana, Kenya, Malawi,
Morocco, Nigeria, Southern Rhodesia, Sudan, Tanzania (Tanganyika only), Tunisia, Uganda, United Arab Republic, Zambia;
and lraq, israel, Lebanon, Syria.
2 Gross material product.
Source: UNCTAD secretariat document TD/B/C.3/34, Feb. 17, 1967, based on data supplied by the Statistical Office of
the United Nations.
Trade is a means to economic growth. I would like to talk to you
today about U.S. trade policy and the contribution it ca-n make to the
economic progress of the developing countries.
A. The importance of foreign trade to developing countries
The developing countries are far more heavily dependent on foreign
trade than the United States and most other industrialized countries.
For the equipment needed to build a modern economic structure and,
all too often, even to import the necessary food to avert starvation,
the developing countries are heavily dependent on imports from the
industrialized countries. To pay for these imports, the developing
countries must export. And trade is clearly the senior partner to
foreign aid-about 80 percent of the developing countries' foreign
exchange receipts stem from export proceeds. (See table 3.) While
foreign aid is a welcome and most important addition to the develop-
ing countries' ability to acquire the goods and services they need for
their economic growth-and often the margin which avoids their
slipping backward-their growth prospects depend critically on the
extent to which they can increase their foreign exchange earnings
through exports.
PAGENO="0076"
72
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
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PAGENO="0077"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 73
While the total value of their aggregate exports has been increasing
year by year, from $21 billion in 1953 to $27.3 billion in 1960 to $36.5
billion in 1965, the developing countries have not shared proportion-
ately in the dramatic growth-promoting spurt of world trade. during
the postwar era. Thus while the developing countries account for about
27 percent of world exports in 1953, this figure dropped to about 22
percent in 1960 and dropped further to less than 20 percent in 1965.
The root causes of this situation have been well documented in nu-
merous academic studies as well as reports of various intergovern-
mental institutions. First and foremost is the heavy dependence of the
developing countries on exports of primary commodities. About 85
percent of the export earnings of the developing countries as a whole
is accounted for by exports of nonmanufactured primary agricultural
commodities, crude minerals and metals, and petroleum. The depend-
ence of particular developing countries on exports of a single product
is even more striking, for example coffee, cocoa, rubber, sugar, cotton
account for very heavy percentages-up to 80 percent-of the total
export receipts of particular countries.
With the exception of petroleum, these commodities are not a dy-
namic and dependable source of foreign exchange. They are, by and
large, subject to a low-income elasticity of demand; their prices fluc-
tuate sharply because of variations in supply or cyclical changes in
demand; several of them face growing competition from synthetic
substitutes; and many are being produced in increasing quantities in
the industrialized countries themselves.
In this situation, it is not at all surprising that the developing
countries have been focusing their attention on an acceleration of in-
dustrialization and industrialization for export. World trade in manu-
factures has consistently exceeded the growth of world trade generally.
The developing countries are anxious to break out of the straitj acket
of dependence on a narrow range of products with an unpromising
outlook in hopes of rapidly increasing the foreign exchange earn-
ings they need to pay for their ever-increasing imports.
The developing countries have already achie,ved a measure of suc-
cess in this regard. An analysis of imports of manufactures, from de-
veloping countries to the OECD countries combined,1 reveals a yearly
rate of increase of 15.5 percent between 1960 and 1964 and an increase
of 16 percent from 1964 to 1965. An analysis of 49 commodity group-
ings over the 10-year period 1956-65 indicates an increase of 215
percent. (See table 4.) This relatively favorable picture, however, must
be interpreted with some caution. First, exports of manufactures from
developing countries are still only the small visible part of the ice-
berg-85 percent of their earnings are still accounted for by the un-
promising primary or crude materials sector; secondly, the com-
modity composition is fairly narrow and concentrated on certain
products, such as textiles, where they cannot expect large increases-
indeed, the whole textile sector is fairly rigidly regulated at the present
time under the international long-term arrangement governing trade
in cotton textiles; and finally, only a relative handful of the 100-plus
developing countries are currently benefiting from the recent rapid
1 UnIted States, Canada, Western Europe, and Japan.
PAGENO="0078"
74 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
increase in exports of manufactures and semimanufactures-African
countries, for example, are almost totally absent from the figures on
exports of manufactures.
TABLE 4.-LESS DEVELOPED COUNTRIES' EXPORTS TO THE OECD AREA BY CATEGORIES OF PRODUCTS
Category
Amount (millions)
~
1965 1964 1960 1956
Increase
from 1956
to 1965
(percent)
Textiles and clothing (8 groups)
Foodstuffs and tobacco (8 groups)
Precious stones and jewelery (2 groups)
Articles of wood and furniture (4 groups)
Leather, leather and rubber articles, and footwear (6
groups)
Iron, steel, and metal articles (2 groups)
Chemicals (4 groups)
Paper and paperboard and manufactures thereof (2 groups)_
Glass and ceramics (3 groups)
Miscellaneous (10 groups)
Total (49 groups)
$1, 122
462
378
170
174
140
146
11
12
255
$10, 20
428
196
159
158
124
103
12
11
207
$598
315
62
61
105
71
75
3
3
93
$301
256
54
39
79
51
80
10
2
40
273
80
600
336
120
175
83
10
500
538
2,870 2,417
1,393
912
215
Source: OECD Secretariat.
B. The Adm~ni.stration's a29proach to improving developing coun-
tries' export earnings
At the present time, and for the decade ahead, trade in primary
products will continue to he the main source of export earnings of the
developing coimtries. If we want to help these countries improve their
trade earnings as a means to development, commodity trade is the
place to begin.
1. Primary coinmodities.-This trade is plagued by a variety of
problems: by persistent overproduction in some key products; by wide
and destabilizing price swings in other key products; by severe com-
petition from both natural and synthetic products produced in the
industrialized countries, often under highly protectionist regimes;
and by preferential arrangements in certain advanced countries that
favor one group of primary producers over others.
There is no one solution to this range of problems. What is needed
is a multifaceted approach tailored to the problems of specific
commodity markets.
In the case of coffee which is the single most important agricul-
tural commodity in the trade of the developing countries and abso-
lutely critical to Latin America and certain African countries, the
key problem is structural overproduction.
The International Coffee Agreement, which we helped to develop
and actively support, has conducted a valuable holding operation. It
averted a disastrous collapse of prices that threatened coffee trade in
the early 1960's and it has kept coffee prices reasonably stable by sup-
ply control: that is, by keeping exports in line with demand. But more
coffee is being produced than the world wants to consume: land, labor,
~nd capital are being wasted in surplus production; and this very sur-
plus production is undermining the agreement.
The critical next step is to help the producing countries move re-
sources out of surplus production into more rewarding uses. We would
hope to see a diversification fund become an integral part of the Coffee
PAGENO="0079"
THE FUTuRE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 75
Agreement. Access to the funds would be open to countries pursuing
appropriate policies to curb coffee overproduction, and the funds
themselves would be used for investment in products with a more
promising future, including importantly food for domestic consump-
tion where this is feasible.
At the Latin American summit meeting in Punta del Este, Presi-
dent Jolmson made clear our willingness to lend $15 million to help
initiate a coffee diversification fund that would be financed on a con-
tinuing basis by the producing countries themselves; and to match
the contributions of other consuming countries by an additional loan
of up to $15 million. The International Coffee Organization is work-
ing closely with the World Bank in developing the main features of
the diversification fund.
Cocoa, a critical export earner for Ghana, Nigeria, and other Afri-
can and Latin countries, is notoriously subject to wide swings in price
because of variations in supply due to weather and insect attack. Co-
coa prices averaged 17 cents a pound last year, 36 cents in 1959, 29
cents a few months ago. We cannot disregard the impact of these price
fluctuations on the economic and political stability of the producing
countries.
Negotiations looking toward an international cocoa agreement foun-
dered in 1963 on the question of price. Producers wanted a price range
that consumers believed would encourage overproduction, saddle the
market with burdensome stocks, check consumption, and encourage
the shift to substitutes. In the years since then, further consultations
have been held both on price and on the mechanics and financing of a
workable buffer stock scheme. Differences have narrowed appreciably
and there is reasonable prospect that an agreement can be consum-
mated in the near future that would give producing countries steady
growing earnings and assure consumers a stable supply at reasonable
prices.
The outlook is less promising in the case of sugar. The International
Sugar Agreement has not been operative for many years-in fact,.since
Cuba refused to accept the rules. Our own trade is governed by our
domestic sugar legislation which provides premium prices for supply-
ing countries to the extent of their import quotas in our market. But
the world market price has been seriously depressed for some years
and adversely affects many low-income suppliers that sell a substantial
volume of their output at the world market price.
Efforts to negotiate an international agreement that would
strengthen the world price have proved to be very difficult, compli-
cated by Cuba's intransigence on the matter of supply control, and
by the unwillingness of certain advanced countries to provide reason-
able access.
For many primary products of importance to the trade of the poor
countries, improved access to the markets of developed countries is a
major concern. Indeed, more than half of their commodity trade,
petroleum apart, competes with similar or identical products pro-
duced and exported by the rich countries. Their mineral ores and
metal exports face few trade barriers in the industrialized countries;
demand is buoyant and future prospects are reasonably good. Natural
rubber and some tropical fibers are similarly traded freely but the
PAGENO="0080"
76 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
markets for these products have been eroded by the development of
synthetics. For the developing countries dependent on these products
the central objective must be to increase the efficiency of their pro-
duction and marketing so as to meet the competition of synthetic sub-
stitutes on a price and quality basis.
There is, however, a wide range of temperate agricultural products
in which the poor countries face an arra.y of protective tariff and quota
barriers that limit their access to the markets of the rich countries,
and of subsidized exports from the rich countries that compete against
them in third markets.
The developing countries are pressing for trade liberalization in
these products. The prospects for substantial liberalization are not
good. In virtually all developed countries, domestic agriculture is
insulated in varying degrees from the free play of demand and supply
by high price supports, direct subsidies, and import controls. The
average income of the farm sector in the rich countries tends to be
below that of other sectors in their economies, and the array of pro-
tective measures is intended to maintain and increase the income of
this sector as a matter of equity.
The developing countries do not challenge the desirability of main-
taining farm incomes in the advanced countries but they ask that
measures to protect such incomes not be applied in ways that stimulate
excessive production. Thus they urge that in lieu of high price sup-
ports, farmers' incomes be maintained by direct payments that do not
inhibit consumption or unduly stimulate production.
We have recognized that agricultural support policies can have
restrictive and disruptive effects on international trade. In the case
of cotton, wheat, and feed grains, we have shifted from high price
supports to direct payments and we have made our farm payments
contingent on producers' cooperation with acreage control. Where
surpluses have developed, we have stored them rather than dump
them, or made them available on concessional terms to improve the
diet and assist the development of low-income countries unable to
purchase food on commercial terms. And we have taken precautions
to insure that these food aid programs do not interfere. with the
normal pattern of international trade.
The developing countries have also asked the rich importing coun-
tries so to manage their farm economies as to give them a share in
their markets and a share in the growth of these markets.
While existing U.S. legislation restricts sugar imports, we have set
aside 35 to 40 percent of U.S. sugar requirements for imports. And in
the case of meats, the present law permits imports equal to about 5
percent of domestic production before quotas would come into play.
The developing countries have urged the rich countries to ~ssist
their farmers by some form of adjustment assistance, of the kind
applicable in industry, rather than through protective devices. We
are to a considerable extent using a form of adjustment assistance in
the farm sector. Thus we are helping marginal farmers to move out
of agricultura.l through our cropland adjustment program and
through training programs to enable them to develop skills in indus-
trial employment.
PAGENO="0081"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 77
We would hope that the increased effectiveness of the supply man-
agement and flexible pricing programs, the continuing shift of mar-
ginal farmers to nonagricultural occupations, and the increased role
of food aid will make it possible for us progressively to liberalize agri-
cultural trade.
This will necessarily be a slow process. The Kemiedy Round has
demonstrated that substantial liberalization of agricultural products
is not easy to achieve. But it i's important that we work together with
other developed countries in the years ahead to consider how to deal
effectively with all major barriers to less developed countries' agricul-
tural exports.
In the case of tropical products produced solely in the low-income
countries, we have no barriers to trade or consumption. Some developed
countries do subject these products to high-revenue duties that inhibit
consumption or to preferential tariffs that discriminate against cer-
tain low-income suppliers in favor of others. We believe the develop-
ing countries have a legitimate case that commodities produced solely
in the tropical zone should not be a source of revenue to the rich coun-
tries at their expense. They have suggested that where such fiscal levies
cannot be removed, a share of the receipts be turned back to them.
As to tariffs and quotas that restrict trade in tropical products or
discriminate among primary producers, we would hope that all the
rich countries would provide duty-free access for these products from
all the poor countries. We shall continue our efforts in this matter.
A review of our trade policy as it affects the primary commodity
trade of the poor countries would be incomplete without noting the
important role that compensatory financing can play in assisting low-
income countries whose export earnings fall off for reasons beyond
their control. We have supported the liberalization of the compen-
satory financing facility in the International Monetary Fund, and
developing countries are making increasing use of that facility. We are
also considering the feasibility of supplementing that facility in the
case of deep or protracted shortfalls in the export earnings of develop-
ing countries that are disruptive of their development and that may
require longer term assistance than the Monetary Fund facility pro-
vides. The World Bank has developed a proposal for such a supple-
mentary facility. The specifics of the Bank scheme raise a number
of serious questions and we are not prepared to endorse it as formu-
lated, but we are studying variants of the proposal that we may be
able to support.
Even if everything were done that could reasonably be done to
improve conditions of access for the primary product trade of the
developing countries, to stabilize commodity prices at reasonable
levels, and to supplement export earnings when shortfalls occur, the
developing countries would still be vulnerable because with a few
notable exceptions the commodities on which they depend are not
dynamic. Demand is not likely to grow commensurately with the in-
crease in world trade and world income.
The fundamental answer to the trade problems of the developing
countries is todiversify their output and their exports and thus reduce
their excessive dependence on a few traditional commodities. Some
benefit can come from a, more diversified commodity base and from
82-iSi---67-vol. I----6
PAGENO="0082"
78 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
a substantial attack on their food problem to lessen their dependence
on food imports. But they must also industrialize. While continuing
to produce raw materials for the world market and increasing the
range of materials they produce, they must expand their industry.
2. Regio'nal integration.-The developing countries have tried to
develop industry-on a national basis-each country shielding its
infant enterprises behind protective walls. The result, by and large,
has been high cost inefficient industry with little growth potential.
However, by joining together with their neighbors and dismantling
the trade barriers among them, they can produce for a wider regional
or subregional market. In the larger market, their industry would
not be limited as it is today to light consumer goods. They could
move in time to more complex intermediate and capital goods. Shielded
for a time by their outer tariff walls from t.he export competition of
the advanced countries, enterprises would be exposed to more toler-
nble competition within the broader regional market and would
reach a competitive position in international markets much earlier
and more effectively. And not unimportantly, foreign investment
would be stimulated to locate within t.he grouping.
Recognizing the benefits that could come from a. continentwide mar-
ket such as the United States enjoys and spurred by the example of
the European Common Market, low-income countries have been mov-
ing together to develop free trade areas and common markets.
At the Latin American summit meeting in Pu.nta del Este, the coun-
tries of Latin America undertook a commitment of major significance
to move forward toward a full Latin American common market. And
the United States undertook a parallel commitment to help them with
adjustment assistance when the common market gets underway.
We would hope to see similar movements among developing coun-
tries in other hemispheres. We believe that regional integration among
neighboring less-developing countries that are at roughly the same level
of development can be a positive force for economic growth and stabil-
ity. It can also be a force for political cohesion. The difficulties in such
undertakings are formidable, including the resistance of protected en-
terprises to exposure to increased competition and the concern of each
country in the group to get a fair share of new enterprises. The bene-
fits of integration can be. realized only if the governments have the
political will to push ahead. But if the political will is there, encourage-
ment. and support by the rich countries could be quite fruitful.
3. With respect to trade in manufactured goods, the principal point
I wish to discuss with the committee is the question of trade preferences
for developing countries.
There is nothing very new or startling about trade preferences. We
have had preferential trade ties with the Philippines for decades. The
extensive network of British Commonwealth preferences dates from
1931. The French and a few other European nations had similar ar-
rangements with African areas for many years. What is new is that
the developing countries themselves have recently become dissatisfied
with this uneven situation, and with good reason. Neighboring coun-
tries of the developing world who frequently produce the same kinds
of products face discrimination in developed country markets when
one receives a preference and the other does not simply because of the
PAGENO="0083"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 79
historical fact of colonial relationships. The system pits the poor
against the poor and has neocolonial overtones. It is made to order for
creating friction and tensions among the very countries who most of
all need to cooperate with each other economically and for their mutual
prosperity. And one area of the world-Latin America-has histori-
cally had not trade preferences in any market; instead, it has had to
cope with discrimination against its exports nearly everywhere. More-
over, developed countries, including the United States, frequently face
discrimination because many of these preferential arrangements are
reciprocal.
A new situation arose several years ago, however, when it became
apparent that discriminatory trade arrangements of this kind were on
the increase. The preferences which individual African countries en-
joyed in their former metropoles were extended to all of the six mem-
ber states of the European Common Market. An association agree-
ment between Nigeria and the EEC was concluded last year after
lengthy negotiations, thus extending preferences to a single African
country which had previously had such advantages only in the Com-
monwealth markets. A large number of other African countries-the
Maghreb and three east African countries-have been seeking some
kind of special trade arrangement with the European Common
Market.
This growing risk of further proliferation of trade arrangements
which discriminate among developing countries was from our view-
point a most unfortunate development, both politically and economi-
cally. It threatened to fragment world trade; it increased the pressures
from Latin America for exclusive trade arrangements with the United
States; it was a retrogression toward special spheres of influence..
We have always felt that the best way to assist the developing coun-
tries is for all industralized countries to join together in a common
effort to help all of the low-income countries. The developing countries
themselves felt that a more desirable course of action would be to re-
place the network of existing preferences which are selective as to pro-
duct and countries by a general system of trade preferences by all
industrialized countries for the benefit of all developing countries and
without reciprocal preferences.
In early 1966 the United States, United Kingdom, France, and
the Federal Republic of Germany began to explore some of the issues
involved in trade preferences pursuant to a mandate from the OECD
Ministers. Our own participation in this exercise was, of course, se-
verely circumscribed by our own position of scepticism concerning
the workability of any scheme of preferences and, indeed, our basic
reservation on the idea as a matter of principle. It became quite ap-
parent to us in the executive branch that this posture which the United
States had maintained since the issue of trade preferences first arose
in 1964 was ill-suited to our political and economic interests. Politi-
cally, we found ourselves virtually isolated from all the developing
countries, and most of the industrialized countries as well. Economi-
cally, our reservation in principle and scepticism precluded our hav-
ing much influence over the proliferation of discriminatory arrange-
ments and also reduced our influence with regard to the specific
workings of a preference scheme which other industrialized countries
PAGENO="0084"
80 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
indicated they might put into effect whether or not the United States
took part. An important precedent in this regard was the unilateral
anhlouncement by Australia in 1965 that it intended to apply a system
of trade preferences of its own for developing countries.
This, then, was the general situation confronting President John-
son when he undertook to meet with his fellow chiefs of state of the
Inter-America System at Punta del Este last April: a trend toward
proliferation of discriminatory preferences which our own adherence
to the principle of most-favored-nation treatment had done little to
check, and an awareness that the Latin American countries, like other
developing countries, are anxious to improve their opportunities for
access to the markets of all iiidustrialized countries.
After a searching examination and analysis within the executive
branch and preliminary consultations with the Congress, the Presi-
dent agreed that he would indicate to the Latin Americans that we
are prepared to explore the feasibility of a system of generalized
preferences. The President told his fellow chiefs of state:
We have been examining the kind of trade initiatives that the LTnited States
should propose in the years ahead. We are convinced that our future trade policy
must pay special attention to the needs of the developing countries in Latin
America and elsewhere in the world.
We have been exploring with other major industrialized countries what prac-
tical steps can be taken to increase the export earnings of all developing coun-
tries. We recognize that comparable tariff treatment may not always permit
developing countries to advance as rapidly as desired. Temporary tariff advan-
tages for all developing countries by all industrialized countries would be one
way to deal with this.
We think this idea is worth pursuing. We will be discussing it further with
members of our Congress, with business and labor leaders, and we will seek
the cooperation of other governments in the world trading community to see
whether a broad consensus can be reached along these lines.
The present hearings are very timely since it gives us in the exe-
cutive branch an opportunity to discuss further with the Congress-
as the President promised would be done-how we presently believe
the question of trade preferences will evolve in the coming months
and years. I wish to stress that the President has committed the
United States only to an exploration of preferences to see whether
a consensus can be reached. There are many difficulties-both tech-
nical and policy-to be overcome if we are to reach a consensus. We
also need the advice of Congress and our business and labor leaders
as this matter is pursued.
Multilateral discussion of the preference question thus far has in-
dicated two different kinds of approach in order to deal with three
interrelated issues: depth of cut, the means to insure that any prefer-
ences actually extended would in fact be temporary, and safeguards
for domestic interests in the industrialized countries. These are by
no means the only outstanding issues but they are, we believe, the
really crucial ones.
One approach envisages the establishment of duty-free quotas for
preferential imports from developing countries. Under this approach,
the industrialized countries would agree to permit the importation
of some fixed percentage of domestic production or consumption of
products from developing countries on a duty-free basis. This ap-
proach contains its own built-in safeguard against excessive adverse
PAGENO="0085"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 81
impact on industrialized countries-depending, of course, on the size
of the percentage which might be agreed upon-since, in setting the
percentage figures, governments would presumably take into account
the extent to which their own domestic interests could absorb increased
imports from the developing countries without serious injury.
There are, however, a number of difficult problems with this ap-
proach. One is the absence of any mechanism for insuring that pref-
erences thus established would in fact be temporary. It has been sug-
gested that such a scheme might operate for say 10 years after which
the situation could be reviewed to see whether it should or could be
extended, modified, or terminated. We are not sure this is politically
realistic because it is easy to anticipate the pressures that would be
exerted when the time for review occurred to extend the system rather
than raise duties against the products of developing countries. More-
over, during such a 10-year period reductions of barriers among the
industrialized countries themselves might be inhibited because of
vested interests in maintaining margins of preference.
An alternative approach to this range of issues might be to visualize
preferences for developing countries as the extension in advance to
developing countries of trade barrier reductions which the industrial-
ized countries themselves would be prepared to undertake on a most-
favored-nation basis over a longer period of time. If an agreement
could be reached with other industrialized countries for this kind of
approach, the problem of insuring that preferences would in fact be
temporary would automatically take care of itself since the preference
margins would erode as trade barriers were reduced on an MFN basis.
There are numerous difficulties with this approach as well, however.
First there is the question of whether any industrialized country, in-
cluding the United States, is prepared so quickly after the major re-
ductions of trade barriers recently concluded in the Kennedy Round
to enter into any kind of commitment to eliminate duties. I believe the
realistic answer to this is no. This has accordingly led to the suggestion
that the margin of preference under what has been called the "advance
cut" approach would have to be something other than duty-free treat-
ment across the board. This, of course, might reduce the attractive-
ness of the scheme to the developing countries. The question of safe-
guards under this approach would no doubt have to encompass the
traditional devices such as exclusion of products deemed to be par-
ticularly sensitive, and an escape clause procedure in the event imports
from developing countries threaten or cause serious injury to domestic
interests. The case of cotton textiles of course is a special one in that
the developing countries are already highly competitive in industrial-
ized country markets and therefore do not need preferences. More-
over, so long as cotton textiles are subject to quantitative restrictions,
tariff preferences would not be of any significant benefit to developing
countries. In this particular sector, the developing countries will have
to look for a gradual liberalization of quantitative restrictions rather
than tariff preferences if they are to capitalize on the competitive
advantage they already have.
I would like to draw the committee's attention to an important aspect
of the second approach I summarized a moment ago; namely, the link
between reductions of trade barriers for developing countries and the
PAGENO="0086"
82 THE FtTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
future of trade barrier reductions among the industrialized countries
themselves. As you all know, the future pattern of our trade relations
with the industrialized countries of Western Europe is difficult to pre-
dict with any certainty. We have of course given our full support and
encouragement to the European Economic Communities and, as the
President stated last October. we look forward to a strong, united
Europe-with Great Britain a part of it. We thus hope the British
will succeed in their current efforts to join the European Communi-
ties. We are also aware that if the British effort succeds, it is likely
that a number of other European countries will join the Common
Market or possibly associate with the Communities in some manner or
other. The precise geographic dimensions and form of membership or
association by the various European countries simply cannot be pre-
dicted at this stage. It is clear, however, that as trade barriers are
reduced among a major grouping of European countries without the
benefits of such reductions being extended to the United States, our
own competitive position in this enlarged market will be adversely
affected. We have accordingly felt that it will be necessary at some
stage in the not too distant future-albeit after t.he Kennedy Round
reductions have been digested-to visualize further reductions to the
mutual benefit of both the United States and Western Europe, and the
other major trading countries of the industrialized world. This is one
reason why we have been giving close attention to the feasibility of
establishing some kind of meaningful link between the establishment
of a possible temporary preference scheme and the future reduction of
barriers among the industrialized countries as a whole.
Another major policy issue involved in the preference question is
what is to be the disposition of existing preferential arrangements.
As I mentioned earlier,there are many such arrangements currently
in force with the notable exception of Latin America. Latin America
has been particularly critical of `this situation and this, indeed, was a
contributing factor to the President's decision at Punta del Este to
commit us to an exploration of the feasibility of a generaiized system
of preferences. It has been our thought that we could develop a scheme
which would subsume the existing preferences enjoyed by particular
developing countries in particular markets. Some difficulties have come
to light on this point, however, and we may succeed in only partially
achieving our objectives. For example, the developing countries of
the Commonwealth and the African countries associated with the Euro-
pean Communities all enjoy duty-free access to these respective mar-
kets. If a generalized preference scheme does not take the form of
duty-free entry, existing beneficiaries might feel they are dbtaining
lesser `benefits than they now have even though this pointY is debatable.
There is also the question of reverse preferences, that is the prefer-
ences currently enjoyed by some industrialized countries in the devel-
oping countries to whom they accord preferential treatment. We for
our part have made it clear that such arrangements must be terminated
as part of any generalized scheme since we do not consider it reasonable
that the United States should be expected to accord preferred treat-
ment to developing countries discrimina:ting against U.S. exports.
These arrangements, moreover, convey no benefits to the developing
countries who are denied the opportunity to buy in the most favorable
market.
PAGENO="0087"
TIlE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 83
Even if it should not prove possible to eliminate completely the
preferential access to certain developed country markets that certain
favored poor countries now enjoy, agreement on a new system of
preferences extended on a nonreciprocal basis by all developed to all
developing countries would be a major achievement. It would check
the further proliferation of special discriminatory arrangements, the
thrust toward new bilateral trading blocs; and it would reduce the
range and significance of existing preferences.
There are other policy and technical issues related to preferences
that I could discuss with the committee, but I believe the foregoing is
sufficient to indicate the range of complexities which are involved.
I would like to invite the committee's attention to an excellent recent
survey by the IJNCTAD Secretariat of the key issues. I will make
available to the committee copies of this document (app., p. 380) and
would have no objection if the committee wishes to incorporate it in its
report on these hearings. This particular document is being discussed at
this very moment in Geneva where the UNCTAD Group on Prefer-
ences, on which the United States and 33 other governments are repre-
sented, began its meetings on July 4. The document to which I have
referred and the specific proposals advanced therein illustrate some of
the complexities and the options open to us and other countries. The
United States will not enter into any kind of commitment on any of
the key details of the suggestions presented by the UNC'TAD Secre-
tariat at the meeting now in progress. We believe, however, that the
discussions `based on this very competent review should serve to clear
the air a bit and give us a better appreciation of how the developing
countries themselves view the operation of a possible preference scheme.
We need such an understanding because a workable scheme of pref-
erences-if it is to be worth the effort which would have to go into it-
would have to be one which `has the support not only of the `indus-
tri'alized countries but of the developing countries themselves.
With the~ President's announcement at Punta del Este, the work of
the small group' of countries in the OECD entered a new phase since
the United States no longer maintained a basic reservation on the prin-
ciple of preferences. `Still it appears that there are important areas of
difference between the approaches to some of the key issues involved
in preferences. The UNCTAD document to which I have referred
gives a succinct and quite, accurate expos6 of these differences in
approach.
The time sequence of events is that a report by the small group will
be considered within the regular OECD framework this fall, culmi-
iiating in the meeting of OECD ministers on November' 30-Decem-
ber 1. If, at that time, a general consensus can be reached, there might
well be a joint OECD proposal to be put before the second United
Nations Conference on Trade and Development to be held in New
Delhi beginning February 1, 1968. On the other hand, there may be
no joint proposal but alternative ideas presented for consideration at
that Conference. No matter which course of action may transpire, the
United States for its part ,does not expect that any proposal or pro-
posals will be presented on a take-it-or-leave-it basis but that, instead,
the views of developing countries and detailed discussions to develop
a workable scheme will require many meetings over a period of many
PAGENO="0088"
84 THE FUTURE OF tT.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
months both during and after the New Delhi Conference. During this
period, of course, the United States will have to be re~ning its own
views in consultations with business and labor and with the Congress
since, of course, the United States will not be in a position to extend
trade preferences without new enabling legislation. The actual mech-
anism for ascertaining these views will be part of the long-range study
of trade policy which the President has charged Ambassador Roth to
carry out.
Let inc conclude my presentation by a brief commentary on our trade
policy as it relates to both primary products and manufactured goods.
The United States has been the prime mover in the worldwide effort
to reduce unnecessary barriers to trade. This long effort has recently
been crowned with success in the outcome of the Kennedy Round nego-
tiations. There has been some unfortunate-and in our view inaccu-
rate-press commentary to the effect that the Kennedy Round accom-
plished little or nothing for the developing countries. Let me give you
our own appraisal of this situation.
One of the principal objectives throughout the Kennedy Round
negotiation was to reduce barriers to exports of developing countries
to the maximum extent possible. The U.S. position throughout the
negotiation was conditioned by its commitment to this objective. The
U.S. concessions benefiting the developing countries cover $900 mil-
lion of their exports to the United States in 1964. Of this total, the
United States is completely eliminating the duty on more than $325
million, either under section 202 or section 213 of the Trade Expansion
Act. Provisions of the act are such that eliminations under section 213,
accounting for at least $45 million of imports from developing coun-
tries, do not need to be staged over a 4-year period. A substantial por-
tion of U.S. concessions-nearly $500 million-are on manufactured
and semimanufactured products from developing countries. This rep-
resents a significant reduction of our tariffs on items of interest to the
developing countries. We made these concessions, moreover, without
seeking reciprocal tariff reductions by the developing countries in
keeping wit.h the negotiating principle accepted by all the industrial-
ized countries that full reciprocity could not be expected from the low-
income countries.
We have recently completed a detailed analysis of U.S. concessions
in relation to a list of the products which the developing countries
themselves have declared to be of export interest. This list (see appen-
dix 2) covers 1,376 different tariff classifications of the Tariff Sched-
ules of the United States in which the 1964 trade interest of the devel-
oping countries was $622.7 million. The United States is making tariff
concessions on 1,160 of these items accounting for $489.8 million of
their 1964 trade interest. Thus the U.S. concessions will cover approxi-
mately 84 percent of the items requested and 79 percent of the develop-
ing countries' trade interest in the items contained in this composite
list.
We do not yet have similar detailed analyses of the significance for
developing countries of concessions made by other industrialized coun-
tries but we know that, in general, they are of a comparable order of
magnitude. The composite effect of the vast reductions by all indus-
trialized countries is that the trade opportunities open to the develop-
ing countries are substantially better than ever before.
PAGENO="0089"
THE FTJTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 85
I would not wish these comments to be misconstrued as implying
that developing countries will obtain the major benefits from the
Kennedy Round. It is quite clear that trade between the United States
and other industrialized countries will be the major beneficiary. But
the implication that nothing was done for the developing countries is
very much wide of the mark.
We in the executive branch are delighted with the successful out-
come of the Kennedy Round. We recognize that a period of reflection
will be needed to assess-and digest-the results, and that it may be
some time before the United States and other major industrialized
countries will be ready to undertake another assault on the remaining
barriers to trade. But I also would not wish to end this presentation
by implying that the Kennedy Round is the end of the road. Indeed,
as the President stated at Punte del Este, "The process of freeing
trade from unnecessary restrictions will not come to an end when the
current and important Kennedy Round negotiations are completed."
Not all of the issues we and our negotiating partners had hoped to
come to grips with during the Kennedy Round could be dealt with
during the marathon sessions of the final months. One issue in par-
ticular of major interest to the developing countries has been left
over for further consideration next fall. That is the question of ex-
tending the benefits of the Kennedy Round reductions to the develop-
ing countries without the normal staging requirement. The United
States has not taken a firm position on this point. It would, of course,
require specific legislative authority. If this were done in a preferen-
tial way, that is covering all products but for developing countries
only, it would constitute a precedent for the longer term problem of
temporary tariff advantages. We will be exploring this issue with our
major trading partners over the coming months and, of course, with
the Congress.
TESTII~ONY OP HON. FOSEPH A. GREENWALD, DEPUTY ASSISTANT
SECRETARY FOR INTERNATIONAL TRADE POLICY, DEPARTMENT
OP STATE
Mr. GREENWALD. What we tried to do in our statement, Mr. Chair-
man, is to focus on the question of U.S. foreign trade policy and the
problems of the developing countries.
I think by general consent this is one of the major trade policy
areas which we perhaps have not yet dealt with adequately, and one
we will have to face in the coming months and the coming years.
Although I think the developing countries themselves have perhaps
underestimated the benefits they will receive from the Kennedy
Round, they have taken the position that the Kennedy Round was
not really the answer to their problems, and that further steps would
have to be taken designed specifically to deal with their trade flows.
We have laid out in the statement our estimates of what the benefits
will be as a result of the Kennedy Round, which we think will not
be limited just to the trade that is presently flowing from the develop-
ing countries, but also to additional trade that will emerge as they
increase their developing industrialization.
PAGENO="0090"
86 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Nevertheless, it is quite clear that the less developed countries have
not achieved what they consider to be an acceptable level of economic
activity and industrialization, and that we will have to focus our
efforts in the future on working out policies which will help them.
But the trade problems of the developing countries need to be looked
at in perspective. The prepared statement makes clear that in terms of
present trade, the vast bulk of their export earnings come from exports
of primary products. The figure is about 85 percent. And, therefore,
the question of trade and pricing of primary products, particularly
tropical products, is of extreme importance to the developing countries.
I think, however, that the U.S. Government has a fairly well-estab-
lished and longstanding policy of trying to deal with trade in primary
products, in the first instance by achieving improved access to markets,
by eliminating tariff and nontariff barriers as well as internal taxes,
where that is possible.
Commodity policy has to be pretty much on a case-by-case basis.
It has been possible to work out commodity agreements in some areas.
And we are looking into other areas where it may be possible in the
future. This again is spelled out in the statement where the history, for
example, of the coffee agreement, and the prospects for negotiation of
a cocoa agreement are reviewed.
The second area. where we think the developing countries can improve
their economic and trade position is through regional integration. The
problems of regional integration for the developing countries are
substantially different from those in Europe that ha.d to be solved to
~i chieve what is now called the European Communities, instead of the
Europea.n Economic Community. But the advantages which would
flow from larger markets, we think, are just as important for the de-
veloping countries as for the industrialized countries.
In the case of Latin America in the recent meeting at Punta del Este
there was an undertaking that the Latin American countries them-
selves would move toward a common market. It is expected to be
achieved over a number of years. And we think this will have major
benefits for the developing countries and the industrialized countries
as well.
The third area. covered in our paper, which I would like to spend a
little more time on, is the question of special tariff treatment or pref-
erences for the trade of the developing countries, particularly in manu-
factured and semimanufactured goods.
The reason I would like to devote a little more time to this subject is
that it is really the major trade policy problem that we may be facing
in the coming months and years.
The developing countries have argued that most-favored-nation
treatment is really not most-favored-nation treatment, not equa.l treat-
ment, when you have such wide disparities of economic strength and
ability to compete.
Just a.s some people in this country feel they are disadvantaged, so
the developing countries feel they have suffered a disadvantage, and
they need what might be called a "head start" in international trade
terms. They press their request in this field in the form of a. proposal
for a. generalized system of nonreciprocal preferences. What this
means is that all the industrialized countries would give to all the de-
veloping countries preferential treatment. I think they have all gen-
PAGENO="0091"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 87
erally agreed that this would be a temoparary phenomenon, designed
to give them the opportunity to industrialize and to become more com-
petitive.
Another element which has led people to consider the possibility of a
general system of preferences is that since the formation of the Euro-
pean Economic Community and its association with certain African
countries, there has been a proliferation of special arrangements.
Countries like Nigeria have obtained similar association arrangements
with the EEC, and other countries in Africa and elsewhere have been
seeking special treatment. We have considered that this is an undesir-
able development, both in political and economic terms this kind of
closed north-south relationship, we think, is not the most desirable
way to organize either international trade or international political
relations. And the two are closely related.
For this reason the idea of a generalized system which would over-
take and perhaps subsume the existing arrangements, including those
within the Commonwealth, presents some advantages. Again, if the
United Kingdom application for admission to the Common Market is
successful, some of the additional problems relating to the Common-
wealt.h and the treatment of Commonwealth trade in the United King-
dom can perhaps be dealt with in the wider context of generalized
preferences.
These are some of the reasons, then, why both the developing and
industrial countries are giving serious consideration to seeing whether
a system of generalized preferences can be worked out.
As far as the Latin American countries are concerned with whom we
have special relations and special concern, they have been left out of all
the existing special systems. As far as their trade with the United States
is concerned, they receive the same treatment, for example, as African
countries. On the other hand, in Europe their exports, such as coffee and
cocoa, are discriminated against. For this reason they have sought
either special arrangements between the United States and Latin
America, or sometimes they have talked about a system of "defensive"
preferences which could be negotiated off against the European-
African system.
In any event, underlying these various trade policy and political
issues has been the basic factor that economic growth in the developing
countries has not really been adequate, and that increasing foreign
trade is one of the key e1emei~ts in trying to increase the level of eco-
nomic activity activity in the developing countries.
In terms of primary products, the possibilities for exports are not
growing, due to the well-known problems of the growth of synthetics,
the fact that the industrialized countries themselves are producing
more of the same raw materials, and that the demand itself is not very
dynamic.
I think everybody has agreed that the only real long term solution
to the problem of economic development is the growth of trade of the
less developed countries and that this must take place in the field of
manufactured and semimanufactured products.
At Punta del Este President Joimson took us perhaps a step further
in our consideration of the preference issue by saying that he would
undertake to consult with the other industrialized countries to see
PAGENO="0092"
88 T~ FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
whether a consensus could be achieved on a generalized system of
preferences which would be generally acceptable. In the course of this
lie said that he would naturally be consulting with private interests
in the United States and the Congress as well, since, if we were to
depart from our basic policy of most-favored-nation treatment, we
would need legislation. Most-favored-nation treatment is the policy
we have had, in conditional or unconditional form, for about 145
years or so. And I think that we are all agreed that we would have to
examine the situation extremely carefully before we proposed legisla-
tion which would change such an important and longstanding policy.
This search for a consensus on an acceptable system of generalized
preferences has already begun in the OECD. As is explained in the
statement, there is a small group of four countries, the United States,
the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, looking at the various
issues involved to see whether we can come out with a generally ac-
ceptable system. Some of the problems that have arisen there are
spelled out in the statement: such questions as how to make sure that
preferences are temporary. how to define a developing country, and
what happens to existing preferences, not only those enjoyed by the
developing countries, but also the preferences enjoyed by the indus-
trialized countries in some developing countries.
This work is to continue for the next 2 or 3 months. And the sub-
ject will then ultimately be considered in November at the ministerial
meeting of the OECD.
If we can proceed along these lines toward the consensus tha.t the
President talked about, the ultimate objective would be to put before
a meeting of. the United. Nations Conference on Trade and Develop-
ment an outline of a generalized scheme which the. industrialized
countries would be willing to consider. This meeting takes place in
New Delhi in February of next year. In the view of the developing
countries, it would be a major step forward in providing help for them
if the industrialized countries were to come forward with a generally
acceptable scheme.
As far as the domestic situation is concerned, I think Ambassador
Roth has already talked about his mandate from the President to work
on trade policy. The question of prefere.nces will be one of the major
issues to be discussed in the study group and with other interested
bodies in the United States, and with the Congress as well.
Then there will be international discussions.
And finally, as we see the timetable and if all goes along the lines
I have outlined, we will probably be coming back to the Congress
for legislation in early 1969. We need a. period for reflection and
analysis of new commercial policy developments before deciding what
sort of legislation we should seek.
Although we would not be looking for legislative action for a
couple of years, we certainly would continue to consult closely with
the Congress at every step of the way to make sure we would have
the understanding of what we were trying to do, and that this was a
feasible policy to follow.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Booos. Thank you very much, Mr. Greenwald.
Mr. Reuss, do you ha.ve ally questions?
PAGENO="0093"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 89
Representative REuSS. Yes; thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I certainly want to express my support of President Johnson's
approach at Punta del Este to this question of preferences to the
developing countries on a generalized, nondiscriminatory basis. I
think that it would be a very poor thing if the world became divided
up into Hjalmar Schacht enclaves. And I think the administration is
on the right track there.
I am hopeful that the Congress, and perhaps this committee, can
give some formalized support to what we are doing. I certainly can't
complain that this is being pursued at a low level, since the President
has very forthrightly put his prestige on the line on this. And I
would hope that it could be a major and continuing U.S. bargaining
point.
I am interested in the tour of the horizon contained in yours and
Mr. Solomon's paper on the export earnings of developing countries
and the primary products. Particularly, I was interested in what has
been said about sugar. Would you share my impression that if all the
primary commodities involved a change in policy by some of the
developing countries so that they produce less of the future increment
to their needs in sugar in the next 15 or 20 years themselves, and give
the reciprocal countries an opportunity to produce a larger percentage,
that this would be about as good a foreign exchange for many of the
developing countries as one can think of? And that this one commodity,
if the developed world is prepared to make some rather important
changes in its domestic policies, offers the possibility of a large-scale
improvement in foreign exchange earnings by many countries, includ-
ing at least a dozen in Latin America?
Mr. GREENWALD. I think the general idea of maintaining a certain
share of the market for developing countries is one that is embodied
in our own legislation, and one that we could support on policy
grounds as well.
Representative REUSS. We have, I think, under our present system,
around 35 or 40 percent dedicated to imports.
I wonder how much we know about relative costs of products and
what it costs to maintain 60 percent of our domestic consumption
under home production.
Mr. GREENWALD. I think that would be a little hard to answer.
Representative REuss. And what it costs the French, the Germans
and the other beet sugar producers.
Mr. GREENWALD. In a general sense, where you have a very high de-
gree of protection, whether it is in agriculture or industry, there is
some economic cost involved. My impression is that the beet sugar in-
dustry has probably become more efficient over the years, and that per-
haps that the disparity is not now as great as it originally was when
the sugar legislation was first instituted. I think in any kind of inter-
ference with the normal market there is bound to be some economic
costs. I think the situation in Europe is perhaps developing into an
even more costly situation, because the plans in the European Eco-
nomic Community call for an increase in their output to the degree
that they will be actually exporting on a subsidized baths. In this
situation you have a double cost, not only the price of the product
domestically, but the cost of subsidizing exports.
PAGENO="0094"
90 THE FUIIJRE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
And this is perhaps one of the more important developments that
it might be possible to tackle if we could rea.ch the point of an inter-
national discussion of the sugar situation. This hasn't been possible
so far, for two reasons, as spelled out in our paper. One, Cuba has
not been willing to consider a realistic export quota which would have
to be part of any plan. And, secondly, some of the industrialized
countries, particularly the EEC, are not yet willing to consider the
possibility of limiting their own expansion of production.
Representative REUSS. Cuba's position, of course, I would judge, re-
sulted not only from its sugar production potential, but from its inter-
national political position. Do you need Cuba to work out an interna-
tional sugar agreement? I don't see why. If Cuba wants to be a dog
in the manger on sugar, I don't see why she couldn'% be hermetically
sealed from the non-dog-in-the-manger world.
Mr. G-REENWALD. I don't pretend to be a sugar expert. I will try to
answer that, subject to correction by the people who have followed
sugar in much greater deta.il than I have. But my impression is that
it would be hard to isolate as large a. producer as Cuba from the inter-
national market and from an international marketing agreement, if
that is what you contemplate. It. is not just. the question of Cuba's di-
rect exports on the world market, but she also has a long-term contract
with the Soviet Union. What. this means is that you would have to
isolate the Soviet Union, too, because what the Soviet Union has ap-
parently been doing is exporting some of the sugar. It is not clear
whet.her it is a direct reexport of the Cuba.n suga.r that she had to
ta.ke under a long-term arrangement, or whether she is using the Cu-
ban suga.r domestically and then exporting her own beet production.
But these two elements would make it extremely difficult to try to
reach an agreement without their accepting commitments under the
arrangement.
Representative IREUSS. You say the settlements. Is the other settle-
ment the EEC's present production policy?
Mr. GREENWALD. Well, certainly the anticipa.ted production-what
they have been, talking about in terms of their targets for production.
The common agricultural policy as it applies to sugar, will appar-
ently lead to substantial increases in production within the Com-
munity.
Representative REU5S. We have not been as high level in our depre-
cating the EEC's suga.r outrages a.s we have been in, let us say, the
President's excellent Punt.a. del Este observations on trade preferences
or LDC manufactured goods; have we?
Mr. GREENWALD. If you mean has the President made a statement
on EEC sugar policy, the a.nswer is "No".
Representative R.EUSS. Who has deprecated that, and at what level?
Mr. GREENWALD. I don't know that it has been formally the subject
of a deprecatory official statement by the U.S. Government. The way
it really came out-and it wouldn't have come out, I guess, in formal
public statements-is that the Secretary General of the UNCTAD, Dr.
Prebisch, proposed that there be a standstill on production among the
industrialized countries. The U.S. response was a positive one. `We
thought this was perhaps one way-an intermediate way-to deal
with the sugar problem. But it hasn't been possible to achieve agree-
PAGENO="0095"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
91
ment among all industrialized countries. And I think that possibility
fell by the wayside.
Representative REUSS. What was the forum?
Mr. GREENWALD. I think this was in an UNCTAD sugar consulta-
tive group that was meeting in Geneva to see whether the basis was
there for an international negotiation of a revived international sugar
agreement.
Representative REUSS. What was the term of life of the Interna-
tional Sugar Agreement? I am not even sure it ever lived.
Mr. GREENWALD. My recollection is that it was effective for a while.
I think that there still is a sort of a framework agreement. There is
an International Sugar Council, if that is the proper term. But the
Agreement isn't operative at the moment. I am sorry, I just don't know
whether it had a termination, whether it had a limited period of life,
or not.
(The following statement was subsequently supplied for the
record:)
The International Sugar Agreement of 1958 was scheduled ~to expire Decem-
ber 31, 1963. Its export quota and related economic provisions became inopera-
tive as of January 1, 1962, but the statistical work of the International Sugar
Oouncil continued. For this purpose and because the Sugar Council provided
a useful forum for discussion, the Agreement was extended by protocol, in 1963
for two years, and in 1965 for one year through 1966. A. further protocol to ex-
tend the Agreement through 1968 is now before the Senate.
Representative REUSS. As I review the various primary commodi-
ties which, as you point out, account for 80 percent, I believe, of the
exports of the LDC's-coffee, cocoa, rubber-these other commodities
other than sugar don't seem to me to offer near the possibilities for
doing a great deal of good for the developing countries and removing
the need for foreign aid which is otherwise. going to be necessary at
a given level if the LCD's are to survive. I would think that sugar
ought to be consuming more time at a higher level within our execu-
tive branch than I think it does now.
Mr. GREENWALD. I think we can agree t.hat there are a limited num-
ber of products on which you can do something internationally in
terms of any kind of international arrangement. The products that
have been under active discussion, if they are not yet in formal ne-
gotiation, are cocoa and sugar. For the reasons that we talked about
earlier, it hasn't been possible to get very far on sugar. But it still
is being actively considered. As a matter of fact, I think the con-
sultative group was talking about Dr. Prebisch undertaking some con-
sultations in key capitals to see whether it is possible to proceed with
an international agreement on sugar.
Representative Rutrss. Thank you.
And to conclude this part of the discussion, I would explain to the
chairman t.hat I am quite confident that Louisiana cane sugar produc-
tion is a lot more economic than Wisconsin sugar beet production.
Chairman BOGGS. I would say to my good friend that is a very com-
plex subject.
The gentleman from New Jersey?
Representative WIDNALL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. McQuade, and Mr. Greenwald, would you comment on this-
on the President's power to negotiate and implement the antidumping
agreement without further congressional approval?
PAGENO="0096"
92 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Mr. McQU~E. I believe this is within his power, as we understand it.
Representative WIDNALL. So that once the present negotiation be-
comes a fact-
Chairman BOGGS. Excuse me. I didn't hear the answer to that ques-
tion.
Representative WIDNALL. It is within his power, I believe he said.
Chairman BoeGs. He didn't qualify it?
Representative WIDNALL. You didn't qualify it, did you?
Mr. MGNEII~L. Mr. Widnall, if I may, the negotiation on the anti-
dumping code was a negotiation whereby the President did not. negoti-
ate any changes in the Anti-Dumping Act that was enacted by the Con-
gress in earlier years. Pursuant to the Anti-Dumping Act the adminis-
tration over the years, several administrations over the years have
spelled out administrative procedures. And it is in the area of adminis-
tration that the negotiations took place in Geneva. And so what the
President has done through his chief negotiator has been to conclude
an antidumping code which provides commonality of procedure inter-
nationally which in our judgment will be of substantial benefit to U.S.
exporters.
Representative WIDNALL. So that you believe under the existing law,
without any further implementation, the President has the power to
negotiate and further implement the antidumping legislation?
Mr. MGNEn~L. Assuredly, yes.
Representative WIDNALL. In view of what has been going on around
the world, and keeping us more or less in a tinderbox, I would like
to ask what may seem to be a. simple question, and yet I think it is
something tha.t we all should know. Are there any tariff or nontariff
barriers to the trade in arms between the United States and the other
countries?
Mr. GREENWALD. Perhaps I can try to answer that. As far as exports
of arms from the United States are concerned, they are all con-
trolled and licensed. The State Department has the responsibility for
licensing arms and ammunition under an act of Congress. I don't think
any arms-ones tha.t are on this list-can be exported without specific
licensing authority.
Representative WIDNALL. I understand the licensing part of it.
But do foreign countries charge a tariff? Are any payments made to the
foreign countries to enable us to sell arms to them?
Mr. GREENWALD. As far as the tariffs are concerned, I think they
actually have tariffs on what we call arms and ammunition. But in most
cases they are imported from the account of the government, and there-
fore the tariffs are waived-the tariff doesn't apply-because the
government is the sole importer of arms and ammunition.
Representative WIDNALL. It is sort of a frightening thing to think
that for war purposes you have free trade, and yet for other commod-
ities having to do with the growth of the country and the health of the
country we have the tariff barriers. I don't think it makes any sense.
Mr. MGQUADE. Well, there are two observations. First is that when
you talk of free trade you are generally talking of transactions in the
private sector, and in one sense all trade in arms and ammunition has
a government involved. In our case we would control the export, and
the purchaser would be. a government.
PAGENO="0097"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICE 93
And the other thing is that there is another barrier which is in the
form of the United Nations resolutions which have been irnplementc"~1
by countries with respect to, for example, Rhodesia and South Africa~
There are some limitations. And it is really not on all four's with other
products.
Mr. GREENWALD. I don't think you can really call it free trade when
there is a complete licensing system, certainly on exports as far as we
are concerned, and on imports in most countries. The fact that the tariff
is rebated because the purchase is for the account of the government
doesn't make it free trade in the usual sense. As Mr. McQuade says, it
is not the same as a private transaction, and you can't call it free trade.
The most effective nontariff barrier to trade is a quota or licensing
system. And that is what you have in arms and ammunition.
Representative WIDNALL. I have been very much disturbed since
receiving word recently that a great amount of the arms trade between
our country and the countries in the Middle East have been financed
through the Export-Import Bank. Now, this is more than just licens-
ing, too. And if it is true-and I'm going to pin it down, and I intend
to follow it up-I think it is something that the country can well look
into to our present posture and our future position with respect to this
kind of trade.
Mr. MOQTJADE. I am sure the answer, Mr. Widnall, is that if we
make a nationa.l decision to sell arms, that it is the sensible thing to do
under the military assistance program, why then we will facilitate that
sale with credit if that is appropriate.
Representative WIDNALL. We certainly find ourselves in a great box
since this Middle East system blew up. And a lot of things have come
to light with respect to our own participation and that of the Soviet
Union. And I think we had better have everything fully on the record
as to what we are doing with respect to this entire trade.
Representative REUSS. Will the gentleman yield?
Representative WIDNALL. I will yield.
Representative REUSS. I think the gentleman from New Jersey is
performing a very useful service here. I was not aware of the use of
the Export-Import Bank for this purpose. But it was certainly not
the intent of Congress to set up a Sir Basil Zaharoff institution when
it inaugurated the Export-Import Bank. And I hope the gentleman
will pursue this. I pledge my help with it.
Representative WIDNALL. I thank the gentleman..
If Britain fails in its bid to enter the European Common Market,
what alternative sources of action might be open to the United King-
dom, and what might be the United States attitude toward such
possibilities?
Mr. GREENwALD. Let me try to answer the question.
If the United Kingdom doesn't succeed on this occasion in joining
the European communities, there will certainly be a great deal of
consideration given t.o what people describe as alternative arrange-
ments. As a matter of fact, I think both in the United Kingdom and
in other countries people have thought about this on past occasions,
and something called contingency planning is going on all the time.
My own feeling is that perhaps too much attention is given to the
institutional aspects of these alternative schemes. People talk, for ex-
S2-1S1-67---vol. I-7
PAGENO="0098"
94 TRE FUTURE OF TLS. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
ample, about a North Atlantic Free Trade Association as a possible
alternative.. I think in economic terms an alternative, not just for the
United Kingdom, but perhaps for all the industrialized countries of
the world, would be to try to move toward the elimination of all tariff
and other barriers to trade. This is the economic aspect. of the United
Kingdom effort to try to join the Common Market.
The economic objective can be dealt with rather simply. And I don't
think it needs an elaborate institutional arrangement..
The real problem, I think, is probably on the political side rather
than the trade or economic side. The problem for t.he United Kingdom.
as Dean Acheson once put it, is to find a role. And as it sees itself now~
its role is pa.rt of a.n integrated European community. In that sense
it is very hard to think about any viable or sensible alternative in
political terms. And I think that there is some risk that the people will
mix up the two: institutional arrangements with essentially political
overtones, and economic arrangements which could be just an agree-
ment among all the industrialized countries of the free world to move
toward the goal of free trade. We don't need any elaborate system. I
think it has been demonstrated by the Stockholm Convention of the
European Free Trade Association that you can move toward complete
elimination of tariffs and other trade barriers without having either
special political relationships or a very elaborate institutional struc-
ture.
This deals with the economic side of the problem of United Kingdom
entry. The question of handling the political aspect is much more diffi-
cult and much more complicated. And I don't think there is any simple
solution or simple alternative in that case.
Representative Wmx~i~.. Mr. McQuade, if Britain succeeds in en-
tering the Common Market, what would you think the long-range im-
pact will be on U.S. trade?
Mr. MoQu~nE. The important thing is that as overseas markets be-
come stronger economically they generally become better markets for
the United States. Now that we have the Kennedy Round behind us,
and we seem to be moving in the direction of removing tariffs as a
really big factor in the trade picture, I do not view Britain's acces-
sion to the Common Market as particularly troublesome. In fact, if
it makes the Common Market a better a.nd stronger economic entity,
it will probably help our trade, especially if we keep the various non-
tariff barriers in control and hopefully move forward to lower them.
I think that it would not be a troublesome thing for us.
Representative WmNALL. Thank you. Mr. McQuade. My time is up.
Chairman BOGGS. Mr. Gree.nwa.ld, did I understand you correctly
when you said that no legislation was required until 1969? Or did you
say that no programs would be recognized?
Mr. GREENWALD. I didn't say that no new legislation would be re-
quired until 1969. I think the legislative program we have in mind was
outlined by Ambassador Roth earlier, which would be what is referred
to a.s essentially housekeeping legislation-a simple extension of the
trade agreements program for another 2 years.
Chairman BOGGS. He also said that he would recommend certain
amendments to the adjustment provisions of the existing trade agree.-
ment program?
PAGENO="0099"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 95
Mr. GREENWALD. Yes. There are other elements in the legislative pro-
gram to be presented this year. One would be the adjustment ass1st-
ance amendment that you spoke of.
Chairman BOGGS. Are you prepared to spell those amendments out?
Mr. GREENWALD. No, I am afraid that-
Chairman BOGGS. Is anybody?
Mr. McQuade?
Mr. MOQUADE. I don't think that we have hammered out in our own
minds what would be the right thing to propose.
Chairman BOOGS. When do you plan to propose them? This is July.
Mr. MCQUADE. In the very near future.
Mr. MCNEILL. Mr. Chairman, if I may just add to that comment, the
Trade Expansion Act test for eligibility for adjustment assistance has
proven indeed to be a very difficult test, as I think you all know. You
will recall that in passing the Canadian Automotive Products Act the
Congress liberalized very considerably the test for eligibility. Pursuant
to the Canadian Automotive Products legislation, the Tariff Commis-
sion and the administration have in most cases, where applications have
been made, been able to certify under the looser and more liberal
eligibility tests that workers indeed have been adversely impacted and
affected by operation of this particular agreement that we have with
Canada. The administration is very carefully examining both tests of
eligibility; that is, those in the Trade Expansion Act and those in the
Canadian Automotive Products Act, with a view to asking the Con-
gress to liberalize the Trade Expansion Act test. We have not at this
time made final determination as to whether we would want to move
wholly in the direction of the Automotive Products Act, or go beyond
this, or go almost up to it. But we will, I think, quite shortly, as Mr.
McQuade indicated, be submitting to the Congress proposals for
amending the Trade Expansion Act.
Chairman BOGGS. Have you ever had a case under either act?
Mr. MCQUADE. We have had quite a number of successful cases under
the Automotive Products Act. All cases under the Trade Expansion
Act have been turned down by the Tariff Commission.
Chairman BooGs. What has happened? What has been the action?
Mr. MOQUADE. In the case of the employees under the Automotive
Products arrangement we have granted quite a number of adjustment
assistance programs. And I could get that number if you would like
to have it.
Chairman BOGGS. Yes; and we will include it in the record. (See
p. 100.)
Mr. MCQtTADE. But under the Trade Expansion Act the Tariff Com-
mission has never determined that the major test required by the
statute has been met, which is that the tariff concessions must be the
major cause of increase in imports and that the increased imports must
be the major cause of the injury. We have never had a successful de-
termination on that front.
Chairman BOGGS. Is it the general feeling that the test in the Auto-
motive Agreement would, be better than the existing arrangement?
Mr. MONEILL. Yes; I think that is true, Mr. Chairman. It was the
intention of the Congress in enacting the Trade Expansion Act to pro-
vide for adversely affected persons and firms a program of ad]ustment
PAGENO="0100"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
assistance. And this simply has not worked, whereas the Canadian
Automotive Arrangement has.
Chairman BOGGS. Mr. Greenwald, on another subject, what impli-
cation, if any, does the conclusion of the Kennedy Round have, for the
question of the East-West trade?
Mr. GREENWALD. The results of the Kennedy Round were fairly
limited in terms of East-West trade. Perha.ps the major development
was the adherence of Poland to the GATT. Poland negotiated for
access in the course of the Kennedy Round and, therefore, there will
be some impact in that sense.
As far as the United States is concerned, we already give "most
favored nation" treatment to Poland and Yugoslavia, which are two
of the Eastern European countries that are members of the GATT.
Czechoslovakia is also in, but we have a special decision which permits
us to discriminate against Czechoslovakia in accordance with our own
legislation. Our law will continue unaffected by the results of the
Kennedy Round.
The proposal that the President made for East-West trade legisla-
tion is one that would still be relevant and still important, even after
the Kennedy Round. What he asked for, you may recall, is the author-
ity to negotiate most-favored-nation treatment with individual East-
ern European countries and the Soviet Union when it is found to be
in the national interest. This is something that we would do, at least
initially, on a bilaterial basis. And we still think that this is an im-
portant foreign policy tool that ought to be given to the President to
allow him to carry out his policies with respect to Eastern Europe and
the Soviet Union.
Chairman BOGGS. Again, in connection with the less-developed
countries, the Kennedy Round gave no consideration at all to Latin
America., is that correct?
Mr. GREENWALD. I wouldn't say that it gave no specific considera-
tion. A number of the countries of Latin America participated in
the negotiations. Argentina, for example, received some concessions
from us and other countries on meat, which is an extremely important
export product for Argentina. Other countries got concessions on
items of interest to them. The Kenne.dy Round didn't have any specific
provisions for any particular area of the world. It was a multilaterial
negotiation.
Chairman Booos. Let me put it another way. The existing discrimi-
nation against the Latin American tropical products will continue,
will it not?
Mr. GREENWALD. That is true. That is not an outcome of the Ken-
nedy Round, but a continuing situation which we hoped we might
be able to deal with in the Kennedy Round. We had authority that
the Congress had given the President to eliminate duties on tropical
products if other countries did the same. We weren't able to use that
authority as we would have liked to use it, because particularly the
EEC wasn't prepared to go further. The major discrimination against
Latin America-that is, the duties on coffee and cocoa-continues.
And we didn't get anywhere in trying to reduce that discrimination
in the Kennedy Round. That again is one of the reasons why we were
trying to pursue another route to put Latin America on the same
footing as the other developing countries.
PAGENO="0101"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 97
Chairman BOGGS. Suppose you spell out simply and categorically
what you propose to do in this other round.
Mr. G-REENWALD. What we are trying to work out is an arrange-
ment whereby all the industrialized countries-for all practical pur-
poses, this means the key countries in the OECD-woulld be willing
to give either duty free treatment or reduced duty treatment to the
products of the developing countries. This is the basic element. It
would be a temporary extension of duty free or reduced duty treat-
ment. And how the 1.emporary feature would be made to operate would
depend upon the particular approach. Some people, for example, have
been talking about this as an "advance cut," the idea being that the
industrialized countries among themselves would agree to reduce their
duties, the MFN duties, over a certain period of time, and that they
give lower duties immediately to the developing countries. This is the
idea of an "advance cut," or a "head start" for the developing coun-
tries.
* Chairman BOGGS. In our case, though, again referring specifically to
Latin America, in most cases the countries produce one commodity,
such as tin in Bolivia, or coffee in Chile, or beef in Argentina~ or oil
in Venezuela, or sugar in Peru, and coffee in several of these countrjes.
There are no tariffs there to speak of on Latin American products
coming to this country, are there?
Mr. (iREENWALD. Not in the United States, no. But there are into
Europe, and in some cases into the United Kingdom and some of the
other industrialized countries. So what we have been suggesting is
that the other industrialized countries either eliminates the duties on
these products of interest to the Latin American countries, or they give
theni duty-free treatment on these products to put them on the same
basis as their African suppliers who now receive duty-free treatment
under the terms of the Yaounde convention.
Chairman BOGGS. What tools do we have to induce the countries to
bring this about?
Mr. GREENWALD. I think probably the major bargaining tool, or
weapon, if you want to nfl it that, would be this idea of a generalized
system. If we say we are prepared to go along with a generalized sys-
tem that will meet the concerns and problems of Latin America, then
we have some leverage to bring the European countries along to elimi-
nate or reduce discrimination against Latin America.
Chairman BOGGS. My time is up.
Mr. Reuss, do you have any further questions?
Representative REUSS. I have had a chance. Thank you.
Chairman BOGGS. You are entitled to more time* if you would like it.
Representative WIDNALL. I have a couple of more questions.
I think we all recognize that the process of negotiating removal or
the moderation of the nontariff barriers is very, difficult. Do you be-
lieve that the procedure of negotiating rounds is appropriate to reduce
nontariff barriers, or should some new negotiating procedures be
developed?
Mr. MCQUADE. I don't think it is going to be as easy to have a large
mukilateral system working here. The problems oftentimes have only
bilateral implications. And I don't think we would like to prejudge
how it ought to be done. There are some items which might lend them-
selves to the multilateral treatment. For example, I think I noted in my
PAGENO="0102"
98 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
statement that the problem of Government procurement is something
analogous to the antidumping arrangement a.bout which Mr. McNeil
spoke of. something where all of us could benefit from more forthright,
openly stated general rules. That would be helpful for the world mar-
ket in general. Maybe something like that would lend itself to the
multilateral system. But many of these things are so special that they
really have to be fought out on a bilateral basis, perhaps, before we
try' to make them more generally applicable.
Representative WmNA~. Do you really believe that the system
using the Kennedy Round wouldn't apply here in order to be effective?
Mr. MCQUADE. We will have to see.
Representative WIDNALL. Do you see any danger that as a result
of the tariff reductions achieved under the Kennedy Round new instru-
ments of protection will be developed, or that more extensive use may
be made of the old instruments?
Mr. MCQUADE. Would you say that again?
Representative WIDNALL. Do you see that as a result of the tariff
reduction due to the Kennedy Round, that new instruments of pro-
tection will develop, or that more extensive use will be made of old
instruments?
Mr. MCQUADE. It seems to me that all these things have large politi-
~a1 overtones, and we are never going to totally remove the kinds of
actions which will have some protective benefit for a particular seg-
ment of the community which, after all, is a political entit.y. The object
of the game is to try and minimize these in a way which each country
can see is consistent with its national interest. And while I think the
Kennedy Round technique may be something which will be useful in
some selected items of nontariff barriers, I think that there will be some
effort inevitably of pressure groups in every country, including our
own, to use nontariff barriers more, if that is the necessary tool to
gain some protection.
Chairman BOGGS. I wonder if the. gentleman would yield?
Representative WIDNALL. I yield.
Chairman Boens. In that c~onnection, what authority do you have
now to negotiate on these? And if you lack sufficient authority, is it
the intention of the President to recommend such a. grant in any new
leaislation?
~Mr. MCQUADE. This is, of course, the main objective of Mr. Roth's
assignment from the President, to try and find what new authorities
and what new policies we ought to seek. And I would not be surprised
if there were such an effort.
Mr. McNeil], do . you want to comment on that?
Mr. MGNEILL. I think that with respect to the second part of your
question, that is absolutely the correct answer, Mr. Chairman, that
this is something that will be considered in the major study under
the leadership of Ambassador Roth.
On the first part of your question, the nontariff barriers that are
maintained in the United States tend to be in ma~my areas in the
form of national legislation, such as the Antidumping Act, the Buy
American Act, and others. And in these areas the President, of course,
does not have the authority in the Trade Expansion Act or elsewhere
to negotiate awa.y an act o~ Congress. Where he does have negotiating
flexibility is in respect of the administration, perhaps. or some of these
acts. For example, in the Buy American Act the Congress, in 1933,
PAGENO="0103"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 99
said that there shall be special preference -for domestic suppliers in
Government procurement programs, but did not designate what that
special preference should be. The President, in 1954, through Execu-
tive order, laid down some very specific price preferences. And it
would be in that kind of an area of administration and presidential
flexibility where the area of negotiation now lies. And this was the
case in antidumping.
Mr. GREENWALD. I wonder if I could come back to Mr. Widnall's
question. I think most people feel that the effect of the Kennedy
Round; that is, the relationship between the Kennedy Round and
nontariff barriers, is that as the tariff barriers are reduced two things
happen. One, as the nature of the nontariff barrier becomes clear and
as tariffs fall it is evident that they have a greater impact than tariff
barriers. Tariff barriers are not that significant so the people who
want a higher degree of protection not only in the United States but
in other countries will look to nontariff barriers. Second, I think
the comments of both Mr. MeQuade and Mr. MeNeill have made it
clear that you can't talk about nontariff barriers as a general category
as you can about tariff barriers. Negotiations to deal with tariffs are
possible because they are fairly easily identifiable, and represent a
common technique of protection that all countries have pursued for
years. But when you come to nontariff barriers, `as Mr. McNeill pointed
out, you get involved in purely national legislation, tax systems, fiscal
systems, and it gets extremely complicated. They `are related to na-
tional economic policies that `aren't adopted purely in terms of inter-
national trade and are extremely difficult to deal with. Therefore, it
would be hard to have a negotiation that tried to cover all nontariff
barriers.
What we have been trying to do is deal with nontariff barriers as
appropriate, and sometimes in different forums. For example, we have
tried to tackle the border tax issue in the OECD through its relation-
ship to economic policy in something called the "adjustment process"-
trying to convince countries in good balance-of-payments situations-
surplus earners-that they shouldn't take action on taxes which is
contrary to the policy that a good creditor nation should follow.
There is also the issue of government procurement which is a problem
mainly of the industrialized countries. We have pursued it in the
OEOD in the terms that Mr. McNeill suggested-trying to arrive
at a uniform system of government procurement practices. The real
problem, it turns out, is that we have a law, we have open competitive
bidding, but other countries in the world use much more subtle meth-
ods to achieve "buy national" purposes.
So our first effort there has been to get agreement on the publication
of bids and publication of the results of the bids and the system of com-
petitive bidding. And this is what we have to try to deal with rather
than going immediately to the question of what is the percentage of
preference, because some of them have come to us very blandly and
said, we don't have anything like a Buy American Act. We found,
though, that the results are actually the same achieved through a much
more subtle, devious method. So each nontariff barrier has to be looked
at individually, not only the methods of negotiation, but the forum in
many cases may be different, depending on the kind of nontariff barriers
it is and how we can best tackle it. Nontariff barriers are an important
problem, and they will be more important as time goes on.
PAGENO="0104"
100 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Representative WIDNALL. I just have one more question. How long a
Period of time do you think it will take before we can obtain a fair
evaluation of what has been accomplished by the Kennedy Round?
Mr. GREENWALD. I am not sure what it. means to get a fair evalua-
tion and I don't Irnow whether time will necessarily help. I think
opinions differ on the results of the negotiation. You have heard Am-
bassador Roth's evaluation of it, and the administration generally. I
don't want to denigrate or undermine the objectives of tariff reduction.
But I think a. number of economists who have been working in t.his field
recognize that there are factors other than Government decisions on.
tariffs or other trade barriers which will affect the flow of trade. It is
awfully hard to predict exactly what has been caused or not caused
by particular reduction of a. particular tariff, or a whole series of
tariff reductions in a negotiation. Just as the weather perhaps has
more to do with the crop results than an agricultural policy, of the
Government, so the general level of economic activity which is related
to tax policy, fiscal policy, deficit financing,. may well affect the
results in trade flow terms more than what actually happened to the
tariffs.
Representative WmXAII1. Thank you.
Chairman BOGGS. Thank you very much.
Mr. McQuade ?
Mr. MCQUADE. Just to give you a roundhouse feeling on this auto-
tive parts arrangement. I might mention that as of Decembe.r 31. 1966,
1.141 workers had filed for assistance, and 819 had been found eligible.
And they paid out. something less than $900,000. But there have been
several cases since then, including the. American Motors case.
Chairman Boons. Thank you very much. Thank you Mr. McNeil],
Mr. Greenwald. You have been ver helpful to the subcommittee.
Now, Congressman Curtis, we will hear from you.
We are ver happy to ha.ve our colleague, one of the distinguished
members of t.his committee, and distinguished member of the House
Ways and Means Committee here t.his morning, Congress Curtis of
Missouri. Congressman Curtis was one of the two Congressmen ap-
pointed by tl1e Speaker to represent the House Ways and Means Com-
mittee at the Kennedy Round, the other being Congressman Cecil R.
King of California. And he was very diligent in attending the sessions
there. Mr. Curt.is has been kind enough to come and make a statement
before the subcommittee this morning.
Before he begins, we will accept Representative King's statement for
the record and include it herein.
STATEMENT OP HON. CECIL B. KING, A U.S. REPRESENTATIVE
PROM THE STATE OP CALIPORNIA AND DELEGATE TO TEE KEN-
NEDY ROUND
Mr. KING. Mr. Chairman, you have invited me as a. congressional
delegate to the Kennedy Round to appear before the Subcommittee
on Foreign Economic Policy currently conducting hearings on a reas-
sessment of U.S. foreign trade policy.
The Kennedy Round agreements are exceedingly complex, as might
be the expected result of more than 3 years of negotiations involving
PAGENO="0105"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 101
more than 50 countries, countries that account for three-quarters of
the world's trade. The final agreements were not signed until a little
over a week ago. It is not surprising, therefore, that we in the Congress
have been given only preliminary information on the outcome of the
negotiation.
We await the report to the Congress required by the Trade Expan-
sion Act for definitive analysis of the Kennedy Round result. Until
we see this report, our assessments must be tentative.
I am, nevertheless, willing to express confidence that our negotia-
tors have brought home a Kennedy Round settlement that will largely
fulfill the expectations and intentions of the 87th Congress which
wrote into law the historic Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Basing my
views on observations made a~s a congressional delegate, I believe that
our people in Geneva have used their negotiating authority wisely and
well. The act enjoined them, to quote from the statement of purposes,
* * through trade agreements affording mutual trade benefits (1) to
stimulate the economic growth of the United States and maintain and
enlarge foreign markets for the products of U.S. agriculture, industry,
mining, and commerce." I can attest that they were persistent and
diligent in pursuit of this objective.
I shall reserve comment on details of the agreements until I have
had the chance to study these agreements carefully and to consider
the analysis which is under preparation.
I would like to remark, however, on two matters that are creating
considerable controversy.
The Kennedy Round has resulted in the negotiation of an interna-
tional antidumping code. Without entering into the merits of the
provisions of this code, I am inclined to support our negotiators' con-
tention that they have entered into an agreement that does not violate
the letter or the essential spirit of our U.S. antidumping law. I know
that they made a very great and sincere effort to achieve this end, which
included extended domestic consultation and public hearings.
Secondly, an agreement was reached that commits the administration
to seek legislation to convert the American selling price (ASP) system
of customs evaluation to the normal evaluation system as it applies to
certain chemicals. Again, I don't intend to discuss the merits of such
legislation at this time, but I do want to say that prior to entering into
negotiation on ASP, a maximum effort was made to seek public advice,
to assure that the views of the industry affected were heard and con-
sidered, and to establish that a change in the system was justified.
Both in regard to dumping and ASP, the administration has recog-
nized ita obligation to seek and fully consider public and congressional
opinion. In fact, to a far greater extent than in the past, the develop-
ment of U.S. positions throughout the Kennedy Round has involved
extensive consultations not only within the administration, but also
with representatives of the public and with Members of Congress. The
Trade Expansion Act established, for the first time, the Special Repre-
sentative for Trade Negotiations, directly responsible to the President
for the conduct of such negotiations. The act stated in section 241 (a)
that the Special Representative should "~ ~ * seek information and
advice with respect to each negotiation from representatives of in-
dustry, agriculture, and labor, and from such agencies as he deems
appropriate."
PAGENO="0106"
102
T~ FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
The act further obliged the President to seek Tariff Commission ad-
vice (sec. 221), advice from the Departments of Agriculture, Com-
merce, Defense, Interior, Labor, State, and Treasury (sec. 222), and
public views through hearings (sec. 223).
A hierarchy of interagency committees, including one at the Cabinet
level, was established for the purposes of formulating policy recom-
mendations, with the Special Representative and members of his staff
presiding over their work. Similarly constituted was the Trade Infor-
mation Committee, which held public hearings on concessions that
might be made or sought by the United. States. These supplemented
the hearings which were held by the Tariff Commission.
The President appointed a 45-member public advisory committee
to the Special Representative, made up of spokesmen for the public
interest selected for their leadership in the business, labor, farm, and
consumer sectors. This group met regularly with the Special Repre-
sentative and many of its members traveled to Geneva for a firsthand
look at the negotiations.
Members of Congress have also been brought in as an integral part
of the policy formation process in the role of congressional delegates.
The creation of congressional delegates was an important innovation
of the Trade Expansion Act, which, in section 243, states:
Before each negotiation under this title, the President shall, upon the recom-
mendation of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, select two members
(not of the same political party) of the Committee on Ways and Means, and shall,
upon the recommendation of the President of the Senate, select two members (not
of the same political party) of the Committee on Finance, who shall be accredited
as members of the United States delegation to such negotiation.
Two Members of the House and two delegates and two alternates
from the Sena.te were so accredited from the beginning of the Ken-
nedy Round.
Throughout the negotiations. and increasingly as the bargaining
reached the critical stage, we were kept current with developments
and were consulted on moves to be. made. We held regular meetings
with the Specia.l Representative, received written reports from him,
and, on several occasions, made individual trips to Geneva. There we
sat in delegation meetings and negotiating sessions and were given
access to the position papers and cable messages concerning negotia-
tions.
As the U.S. position evolved on the handling of such difficult ques-
tions as American selling price, an international antidumping code,
inclusive of agriculture and nontariff barriers, the views of the con-
gressional delegates were sought, given, and, in my view, very carefully
considered.
Ambassador Roth has, on several occasions, testified before con-
gressional committees on the usefulness to him of the delegates to
the Kennedy Round. He has had an opportunity to probe congres-
sional views and sensitivities a.nd to take advantage of prior consulta-
tion on matters that might require, or result, in congressional action.
He has been able, based on the consultations, to make clear to other
participants in the negotiation the realities of U.S. politics.
With the Kennedy Round concluded, we, the congressiona.l dele-
gates, would appear to have finished our assignment. I believe very
PAGENO="0107"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 103
strongly that the concept of congressional delegates to trade negotia-
Lions should not be allowed to expire with our retirement. As new ne-
gotiations are begun, Members of the Congress should be named as
delegates. Through this means, the congress can both advise and be
kept informed on the conduct of our trade relations. The two-way
usefulness of the congressional delegates has been proved in the Ken-
nedy Round.
Mr. Chairman, I have tried to focus my remarks on a particular
aspect of our conduct of trade negotiations, that of the utilization
of means of clarifying the public interest through the participation
of representatives of the public and of the Congress in the policy de-
velopment process. I would recommend that this aspect be given full
consideration in the deliberations of this distinguished subcom-
mittee.
Chairman BOGGS. Congressman Curtis, we are very happy to have
you here this morning. You may begin.
STATEMENT OP HON. THOMAS B. CURTIS, A REPILESE~NTATIVE IN
CONGRESS PROM THE STATE OP MISSOURI AND A DELEGATE TO
THE KENNEDY ROUND
Representative Cuirns. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman and members of the Subcommittee on Foreign Eco-
nomic Policy, I first want to thank you for your invitation to me as a
congressional delegate for trade negotiations to testify during these
important hearings on trade policy. I also want to thank the chair-
man for his invitation to me to sit on the subcommittee panel during
these hearings, in light of the fact that, though I am a member of the
full Joint Economic Committee, I am not formally a member of this
subcommittee.
I would also like to express my great enthusiasm that these hearings
on foreign trade are now being held. They have been badly needed, and
will serve a very useful and very important purpose: to give perspec-
tive to the negotiations just past and to give focus to the many new
ideas about trade policy now current. I hope such hearings by this
subcommittee, or by the full Joint Committee, can be held regularly-
ideally, I would hope they could be held at least annually and that the
base of this annual congressional trade inquiry could be the Presi-
dent's Annual Trade Report, a requirement of section 226 of the Trade
Expansion Act.
If the Joint Economic Committee would hold hearings annually on
this document as they do on the President's Annual Economic Report,
I think we could move forward greatly in our understanding of these
very complicated matters involving international economics and trade.
At the outset I would like to establish what I consider to be the con-
text in which our trade negotiating efforts have taken place since the
1930's. The Tariff Act of 1930-the "Smoot-Hawley" Tariff enacted
the highest rates the Nation had had-higher even than the exceptional
rate in the 1922 Fordney-McCumber Tariff. Starting from this high
level of rates, reciprocal trade negotiations beginning in 1934 and
proceeding until the Kennedy Round have in effect amended the 1930
tariff schedules.
PAGENO="0108"
104 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Thus we have descended, step by step, from the rates fixed by the
1930 act-rates that still appear in column 2 of our tariff schedules-to
levels where the tariff per se has ceased to be really meaningful re-
striction to flows of international trade in the industrialized free world.
With `the successful conclusion of the Kennedy Round we have come,
then, to the end of an era, and we stand at the threshold of a new
effort. Now, if only because of the relative unimportance of tariffs,
many new tra.de problems spring to our `attention, demanding study
and action. I will discuss some of these problems and what to do
about them later. I wish to note here hOwever that I detect a new
trend of thought, one that I feel contradicts the thrust of U.S. foreign
economic policy evident in the progressive reduction of tariffs.
The purpose of this tariff reduction has been to establish a more
competitive international economy `based on the fuller operation of a
fair marketplace. But this objective .is endangered by developments
such as measures `that use quotas `and licenses as means of regulating
trade in order to bring `about objectives that governments consider to
be important.. Commodity agreements. for example, are major devia-
tions from marketplace conditions because they use quotas and licenses
to completely regulate trade in a certain product, often of major irn-
por~ance. The Long Term Cotton Textile Arrangement, renewed for
3 years by the same Kennedy Bound agreement that will result in the
reduction of tariffs, is just such a measure. It establishes a compre-
hensive quota system for cotton textile imports, and this has had
a profound effect on economic development in the poorer countries.
So I see two themes, two ideas of foreign trade, now current. On
the one hand, `there are those who -wish to expand international trade
and payments on the basis of freely operating. competitive interna-
tional marketulace. The reduction of tariffs has brought us toward
this objective. On the other hand. there are those who, though they may
even support tariff reduction, at the same time seek to establish new
methods of trade regulation that will impair the function of the
marketplace. I believe `that it is important to resist such "neomercan-
ti list" efforts and to adhere in the. new period that lies ahead, to the
principles of international competition that have guided our policy
in the tariff-reduction period.
Beyond these comments I will limit my remarks to observations
about the role of Congressional Delegate for Trade Negotiations. some
post-Kennedy Bound concerns of international `trade policy and some
comments on our administrative, organization for formulating foreien
trade policy, conducting trade negotiations and in other ways imple-
menting that policy.
The function of congressional delegate is set out in section 243 of the
Trade Expansion Act as follows:
CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATES FOR TRADE NEGOTIATIONS. Before each negotiation
under this title, the President shall, upon the recommendation of the Speaker of
the House of Representatives, select two members (not of the same political
party) of the Committee on Ways and Means, and shall, upon the recommenda-
tIon of the President of the Senate. select two members (not of the same politi-
cal party) of the Committee on Finance, who shall be accredited as members of
the United States delegation to such negotiation."
I should note that, in addition to the two full Senate delegates, two
alternate delegates ha.ve bee-n designated from the Senate Finance Com-
mittee as a measure of the interest of that committee in the trade nego-
PAGENO="0109"
THE FUTTJRE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 105
tiat.ions. These alternate members, one from each. party, have served
as full congressional delegates.
The language of section 243 obviously leaves the congressional dele-
gates' role open to interpretation, but it is nonetheless important. For
the first time, congressional participation in trade negotiations was ele-
vated from the ievel of "observer" status to that of actual participant.
This is an important distinction, one that I am keenly aware of, having
also served as a congressional "observer" of past negotiations. As
"observers" access to documents and meetings was limited. As "dele-
gates" we have access to classified data and to negotiations between
governments.
The resulting relationship between executive and legislative
branches has been described as "unique." Initially it may have created
a bit of disquiet in administrators accustomed to the usual cards-
against-vest approach to dealing with Congress. But my opinion is that
the "unique" relationship has worked well: I have found that efforts
to expand and intensify congressional knowledge and participation
in the foreign trade program have been met with good cooperation by
the executive branch.
My interpretation of the language of section 243 and the role of con-
gressional delegate for trade negotiations has been to keep well in-
formed about the negotiations and trade matters generally, to consult
with the trade negotiating staff, and to attempt to explain to the pub-
lic and its representatives in Government-my colleagues here in Con-
gress-the issues in the trade negotiations, with attention at the same
time to their meaning to our domestic industries, oiiir relations with
other nations, and our future trade concerns.
Moreover, I have hoped to promote what I consider to be another
profoundly important objective. I believe the Congress is an institution
intended to make decisions through processes of open. study and de-
bate. I have hoped that publicly exposing as completely as I could the
facts about the negotiations would aid better congressional decision-
making in foreign trade and related matters. This has been a principal
reason why I have used the consultations and participation open to me
as a congressional delegate to report extensively on the negotiations
and related problems to the Congress.
In May 1963 at a meeting in Geneva the Ministers of the major
countries participating in the Kennedy Round resolved upon~ certain
resolutions to guide the "Kennedy" negotiations. A. year later, in May
1964, I attended the formal opening of the Kennedy Round, at which
time the Ministers published new resolutions essentially reaffirming
those of a year earlier.
But by May 1965, my second visit to the negotiations, very little
had been accomplished in fulfilling the earlier ministerial resolutions.
So on June 2, 1965, Congressional Record pages 11925-11930, I ex-
plained the arguments surrounding the negotiating ground rules that
had absorbed everyone's energies during this 2-year period.
Our negotiators had spent months simply trying to define the
meaning of a "tariff disparity," and the idea of establishing world
reference prices for all agriculture commodities based upon fixed
levels of farm support-a Common Market proposal known as the
"montant de sourien." These intellectual exercises had delayed any
real tariff bargaining very effectively.
PAGENO="0110"
106 TIlE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
As an indication of the recency of the progress of the round, I
would recall that, even as late as June 2, 1965, the antidumping
agreement that was signed on June 30 had not even been discussed.
The group-the Non-Tariff Barriers Committee of the General Agree-
ment on Tariffs and Trade-that was to be the forum for organizing
the negotiations on nontariff barriers, had not even met, and its
membership had not even been organized.
But very shortly thereafter, I believe the middle of June, the
British Government submitted its paper deeply criticizing what it
then considered the shortcomings of the U.S. administration of the
Antidumping Act of 1921, an opinion shared by many other countries.
It is rather a surprise that, 2 years later, we have mollified our
foreign critics first just by explaining the logic behind our anti-
dumping administration, and second, making apparently minor
changes in our administrative practices. Above all, we have succeeded
in having the essence of much of our own procedure-open hearings
with rebuttal, public explanations of antidumping actions, and the
criteria for such actions, among other safeguards-adopted by all the
major trading nations under article 6 of the new antidumping agree-
ment.
It has seemed to me that such an international agreement harmoniz-
ing national practices is a very promising achievement, an important
first step toward much broader agreement on other international busi-
ness practices. For the record, I would like to cite my previous com-
ments in the Congressional Record on the problem of dumping: June
1, 1965, pages 11645-11647; March 8, 1966, pages 5112-5116; August
24, 1966, pages 19554-19557.
The year from May 1965 to May 1966 will be remembered as per-
haps the period of most frustration in a very frustrating 5-year nego-
tiation. The long stalemate in the functioning of the Common Market
from June 1965 through February 1966 prevented its participation
in the negotiations-the negotiations could not proced.
But ~y the spring of 1966, the negotiations had begun again. After
my early May 1966 trip to Geneva, I was able to report on May 31,
Congressional Record pages 11280-11293, about the opening of dis-
cussions in two critical industrial sectors, steel and chemicals, and the
resumption of discussions on wheat and feed grains, among other
matters. Later in the summer, the Community tabled additional agri-
cultural offers and so, by the fall, real negotiations were at last well
underway.
Time does not permit me to chronicle minutely the step-by-step
development of the negotiations, and that is not my purpose here.
Suffice it to say that by the time of my return to the Geneva negotia-
tions in late November 1966, the major issues had been clearly de-
lineated, initial assessments of the dollar value of the offers had been
drawn up and these were being presented to other participating
countries with lists of requests for additional offers and lists of possi-
ble withdrawals.
Key issues remained2 however, and their solution, as we know, was
a touch-and-go proposition until the very final weeks of the negotia-
tions. These key issues-mainly steel, chemicals, American selling
price, a grains agreement, dairy and meat sector problems, and other
PAGENO="0111"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 107
temporate zone products-were the matters of greatest concern. But
equally important, if somewhat in the background, were the trade
and development problems of the poorer countries.
To explore these issues, I began on April 10, this year, a five part
series of reports titled "The Kennedy Round and the Future of United
States Trade Policy." The April 10 installment, part I, Congressional
Record pages 113819-113830, dealt with the tactical negotiating prob-
lern in agriculture, but mostly with the efforts, and the issues, in the
negotiation of an international grains agreement.
On April 13, Congressional Record pages 114128-114140,1 submitted
part II, which dealt with dairy, meat, poultry, and other major farm
products.
In reviewing the content of these two speeches and the results of the
negotiations it is obvious that the Kennedy Round agriculture nego-
tiations did not alter at all the Common Market's farm pricing and
import restriction systems, which we had hoped we could modify. Of
course, many believed that this was not possible, even from the start
of the negotiations. But I think we made a very good try-a beginning
in treating in an international forum difficult problems of agriculture.
This itself was an important initiative, because previous negotiations
had not attempted discussion in the agriculture area.
These inquiries into international farm trade demonstrated an im-
portant lesson. The failings, the complications of international farm
trade, begin at home. Almost all governments have stepped into their
own agricultural marketplaces to achieve through government direc-
tion social and political objectives they consider important. Estab-
lishing real competition in international agriculture markets largely
requires that governments first step out of these markets, remaining
there only to perform the essential function of guaranteeing their hon-
esty and enforcing other standards of fair competition. So complex is
this problem that I am reminded of a statement by the very able, astute
Director General of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, Eric
Wyndham-White, at a press conference in Washington in April 1965.
He said that-
The evolution of an acceptable viable international agricultural and food policy
is something which will have to be worked out very patiently over the years. We
mustn't expect that one can solve all these very deep-seated problems in one go-
around-in a single negotiation.
Part III of the report, which appeared on May 1, Congressional
Record pages 114891-114905, was an effort to explain the tactical prob-
lems in the industrial negotiations, particularly the development of the
sector approach to negotiations in difficult industries-steel, chemicals,
textiles, aluminum, and pulp and paper. Part III also discussed the
so-called teclmology gap which was used by certain countries as a rea-
son for excepting certain tariffs from cuts in the negotia~tion. In part III
I also described the problems facing the conclusion of a meaningful
negotiation in the steel sector talks and, in relation to this, I explored
some of the problems in our own steel industry, in an effort to bring
them out into the open and examine their merits at a key time in the
negotiations, the last moment when, if some special measures were
required, they would have to be taken.
PAGENO="0112"
108 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
My descriptions of the problems in the other major industrial
sectors-chemicals, textiles, aluminum, and pulp and paper-begin
on Monday, July 10, Congressional Record pages 118380-118394. with a
discussion of chemicals. The second section of part IV will be sub-
mitted next Monday, JuJy 17, and it will conclude the discussion of the
industrial sector negotiations. I would conclude that these sector nego-
tiations, an innovation in the Kennedy Round, resulted in more inten-
sive study of the international and domestic economics of these indus-
tries than any previous negotiation. This has been a major positive
result of the Kennedy Round approach to the industry sectors.
Study of these sectors of international trade negotiations, and the
domestic economics of the U.S. industries in question, has led me to
emphasize the importance of change-that is, shifting inputs of re-
sources among and within industry groups as a result of new tech-
nology, new demands, and new sources of supply. These continuing
changes are the expression of a truly dynamic economy. A tendency I
see is that, in examining intensively an industry, some of us become
wedded to a static view of the industry in question, forgetting that
change is incessant and that some very profound economic changes can
take place very rapidly.
This is an attitude sometimes adopted also by businessmen them-
selves. Used to looking at their role in the economy in terms of a cer-
tain share of production or sales or other measure of size, they are
proud to see an increase and very reluctant to accept a decreased share,
even though the larger forces of economic activity and innovation may
demand constant changes in the relative importance of various in-
dustries. And I must add that the actual amount of that industry has
increased, the proportionate share may decrease, bu.t the industry
still is expanding.
So we are continually faced with the question whether to maximize
economic growth, thereby increasing the totality of economic activity,
or accept some lesser amount of activity in order to preserve certain
dominant or less dominant interrelationships among major indus-
trial groups.
Implied in this observation is th~tt certain industries may in a~ sense
he "doomed" to suffer declines. This is not necessarily the case, as we
know. By flexibly responding to new challenges in the marketplace,
perhaps by diversifying into related but more growth-oriented lines
of production, perhaps even by selective foreign investments, so-called
"older" industries may rejuvenate themselves. And all of this activity
should take place in terms of fair competition, both domestic and in-
ternational, in a situation where the competitive rules of the road, the
"conditions of the market and the exchange" must become internation-
ally understood.
My researches into the textile industry have given me some insight.s
into this dynamic economic process. These were published in the Con-
gressional Record of August 29, 1966, pages 20077-20113. A new report
on textiles will update much of the data that I then related.
I found that what seemed to be a genuine economic depression in the
cotton textile manufacturing industry in the late 1950's and early
1960's was diagnosed as a problem of import competition, when the
essential problems were those of industry modernization and of arti-
PAGENO="0113"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 109
ficially expensive raw cotton supplies under the so-called "two-price"
cotton subsidy system.
It is well known that for cotton textiles a continuing program of
comprehensive quotas, which are by definition the most restrictive
form of measuring the international economic differentials a society
considers it important to measure, was begun. Though the quotas
were initially applied to Japan and Hong Kong, Spain and Portugal,
the countries that are now most affected are the poorer developing
countries, many of them striving for industrial development, in which
textile manufacture is conceded to be a natural beginning step.
Since 1960 the cotton textile industry, according to a wide variety
of economic indicators, has shown tremendous improvement. It has
ironed out some of its basic structural problems, it has modernized
and expanded extensively, it employs more workers, produces more
goods at lower unit costs, and makes higher ratios of profits on in-
vested capital. The quotas remain, however, as an obstacle to the re-
establishment of the marketplace. The industry is understandably
reluctant to give up the quotas-they in fact want stricter quotas and
want them extended to the wool and manmade fiber sectors of the in-
dustry, seemingly unable psychologically to adjust to new conditions.
To me the textile quota program is of deep concern because of its
effects on the poorer countries. It raises this profound problem: how
can we effectively create the conditions for worldwide economic growth
and prosperity?
The financial foreign aid programs carried on by the United States
and other countries since the early 1950's have been less than success-
fül, barely, if at all, bringing about increases in per capita income.
Foreign trade; that is, the ability to sell goods in foreign markets to
earn income, is a more fundamental, more correct method of gener-
ating income and growth, and would remove much of the need for
financial aid.
Restrictions on exports of such things as cotton textiles both dis-
courage the natural process of industrial development and create a*
continuing dependence on unearned financial aid-with all its psy-
chological impact, including irresponsible expenditure of such un-
earned money.
So our businessmen and our labor unions, and our investors and
Government officials must face this question: Will we allow the devel-
oping countries to sell us what they make, or will we continue to sup-
port them by means that I and many others consider to be wasteful
and even harmful? Will we really accept the meaning of the slogan,
"Trade, not aid"? Do we really mean it? And if we do, of course, then,
we have to give thought to what is it economically feasible for these
countries to produce.
I regard foreign aid-and I am in favor of the basic program, if it
is designed to help nations get on their economic feet. But just as in
welfare programs domestically, if it doesn't get people on their eco-
nomic feet, it can result in creating a condition of permanent welfare
or permanent aid.
Because I have used textiles as an example does not at all mean
that this argument applies only, or even exclusively, to textiles. It
might not even apply to textiles, though I think it does. It is a con-
sideration for all goods and service industries.
82-181-67-vol. I-8
PAGENO="0114"
110 T~ FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Another consideration that has broader application is the question
of foreign investment. The case has been very strongly made that
textiles, like other industries, should defend their home markets by
establishing their own foreign factories, thus participating in growing
markets outside the United States. There are fewer and fewer large
American industries that have not entered international markets
through direct investment abroad, largely to sell in the foreign market
rather tha.n simply supply the U.S. market. One of these exceptions
appears to be steel. Such industries should consider how they can
take advantage of the global opportunities for their products, their
know-how, their unexcelled merchandising and distributive ability,
and their efficient management. If they were to do so in poorer coun-
tries, they would also make fundamental contributions to sound eco-
nomic growth.
These are some of the observations derived from the examination
of the industrial sectors in the trade negotiations. They may seem far
afield from the topic of negotiations, but they serve again to illustrate
tha.t tariff negotiations as they have been conducted in the Kennedy
Round have been exceptionally fruitful in terms of deepening our
understanding of the industries that are the subjects of the
negotiations.
Part V of my five-part report is still to come. It will deal, with
other-than-tariff trade problems, especially dumping, international
patents, and other matters, many of which will absorb our attentions
in future international trade efforts.
I have been told that I have become knowledgeable in events that
are past, the implication of course being that the knowledge is now
useless. I reject this theory. Nowhere is the aphorism "Past is Pro-
logue" more applicable than the just-completed Kennedy negotia-
tions on tariff and trade. The many lessons learned from the wealth
of detail of this negotiation will instruct, enlighten, and shape future
action. They are the basis for a beginning of a new, more fruitful kind.
Coming through years of negotiations concentrated on tariffs is like
passing through a high mountain range and emerging to find some
remaining foothills to traverse, and to see, a little distance beyond,
a lush plain. The plain is lush, but ha.zy-its outlines dim. We are
in the unique position of being able now as we look down over it to
shape the economic conditions that will be in force there. The question
is, what courses of action should we take?
The Kennedy Round itself holds the seeds of the answer. It made
innovations in areas like agriculture, nontariff barriers, and problems
of the developing countries that were very meaningful and basic.
In the area of agriculture, I have already identified above what I
consider to be the main problem: Government interference. Here, one
course of action would seem to be establish more effective international
consultative institutions to deal with domestic policies as they affect
international trade and impinge on the domestic agriculture policies
of other countries.
In the area of nontariff barriers, much work study has to be done.
I will simply mention some of the more obvious matters that are con-
sidered to be problems: border taxes and export rebates, Government
buying regulations, valuation and tariff nomenclature problems. These
PAGENO="0115"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 111
are matters that can aff~t exports. There are other Government pro-
grams that can affect imports into this country as well as our exports
to third markets, such as grants and subsidies, especially to stimulate
exports.
There is another group of trade problems of the other-than-tariff
type that must also be subject to concentrated attention. I have in mind
the area known as restrictive business practices, or problems of unfair
trade practices, such as combinations in restraint of trade, which es-
sentially have to do with creating fair marketplace conditions.
In addition, there are areas such as international patents and copy-
right protection, where national practices should be harmonized and
internationally codified in order to equalize and stabilize these basic
business laws.
There is another area, where the costs of doing business may be
severely affected by various governmental programs, that should be
given consideration in future trade negotiations. Wage differentials
in context with productivity should be treated as an element affecting
trade negotiations because they may reflect an unfair competitive
burden on TJ.S. producers.
Finally, there is the very complex problem of our trade and aid
policies toward the economically disadvantaged, developing countries.
In our attempt to find the proper solutions to these problems I be-
lieve that the basis of consideration should be to permit such countries
to manufacure and to sell to us those products that they are able to
produce efficiently, such as the processing of raw materials to more
finished stages. The tariff structures of industrialized countries often
contain built-in differentials that permit the free importation of raw
materials but tax, by means of a higher tariff rate, the same materials
in processed form. These tariff differentials can therefore adversely
affect economic development.
Incidentally, these apply to most developed countries. The United
States has got some of these, and other countries do the same.
Removing discriminations against thB exports, and the industrial
development and diversification of the developing countries, should be
our first concern. Only then should we take the step toward other
special measures on behalf of the developing countries. We are. all
aware of the proposals that have been made to establish tariff prefer-
ences for the developing countries. The political case for preferences
on the part of the developed for the developing countries has been
argued effectively. But the economic case is much less clear. Is it
logical to adopt, for political purposes, an economic program that will
not have the expected economic consequences in terms of real benefits
for developing countries' exports?
I urge `that the United States and other industrialized countries
give very careful scrutiny to the economic case for tariff preferences
and other special trade measures for the developing countries. It would
seem to me that the first steps in helping such countries has only been
taken partially.
One such area is commodities. Commodity agreements for cocoa and
coffee and other basis materials, cocoa, sugar, copper, are merely de-
vices to organize international markets aiong mercantilist lines. I be-
lieve that the stabilization of prices is important, both for buyers and
PAGENO="0116"
112 THE FIJTTJRE OF u.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
sellers. But I also believe that the market has created a mechanism for
bringing about price stability for internationally traded commodities.
And we need to develop those. Futures markets are such a mechanism.
They focus the wealth of knowledge of the producer, trader, and mer-
chandiser to create an educated market where, if well regulated in the
same sense that our stock markets are regulated, price movements
take place in an orderly stabilizing environment.
Just as many of our domestic commodity markets perform these
essential price functions well, so international futures markets can
be created to perform the same functions. Futures trading may not now
exist in all types of coffee, but I believe that, with less effort than
is now expended in the administration of the International Coffee
Agreement, a smoothly ftmctioning international futures market could
be created for coffee. I have long hoped that an appropriate committee,
but particularly the Joint Economic Committee, would intensively
study one of these commodities, sugar or coffee or any single one, in
order to have an economic case study upon which to base our com-
modity policy. And this study is basically needed. All these questions
and more are in need of concerted action. Our next problem is to decide
what to do about them. The President has asked the Special Rep-
resentative for Trade Negotiations, Ambassador William Roth, to con-
duct a full-scale study of these problems. As Ambassador Roth ex-
plained yesterday, this study will take place by means of interagency
task forces, and it will be headed by a new Public Advisory Commit-
tee. This Public Advisory Committee and the format of the study
should be modeled as much as possible along the lines of the Hoover
Commission-that is, there should be congressional participation in all
its aspects.
Of course it would not provide one feature of the coffee agreement.
which is a hidden subsidy to coffee producers accomplished by means
of maintaining artificially high coffee prices. A futures market would
provide desirable price stability but not subsidy-it would therefore
not artificially encourage continued coffee production and continued
surplus, but provide a market stimulus for producers to lessen produc-
tion and, hopefully, to diversify into other products. I have commented
further on international futures markets in the Congressional Record
of July 11, 1966, pages 14373-14374.
The pause for study, while needed to formulate effective policies and
effective means of carrying them out, must not be allowed to dull our
Government's responses to the trade problems that will continue to
confront us. In my July 10 report concentrating on chemicals I also
discussed the problem of the border tax. Here is an area. where I be-
lieve that, because of the rapid development in Europe of a harmonized
turnover tax system and increased border taxes, there is a need for
international consultation at least to define the issues behind the dis-
pute about the `alleged adverse effects on U.S. exports of the border
tax and export rebate that are part of the turnover method of indirect
taxation.
Let me emphasize one of the great things I thought we created in
the Reciprocal Trade Act of 1962, this prominent mechanism in our
society, the Office of Trade Negotiator of which Ambassador Roth is
the head. This is permanent structure.
PAGENO="0117"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 113
WThile discussing the trade policy studies to be undertaken by the
administration, I would suggest that there is an alternative that should
perhaps be considered. `Would not the most effective method of study-
ing our foreign trade policy in its proper context be a much broader
Foreign Economic Policy Commission, which has adequate financial
backing to hire an independent staff and secure outside studies from
external sources, hold hearings in various parts of the United States
and abroad, and publish its own studies? My concern is that we at-
tempt to create a policy that is farsighted as well as oriented to prob-
1cm solving in the near term.
There is another kind of study that should be undertaken either
within or outside the Government. There `has never been an effort to
find out what the economic effects of tariff reductions reallyare. Five
rounds of tariff negotiations have been undertaken since `World War
II without any thorough attempt to document their effects on world
trade. The sixth and most far-reaching, tariff negotiation has just
concluded, and it has been accomplished with the best statistical re-
sources and equipment that have ever been employed. This wealth of
statistical data should be used to study the economic effects of the tariff
cuts just completed. This would necessarily be a long-term effort be-
cause the tariff cuts are staged over 5 years. But `it should, at some
stage, be undertaken.
One of the great achievements of the 1962 Trade Act was to establish
the organization needed to conduct trade negotiations, the Special
Representative for Trade Negotiations. I am convinced that `the Spe-
cial Representative for Trade Negotiations, created by the T'rade Ex-
pansion Act as a position responsible directly to the President and
with confirmation by the Senate, was the proper means of carrying
out the mandates of the 1962 Trade Act. I think it has brought much
greater independence and much more scholarship into the conduct of
our trade negotiations.
I am pleased to see that the continuation of the Office of the Special
Representative has been budgeted for this fiscal year. Even though the
Trade Act's delegation of negotiating authority has run out, there is
nothing in the Trade Act to suggest that the Special Representative
should cease functioning, and instead of allowing the function to
wither, increased responsibility should be given to the Special Repre-
sentative for conducting foreign trade relations. T'he impending legis-
lation to give the President some "housekeeping" authority in this area
may be `an appropriate place to redefine the functions of the Special
Representative and strengthen `his office.
Ideally, I would like to see us move toward a method of administra-
tion used by the British and other governments. That is, I believe we
should ultimately create a Department of International Economic
Affairs headed by a Cabinet Secretary. This Department would com-
bine functions in the trade area trade and monetary policy, including
development aid, that now are scattered throughout the `Government
in many different agencies.
Finally, what of the congressional role in such decisionmaking? It
is understood, of course, that the President has the power to conduct
foreign relations, and it is equally certain that the Congress has the
power to regulate interstate and foreign commerce. The.re is obviously
PAGENO="0118"
114 T~ FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
a tension created by this assignment of powers. The tension can be
restored by Congress truly taking the initiative in many difficult trade
areas by holding hearings, by studying the problems, and then giving
the President the mandate to try to solve the problems through inter-
national action. Another way to help resolve this inherent tension be-
tween executive and legislative powers is to include full congressional
participation in cases where the President employs his negotiating
power in the foreign trade field such as in the Kennedy Round.
The role of Congress in foreign trade is not simply passive. The
Tariff Commission, of course, is an arm of Congress, in one way in
which we do follow these things closely.
We should not simply sit by to act only when called upon by the
President, or to examine trade ~oiicy broadly only in the years pre-
ceding or concluding a new tariff and trade negotiation. The role of
Congress, and the participation of Congress, should be persistent and
continuing, and it will be much more informed as a consequence.
So, I conclude by again urging that the Joint Economic Committee
put on its agenda as a regular function hearings on the President's
annual trade report.
Thank you very much.
Chairman BOGGS. Mr. Curtis, I would like to commend you on a very
comprehensive statement, and on the amount of time and effort that
you gave not only to the statement but to the work that you did in
Geneva. I appreciate very much your coining here. Your statement
has been most helpful.
Mr. Reuss, any questions ?
Representative REuss. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I join with our chairman in congratulating Mr. Curtis, not only on
the statement, but on his valuable work in making, I think, a tremen-
dous success out of the congressional experiment in the Trade Expan-
sion Act in section 243, in setting up a full-fledged congressional
delegate.
I have read over the years with great interest the interim reports
which you have given us in the Congress, and usually in the pages of
the Congressional Record. I don't say that I have read every word of
the fine print, but I have read most of it. And I think you have done a
tremendous job of keeping us informed.
I also find myself in very close agreement with you on almost every
point you make in this substantive paper this morning.
I would take time to pursue just one line there with you. You point
out, and it is surely true, that in trade negotiations themselves we in
the Congress through the congressional delegates, have established a
pretty good liaison arrangement. We have tried to adapt our congres-
sional political system to the needs of the modern world. It is also true,
I think, that in the field of international monetary reform-something
that is not before us this morning-due to the receptivity of Secretary
Fowler and the Treasury Department generally, a good working ar-
rangement has been provided whereby the Joint Economic Committee
and the Banking and Currency Committee have been kept in close
touch with the progress of international monetary negotiations. And
while some of us aren't formal delegates, there is a role analagous to
our role in trade.
PAGENO="0119"
THE FIJTTJRE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 115
Which leads me, of course, to your excellent suggestion that we
should give consideration to the establishment of a permanent or semi-
permanent foreign economic policy commission, on which I would take
it you would want Hoover Commission type congressional represen-
tation?
Representative CURTIS. Yes.
Representative REUSS. You spoke specifically of Ambassador Roth's
ad hoc informal activities. But there he is concerned just with trade.
And it is informal. I think I am right in distilling out of what you
said a recommendation that there should be a statutory forum and a
congressionally participated in foreign economic policy commission.
Representative CImTIs. Yes; I think it should be formalized. I think
we know enough now so that we could formalize it with some wisdom.
Representative REUSS. And this commission would concern itself
with trade negotiations, of course, with international monetary mat-
ters, but also with some of these other important things, monetary
values, commodity agreements-
Representative CURTIS. Investment, development loan funds, and
very close coordination with AID. I want to again emphasize that I
think that AID performs a real function, but in order to do it it should
be closely coordinated with the private sector.
Representative REUSS. One point you made in connection with pri-
mary commodities of developing countries. You particularly mentioned
the other commodity which I have had occasion to allude to the 2
days of hearings, sugar. And it seemed to me that these were items
as to which long range and well thought out policies were necessary.
It is not criticizing anybody in particular to say that we do not now
have them. We are hopeful that a foreign policy economic commission
could take a fresh approach.
Representative CURTIs. I think the Joint Economic Committee
would take any commodity, sugar, for instance, one that is important
to developing, countries-or coffee, or copper and go into depth to
determine what the economics and the political problems are. I think
that would be very desirable. That is where I would like to see us do
this study on the futures market to see whether my hunch that futures
markets, properly regulated, would serve the very necessary purpose of
stabilizing prices is valid. That was the big reason for the Interna-
tional Coffee Agreement. The prices do fluctuate. So we went to, in
effect, the quota license technique of stabilizing the prices. I think if
we understood the futures markets better we would find that this would
serve this purpose and really utilize the great efficiencies that do ex-
ist in the marketplace.
Representative REuss. I am not sure, at this stage, that I share your
optimism about the futures market as `a sole regulator of the price and
protection of basic commodities. But the only way to find out is to
study it. And that has not been done.
I conclude with `the hope that you will further refine your thoughts
about a foreign economic policy commission and introduce legislation
on it. I am certainly disposed to want to work with you on it.
Representative CURTIs. Let me say that perhaps we can work on this
together. I would very much welcome you, and particularly someone
from the other side of the aisle. This is not a partisan thing in any
PAGENO="0120"
116 THE FUTURE OF tT.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
sense, and I think it would be very valuable to work on this on a
bipartisan basis.
Representative REu5S (now presiding). I thank the gentleman.
Mr. Widnall?
Representative W~NALL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I do want to join with the chairman and with Congressman Reuss
in complimenting you on the excellent presentation today and the fine
effort that you have been making in this particular field.
For those of us in the Congress who have been with you over a
period of years know of your own expertise in this particular area
and your own dedication through the years.
You have made some very constructive suggestions here today, that
I think, as Congressman Reuss' has just said, refined and presented
would give us something more than a. pause for thought, and a chance
to act affirmatively on something't.hat can improve our present position.
I want to especially commend you for the great effort that you
have been making through the years to inform the country and also
the Congress as to what has been going on. And the five reports that
you are now making in a series called "The Kennedy Round and the
Future of the U.S. Trade Policy" I think will prove invaluable to
all of us.
Thank you.
Representative CuRTIs. Thank you very much.
I would like to add one other thing. Many people in my own com-
munity have said why spend all of this effort on such a complicated
subject as foreign trade and what. it does to us.
I honestly believe that there is more war and peace wrapped up
in these economic problems and trade than anything I can think of.
If we can come up with more rational solutions in this area, we are
going to do more toward attaining that which we are all seeking,
which is a peaceful world based on justice. And I think the efforts
are well worth it to dig into this most complicated subject and see
what we can do.
Representative RELTSS. I agree with you. And I don't have to acT-
jure the gentleman to stick to his guns. hecause~ I know he will.
We want. to thank you, Congressman Curtis. for your great con-
tribution. And we want to thank the other excellent witnesses that
appeared before us this morning.
Chairman Boggs had to go to the phone, but he has asked me to say
that we will convene tomorrow morning at. 10 o'clock in room 120~,
New Senate Office Building, where we will hear Kenneth Younger,
director, Royal Institute of International Affairs, and Aurelio Peccei,
vice chairman of Olivetti, member of the Steering Committee of Fiat-
Turin, and president of Italconsult. Rome.
We stand adjourned until that. time.
(Whereupon. at 11 :55 a.rn.. the subcommittee adjourned, to recon-
vene at. 10 a.rn.. Thursday. July 13, 1967).
PAGENO="0121"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
THURSDAY, JULY 13, 1967
CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES,
SUBCOMMITTEE ON FOREIGN ECONOMIC POLICY,
JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE,
TVa~hington, D.C.
The subcommittee met at 10 a.m., pursuant to notice, in room 1202,
New Senate Office Building, I-Ion. Hale Boggs (chairman of the sub-
committee) presiding.
Present Repi esentatives Boggs, WTidnill, `md IRumsfeld, `mud Sen
`mtoi Millei
Also present: John B. Stark, executive direc:tor; John B. Henderson,
staff economist; Donald A. Webster, minority staff economist.
Chairman BOGGS. Tile subcommittee will come to order.
We are pleased to have two distinguished witnesses, Mr. Aurelio
Peccei, who is an outstanding industrial and business leader in Italy.
He has probably done as much to contribute to the outstanding indus-
trial development of Italy since World War II as any single man.
I would like to make a part of the record at this point his complete
biographical sketch.
(Tile biographical sketch follows:)
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF DR. AURELIO PECOEI
Born July 4, 1908 in Turin, Italy, he holds a summa cum laude doctorate in
Economics from the University of Turin. During the war he was an active mem-
ber of the underground Resistance Movement in Italy; and was jailed during one
year for that activity.
He joined the Fiat Co. of Turin in 1930 and has been member of the Steering
Committee since 1950. He is head of the Latin American Affairs Division and
Chairman of the Board of Fiat Concord, the industrial subsidiary in the Argen-
tine.
He has been President of Italconsult, Rome, the foremost firm of engineering
and economic consultants in Italy, since its incorporation in 1957.
When Fiat took an interest in the Olivetti Co. of Ivrea in May 1994 be was
appointed President and Chief Executive of the Company for three years. Having
completed his mission he remained with Olivetti as its Vice Chairman.
Chairman BOGGS. Also tile Right Honorable Kenneth Younger, who
has had a distinguished career. He was a Member of Parliament from
1945 until 1959, during which time lie held the positions of Parlia-
inentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State from 1945 to 1946,
and to the Under Secretary of State for Air, 1946 to June 1947, and
the Chairman of the UNRRA, Committee of Council for Europe from
1946 to 1948.
117
PAGENO="0122"
118 TEE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
I will also include in the record the complete biographical sketch of
Mr. Younger.
(The biographical sketch follows:)
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF hr. HON. KENNETH YOUNGER
Kenneth Younger was born December 15, 1908 and educated at New College,
Oxford. During World War II he served in the British Army Intelligence Corps.
He was elected to Parliament in 1945 where he served as a Labour Party mem-
ber until 1949. During this time he held the positions of Parliamentary Private
Secretary to the Minister of State (1945-46) and to the Under-Secretary of State
for Air (1946-47), and Chairman of the UNRRA, Committee of Council for Eur-
ope (1946-48).
He became Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Home Affairs from
1947-50 and was Minister of State for Foreign Affairs from 1950-51.
In 1953 Mr. Younger accepted the position of Joint Vice-Chairman of the Royal
Institute of International Affairs and in 1959 became Director of that
organization.
Chairman BOGGS. We are happy to have you here, Mr. Younger and
Mr. Peccei.
Mr. Peccei, you may proceed first. And the other members of the
subcommittee wifi be coming along.
We appreciate the long journey that you have made.
STATEMENT OP AURELIO PECCEI, VICE CBAIRMAN OP OLIVETTI,
MEMBER OP THE STEERING COMMITTEE OP FIAT-TURIN, AND
PRESIDENT OP ITALCONSULT, ROME, ITALY
Mr. PECGEI. I wonder, Mr. Chairman, if I may make some side com-
ments to my prepared statement?
Chairman Boans. Certainly. Proceed in any way you wish.
Mr. PECOEI. First of all, I should like to thank you for the honor that
you have done me with your invitation to appear before you, thus
giving me an opportunity to express some personal views with regard
to certain aspects of international trade.
It is particularly gratifying for me to address you, gentlemen, since
I am fully aware of the great contribution that your subcommittee has
made, and is making, in the continuous review of the various problems
which beset the expansion of international trade.
We in Europe have been particularly impressed by, and indeed we
owe you a debt of gratitude for the initiative that you have taken
some years ago in clearing the ground and making it possible for the
United States to adopt the 1963 Trade Expansion Act. We would
have had no Kennedy Round but for your enlightened foresight.
I propose to discuss today three main areas in which international
cooperation and bold American initiative are required; namely, the
post-Kennedy Round prospects, East-West trade, and trade relations
with developing countries. There is nothing novel in this approach,
but these are undoubtedly the main issues before us.
With regard to the Kennedy Round, I believe that one can say that
the world has gotten adjusted even too quickly to the extraordinary
technical results which have been reached. It seems to me that we
haven't yet had the time to appreciate and appraise the fact that the
negotiations which went under the Kennedy Rolmd name have pro-
PAGENO="0123"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 119
duced the greatest tariff reductions known so far. It is true that the
original goals have not been attained, and that therefore there is a
residue of custom duties still barring a completely free international
trade. Nonetheless, one could ask legitimately the question whether
there is any sense in maintaining-after all-a custom structure so
small, so insignificant and yet so expensive to administer. In many
cases, isn't this residue more a fiscal than a protective feature Cer-
tainly, this is true for the external tariff of the European Economic
Community. My hope is that in due course the governments concerned
will draw the logical conclusion and muster the necessary strength to
dispose entirely of it.
The Kennedy Round is to be applauded for its outstanding tech-
nical results, but even more so for its political implications. There
were and are still latent, in every country in the world, powerful pro-
tectionist forces. The political implication of the Kennedy Round is
that these forces have been deterred, if not finally defeated. Had the
Kennedy Round failed, or had it produced inadequate results, we
would be witnessing their resurrection, and ours would be an uphill
fight.
But those who believe, as I do, in an ever freer international trade,
cannot rest in complacency. One large area has remained unattacked
by the Kennedy Round: the whole diversified cumbersome area of
nontariff obstacles. And this provides the ground for our work ahead.
Permit me to say that in this respect as a European I look to your
subcommittee with confidence and hope. No country goes blameless
for having devised, through an ingenuity that would be better placed
in the promotion of free trade, all sorts of unilateral and objectionable
measures. It is quite obvious that each one of these measures is justi-
fled by Governments responsible for them on various grounds, and
that all of them are deep rooted in each of the national economies con-
cerned. Nevertheless, very few of them could stand the test of broader
international interests.
If I may give you an example, in the opinion of people in my coun-
try and the rest of Europe, this is the case of the countervailing duties
on imports from Italy of fabricated structural steel units established
by a Treasury Department's decision of April 21, 1967, right on the
eve of the Kennedy Round successful conclusion.
This decision is based on the Bounty Act of 1890, which in 70 years
was applied only in a very few cases. Now, the Treasury Department
modified its longstanding interpretation that the legislation does not
apply to rebates of internal taxes by the exporting country; and im-
posed countervailing duties by unilateral action, instead of proceed-
ing by international consultation and agreement in OECD, as all the
member states unanimously agreed, or in GATT, which, by the way,
would have assured that every country `and every party would be
treated equally, instead of selecting a specific product from one
country.
I have mentioned this example, among others, because of the dis-
concert, bitterness, and malaise it is raising in Italy.
I believe that after the Kennedy Round the time has come for a
sincere soul-searching analysis. It is my hope that-for the sake of
PAGENO="0124"
120 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
international cooperation-a stock-taking operation, painful as it may
be, will be promoted on the widest possible international basis.
I am aware that such exercise has been already started in the. United
States on a. national basis, but an international approach is needed.
I am confident that through an objective analysis, through a sincere
give-and-take attitude, a process of gradual elimination will he initi-
ated. For too long Americans and Europeans have been accusing each
other of ill-doings, with the result that only the faults of the other
side were emphasized, in a fruitless and frustrating exercise. A more
direct confrontation might serve the more constructive purpose to turn
the criticism inward. In this connection may I suggest that. it might
be well that the trade policy study President ~Johnson ha.s asked Am-
bassador Roth to undertake over the next year be matched by or coin-
bined with a. similar study to he undertaken by the EEC, which should
he prompted to do it, and another by EFTA on the United Kingdom.
Some quiet. off the record contacts among the Atlantic protagonists
of world trade may serve some. of the purposes outlined in the very
good paper presented to this subcommittee by Mr~ Robert Schwenger,
that is, to coordinate the economic activities of. governments-at
least across the Atlantis-without resorting to arbitrary political
pressures. .
Such an approach is even more necessary now that, having almost
dismantled the custom tariff fortress, governments will be subject. to
severe pressure and tempted to restore protectionist policies and prac-
tices on a. nontariff basis. No doubt, we must be vigilant.
When looking to American-European trade relations. assuming
that the process of elimination of tariff barriers may continue to the
very successful end, the nontariff area offers the greatest opportunity
for further cooperation.
Some adequate arrangements will have to be made, also. with regard
to the implications of the growing technological gap between the
United States and Europe. As you know, we are faced here with a
rather hazy problem, because a clear-cut, definition of the gap is still
to be found. Nevertheless, I believe that informed circles would not
any longer doubt that a gap exists.
Specifically, the problem that affects international trade is the
question as to how technology should be transferred from one country
to another and from one company to another.
Here again. I believe that. a, liberalistic approach should be adopted,
and that the countries which lag behind in technological development
should niot shield themeslves under a protective structure, whether
custom or otherwise, least they are condemned to a progressive under-
developed status; conversely, countries which are ahead in techno-
logical development, should not indulge in monopolistic attitudes least
they themselves are tempted by ephemeral advantages and thus iso-
late themselves from the rest of the world.
We must keep in mind that the main feature of our contemporary
world is interdependence, and that any action intended to ignore
reality can only produce damages for all.
I would like to mention in this connection that an important Con-
ference on Trans-Atlantic Technoloaical Imbalance and Coopera-
tion was sponsored by the Scientific Technological. Committee of the
PAGENO="0125"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 121
North Atlantic Assembly-of which Senator Javits is so prominent
a member-and the Foreign Policy Research Institute of the TJniver-
sity of Pennsylvania; and was held last May in Deauville. After an
extensive study of the problems involved, the conference reached some
conclusions, which may be of some interest to this subcommittee, as
they are related to the exchange of goods and know-how.
The continuation of the conference work which was decided at
Deauville may receive moral support from this subcommittee.
Mr. Chairman, I have here the final report of the conference for
this subcommittee, if you will allow me to put it at your disposal.
Chairman BOGGS. It is so ordered.
(The report follows:)
REPORT OF THE CONFERENCE ON TRANSATLANTIC TECHNOLOGICAL
IMBALANCE AND COLLABORATION*
(Sponsored by the Scientific/Technological Committee of the North Atlantic
Assembly and the Foreign Policy Research Institute of the University of
Pennsylvania; Hotel du Golf, Deauville, France, May 25-28, 1967)
INTRoDuCTIoN
A conference dealing with the problems of technological imbalance in the
Atlantic Community was held in Deauville, France, from May 25-28, 1967. The
conference chose to work in five different panels which dealt with the following
problems:
(1) Educat'ion.-Higher education (problems of scale, nature and quality),
implications of cultural factors for scientific creativity, education in institutes of
technology, university or other educational facilities, source and adequacy of
educational funding.
(2) &,ientific Researeh.-Status of pure research, basic research base, tech-
nological transfer organizations, information transfer schemes including common
standards for documentation, reporting, institutional mechanisms.
(3) Industrial Management .-Size of corporations, national/international
characteristics, size of national markets, impact of patents and licensing regula-
tions, scope of U.S. investment in Europe, barriers to collaboration, management
education and training, competitive situation of U.S. and European corporations
in various industrial lines, attitudes toward privately financed research, ade-
quacy of privately financed research.
(4) Governmental role.-Government investment in Research and Development
(defense-oriented and non-defense-oriented), government contract policies, de-
fense spin-offs, weapons standardization, security restrictions (i.e., McMahon
Act), leadtime problems, military collaboration, political-economic competition,
and rivalry (i.e., the SST), taxation policies (i.e., amortization time).
(5) Technological Development and Application.-Topics in this seminar dealt
with present status, level of achievement, and priority with respect to: electronics,
computers, avionics, ceramics, metallurgy, nuclear energy (peaceful and military
applications), life matter (e.g., biophysics, biochemistry), problems of techno-
logical transfer.
I. DiAoNosis
The panels began their deliberations by asking the following questions: Is
there a technological gap and will there be a gap in the future?
The answers varied according to the differences in definitions of the words
"technological" and "gap" as well as to conflicting judgments. The differences of
definition of "technological" derived from differences in focus on such phenomena
as scientific research; the application of research to production; the marketing of
production; investment, government and private, in research and development;
as well as restraints upon political independence brought on by disparities in
politically relevant technological resources.
*A draft report was presented at the Plenary Session of the Conference on the morning
of May 28. This report Incorporates suggestions and criticisms made at that time by the
participants.
PAGENO="0126"
122 THE FUTIJRE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
These different definitions of "technological" made it difficult to agree on
whether or not there was a gap because each person's reference was not the
same. As the panels progressed, the referents became clearer, and a consensus
was built which included the greatest number of participants. It was generally
agreed that there was an overall imbalance between Europe and America, but
in a number of specific industries and in certain areas of pure science Europe
enjoys parity and even superiority. However, the number of such sectors was
relatively small and the United States was seen to have a decided edge, not only
in the overall conditions, asserted to result in technological growth, but in the
specific results themselves, especially in the critical industries of aerospace, elec-
tronics and computers.
Thus, defining "gap" as an uneven distribution of technologically relevant
resources, it was agreed that such a gap existed. There was also a sentiment
that, even in the local circumstances where now the gap was not pronounced,
the future was threatening because of the large scale impetus to technology
which the Americans were able to stimulate in their society. Furthermore there
were gaps within Europe itself and between Europe and the undeveloped nations.
Under these circumstances, the panelists turned to the causes of the disparities
identified.
While there is much variation in the individual cases, reflected in the different
examples discussed in each panel, a number of common themes can be identified
which lay at the base of the technological imbalance. Large scale European-
Atlantic differences in values, mobility, institutional structures, size, and rigidity
were seen to account for the discrepancies. Values or attitudes which might
foster behavior leading to technological growth were found to be relatively
weak in Europe. Whether the issue under discussion was the attitudes toward
accepting innovation and change, or working to increase the profit of a firm,
or moving to turn pure science into applied technology, the values of Europeans
were deemed to be less supportive to technology than those of Americans.
Mobility was another common theme. The reference varied from one panel
to the other. Some stressed the relatively greater capacity of Americans for
geographic mobifity, while other stressed the relative ease with which Americans
enjoyed occupational mobility between universities, research institutes and
the industrial sector. In each panel, the relative dynamism of American society
was underlined as a major cause of technological superiority deemed to be de-
pendent on the free exchange of individuals and information throughout the
society. Special attention was paid to the link between the generator of science,
the university, and the applicator of science, industry. The link was seen to be
highly productive in the United States and relatively weak in Europe.
Related to the differences in mobility, are the differences in institutional
structures. Communications between institutions and within institutions were
deemed to be better in the United States than in Europe. In the new pragmatic
political environment of the United States, government is allowed and even
encouraged to play a major role in developing the U.S. technological base. Gov-
ernment aids industry by subsidizing research in the early non-profit stage.
Industry profits from spin-offs from government initiated projects. Mutual bene-
fits accrue from the structural relations which industry, government, and the
university have evolved with each other. The relative absence of structural
barriers against trade and the relative ease with which the different economic,
political, and intellectual institutions can communicate with each other and
adapt to changes in the needs of one or the other partner, all these assets of
the dynamic environment were considered by many to be at the root of tech-
nological disparities.
For others, size was counted as a major asset in favor of the United States.
Size of firm, to allow for capital formation and size of production facility, to
allow for small unit cost, were said to work in the favor of the United States.
The size of market was judged as an especially important and, perhaps, critical
factor. However, some panelists argued that size alone was not the key factor.
Some smallfirms have managed to be extraordinarily innovative. It was pointed
out that the critical role of size varied from one phase of product development to
the other, and from one sector to the other.
In all panels, mention was made of the relative rigidity of European factors of
production. The flexibility and adaptability which characterizes social and eco-
nomic institutions in the United States `was deemed as a useful asset of a
technologically receptive society. Unpredictable demands of a rapidly developing
PAGENO="0127"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 123
technology are most readily met in a society which is flexible and willing to
evolve new forms of person-to-person, institution-to-institution relations. The
relatively larger sector of American society which has been educated on the
college and university level, contributes to that flexibility and mobility which
enhances employment opportunities.
Among the factors judged by most conference members to be at the base of
technological differences between Europe and America, the disparities of values,
mobility, structure, size, and rigidity were viewed as the most serious. Their
influence was great because they were related to each other in an interacting sys-
tem in which the multiplier effect of the American assets made the potential of
the United States appear enormous and European disadvantages appear to be
part of a vicious circle.
The pessimism which appeared in some panels as a result of diagnosing the
problem was relieved by a number of alternative views. It is evident that there
has been substantial success in Europe. There are many examples which cast
doubt on the assumptions in the diagnosis. Evidently, there are firms w-hich,
applying technology, successfully compete with the United States, even in the
North American home market. There are industries-notably, nuclear energy,
metallurgy, and chemicals-which have readily technologically equalled or sur-
passed their competitors in the United States. Obviously, the vicious circle can
be-and has been-broken in many technological areas.
The examples of success show that a diagnosis which excludes the possibility
of remedial solutions is too pessimistic. Nonetheless, these are severe restrictions
on Europe's ability to rapidly accelerate and close the gap in a short time. The
interaction of factors is complicated. It requires systematic treatment. While
there was a consensus on the list of important factors, there was no consensus
on their relative importance and the nature of their interaction. Scientific and
systematic methods of analysis must themselves be brought to an understanding
of the process of technological growth. The conference participants had no such
systematic knowledge available to them. Differences of opinion derived not only
from different values, but also from different understandings of what is needed
to stimulate technology. It was clear from differences in national and sector per-
formances, that the problems are complex and in need of further systematic
effort.
However, no one underestimated the magnitude of the assignment. A large
body of interacting and complex factors had to be moved together to make a
major assault on the problem. To do this, goals had to be defined which would
capture the attention of relevant parties and motivate them to a major effort.
However, when the panels turned their attention to the goals which might
provide the unifying and motivating impetus, the agreement on causes gave way
to disagreement on aims. While the motivating symbols of past regional co-
operation still commanded attention, they did not now suffice to ensure con-
sensus. Instead, more emphasis was placed on solving problems by functional
categories. Regional loyalties to nation or to Europe or to the Atlantic area
were determined by the pragmatic criterion of their respective relevance to the
solution of problems at hand.
In sum, the gap was recognized. Though its seriousness was evaluated differ-
ently, no one wanted to allow present forces to continue in the present direction.
Whether the reasons for action be political, economic, social, or some mix of
these motives, action was desired by the greatest number of participants. The
panels then turned their attention to a program for action.
PART Il-REcoMMENDATIoNs
A. GENERAL
In dealing with such a complex problem as the Transatlantic technological
gap it is much easier to diagnose the causes of disparities than it is to present
prescriptions for eliminating them, let alone to achieve consensus as to which
prescriptions should be adopted. The recommendations which follow reflect a
consolidation of those reported by the various panel chairmen as both desirable
and to a lesser extent feasible. Their presentation does not imply any enorse-
ment by individual panel members or by the conference as a whole. These rec-
ommendations were preceded by. discussions of American and European en-
vironments and goals respectively.
PAGENO="0128"
124 T~ FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Great achievements result from sustained and compelling motivations along
with the dynamic competitiveness of the American system. The source of many
American accomplishments in science and technology can be traced, in part, to
the successive challenges presented to the United States by the Second World
War, the cold war, the Korean conflict, the space race and involvement in Viet-
nam. Which challenges will evoke a comparable European response or which goals
can the peoples of Western Europe pursue which will similarly motivate the
nations of Europe to accelerate their technological capabilities? Some of those
might be:
1. The Soviet Cli allenge.-Under the American umbrella Europeans never felt
compelled to meet, by themselves, the challenge of Soviet power. As long as the
growing Soviet industrial and technological base is perceived by Western Euro-
peans as posing no threat to their societies, the peoples of Western Europe are
unlikely to make great technological exertions to counter balance Soviet tech-
nological advances.
2. American Technological Hegemony.-The potential threat to European
independence posed by this possibility may motivate some but not all Europeans
to match American technological powers. At the very least, however, most Euro-
peans would like to improve their technological status in order to bargain more
effectively with America regarding technological disparities.
3. Solving Ccnnmon Problems.-The social, political and human problems posed
by urbanization and environmental pollution are now threatening the quality
of human life for people living in urban areas in most parts of the globe. A co-
operative search for solutions to these new problems may hasten technological
progress.
4. Aid. to Developing 2catioizs.-Modern technology is compressing the distances
that formerly separated peoples. If the gap between the well-being of peoples
living in the "Third world" and those living in the industrialized nations grows,
the world may be come politically more unstable than it is now. There may be a
common European and American interest in exploiting technology and making
it available to the new nations.
None of the foregoing goals may provide sufficient motivation to the Western
European peoples to take all the measures required to reduce, if not eliminate,
the existing transatlantic technological gap. Nevertheless, partial response to
any of these challenges may inspire a determination in Western Europe to reduce
the imbalance between the new world and the old.
Throughout the conference it was generally agreed that concentration of effort
and new experimentation are required within each country and on a European
basis. Though the problems themselves are functional, their solution ultimately
requires both private and political action at the national, European and Atlantic
Community level. Hence, the conference proposals are grouped into three cate-
gories: National, European, and Atlantic Undertakings.
B. NATIONAL UNDERTAKINGS
The recommendations put forward include those concerned with long-term
action affecting structures and attitudes, and those for immediate action.
I. Education
(a) The expansion and democratization of higher education should be pro-
moted so as to extend the pool of competent participants in productive functions
and improve exchange and mobility between employment opportunities. This
should be accompanied by a systematic effort, which is now proceeding, con-
sisting of providing programs of studies corresponding to requirements and
capacities at the various levels.
(b) Tile system of education should be adapted to the new structures of
the world of today, where the scientific approach has become an element of cul-
ture and this end in view:
(1) the training of students in political, social and economic sciences and
the humanities, such as history and law, should be supplemented by an
introduction to technological problems and an education in basic science.
(2) technical training should be supplemented by the teaching of political,
social and economic science and business management.
(c) New disciplines should be introduced into the traditional teaching of
scientific subjects. As scientific subjects and others concerned with the manage-
PAGENO="0129"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 125
ment of businesses are both involved in technological development, they should
be made the subject of programs of studies in higher education.
(d) Promising young students should be drawn into technical disciplines, and
more of them should be encouraged to prepare themselves for careers in the
application of the natural and social sciences in business and industry.
In view of the reduction in the number of students currently attracted by
scientific subjects, it is essential to reverse this trend to intervene both at the
secondary education stage and subsequently to organize programs of higher edu-
cation which, being adapted to the modern world, would promise to stimulate
interest, and enthusiasm, for demanding subjects.
Continuous education in the technological field should be encouraged by in-
dustrial firms. This could be accomplished by staff participation in technical re-
training or advanced training courses lasting from one to six months and taking
place outside the firm. The teaching profession would have to develop many
programs adapted to modern industrial needs. The organization of these pro-
grams will facilitate collaboration between industrial and educational circles.
None of these proposals are very new; many of the methods have already
been applied, and they do not have the same importance for all the countries of
the Atlantic world. Nevertheless, it is well to emphasize these guiding principles,
if only to stress the pressing need for such efforts.
2. Research
While the excellence of much of the fundamental research of Europe is evi-
dent, many reforms are necessary to increase its effectiv~eness. This is a matter
of urgency since such research is a pre-requisite for increasing technological
vitality for the following reasons:
(a) it is vital to the quality and scope of the educational process;
(b) it produces new knowledge availaible for development and industrial
innovation;
(e) without a first class research effort, the lev~el of scientific awareness
of a nation can hardly provide a critical assessment `of the significance of
scientific developments throughout the world which have high technological
potential;
(d) advanced study, associated with re~search is necessary for the pro-
vision of higher skills;
(e) the encouragement of inter-European cooperation should be con-
sidered as a means of extending and complementing national efforts.
Considerable barriers to the full deployment of European effort exist in the
rigidity of many of the national systems and institutions. Recommendations are
therefore made:
(1) to encourage mobility of scientists between European countries;
(2) to improve university-industry relations.
3. Mobility of Scientists
(a) All European governments should recognize university degrees in science
and technology granted by the other countries. (Discussion of equivalence of
diplomas is likely to be sterile but employers and especially research institutes
are well aware of the value and nature of degrees in the main countries. De-
grees in medicine pose special problems preventing mutual recognition.)
(b) Governments should make it possible for foreigners to occupy univer-
sity chairs where this is not now possible. Provision should be made for the ap-
pointment of visiting professors from abroad.
(c) Consideration should be given to means of maintaining pension rights
on movement from one country to another and also that social security schemes
should be extended where ne~essary to insure medical and other benefits.
4. University-Industry Relations
(a) It is highly desirable that mobility between universities, industrial firms
and government research laboratories be encouraged. Furthermore, it is to the
benefit of both firms and universities that many other forms of cooperation be
extended including the acceptance of suitable research projects by universities,
the use of university staff for advice, the recognitiomi of good work completed
in industrial and governmental laboratories for higher degree purposes, and
the participation of industrialists in special university courses and seminars.
(b) It is specifically recommended that each country should initiate dialogue
between industrialists and academics to assess the existing situation on such
S2-18l-----67-vol. I-O
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126 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
matters, to make specific recommendations and initiate schemes of cooperation,
International exchange of such schemes is also desirable.
(c) European scientists should be taught to appreciate the importance of the
industrial sector of society. To maximize collaboration between the universities
and industry, opportunities should be sought and devices worked out to promote
greater intimacy between them in enterprises of mutual benefit.
(d) To promote further interchanges and improved collaboration between in-
dustry and the world of education, professors should be granted one or two
sabbatical years, during which they have the opportunity to participate in
industry as research workers or consultants or are employed part-time in in-
dustrial laboratories. Conversely, businessmen could be invited to deliver lectures
at universities.
U. Government
(a) To encourage the greater mobility of men and information, improve the
management of this mobility, and improve the partnership between the State and
industry and education in the pursuit of certain challenging national aims,
European governments should:
(1) promote greater mobility of men between government, industry and
the universities;
(2) develop clearly defined machinery at the national level for deciding
priorities of a science and technology policy in order to be able to participate
effectively in a European science policy.
(b) Computer technology should be dealt with on a European basis as soon as
possible. Until appropriate arrangements are worked out, it is necessary to
tackle it first of all on a national level, and subsequently try to broaden the field
and develop teaching in the "soft-ware" fields and computer utilization.
C. THE EUROPEAN LEVEL
1. Educatio~
(a) Young engineers leaving their college or university should be encouraged
to follow training courses in industry in countries other than their own. (Such
courses should last one or two years; they should not compromise the future
career of those concerned, but could provide a good means of effecting the
transatlantic transfer of technologies. Even if a certain amount of emgira-
tion resulted from such a scheme, the advantages arising from the return to
Europe of engineers with their training completed in this way would largely
compensate for such loss.)
(b) A few European strong points of research should be developed on an ex-
perimental basis choosing new, interdisciplinary subjects. (As an example,
computer soft-ware was suggested.)
(c) A European Institute of Science and Technology should be established.
(The organization of a European postgraduate course with an international
faculty and students in all subjects concerned with technical progress, ranging
from scientific subjects to their industrial application and including the basic
sciences, economics, sociology and psychology, could be not only a consider-
able stimulant for the various European educational systems but also a rich
source of engineers trained for the requirements of our society. The lengthy dis-
cussion of this proposal surveyed the financial problems involved, the necessity
for a suitable site, the recognition of its diplomas by the various countries con-
cerned. and the necessity for close cooperation at government and private enter-
prise level, both among European countries and between them and the United
States).
2. Industry
(a) European industry should seek to prepare and promote a program for
the Governments of Europe to eventually computerize the economic and ad-
ministrative activities of the Continent with due consideration for the hard-
ware, the software, the communications and the education of personnel needed
for the efficient execution of the program.
(b) Multinational companies should form themselves into an active group to
make available generally the benefits of their experience in organizing business
across national frontiers.
PAGENO="0131"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 127
(c) The Conference should draw the attention of European Governments to
the magnitude of the gap in the aerospace sector as between Europe and the
United States, and stress the urgency of deciding what part Europe wishes to
play in this sector and what aims it wishes to pursue, and upon what European
industry should concentrate its efforts.
3. Government
(a) An overall strategy for European science and technology should be de-
veloped by a common authority. While welcoming the progress being made on.
the basis of bilateral and ad hoc arrangements, these must be integrated, as
soon as possible, within an overall strategy.
(b) European public authorities must seek to harmonize their requirements,
for instance in the fields of computers, communications equipment, aircraft and
defense equipment.
(c) Common requirements should be established to encourage the development
of trans-national consortia and companies.
(d) Certain major joint European development projects would also be a
useful means of promoting the development of European companies or con-
sortia. An example of such a common development project would be the estab-
lishment of a common European Information and Documentation Center for
the whole of science and technology. This Center would provide information
rapidly to the major centers of research in industry, universities and govern-
inents throughout Europe. It would work closely with similar centers in the
United States and other regions. The Center should aim at a highly selective
approach to information acquisition and exchange in order to minimize the
dissemination of irrelevant or trivial documents and data.
(e) European projects should have clearly defined goals and in each case
be run on the single director managerial principle.
(f) European Governments should take early action to facilitate suprana-
tional corporate activities, including the creation of a European company
statute. Simultaneously, fiscal and monetary legislation and practice should be
harmonized and standards and measurements unified. Efforts should be made
to accelerate the removal of the remaining obstacles to the completely free
movement of goods, persons and capital between European nations.
(g) Every encouragement should be given to efforts to simplify and har-
monize existing patent procedures, and, if possible, to establish common Euro-
pean or Atlantic machinery for patent searching and recognition.
D. THE ATLANTIC LEVEL
Common policies in science and technology for Europe should be developed to
create a more fruitful partnership with the United States through the exchange
of information and know-how, and by further negotiations to remove nontariff
barriers to trade and open up public buying on both sides of the Atlantic to com-
petitive tenders from the partner Continents.
The work of the Conference should be continued in some form in order to
promote closer ties between the academic and industrial communities across
the Atlantic.
Mr. PECOEI. Before I turn to other subjects, I should like to spend a
few words on the European Economic Community and its relations
with the world.
On the positive side, I should like to mention that not only the proc-
ess toward the completion of the customs union has practically come
to a successful end, but also the gradual movement toward an external
common tariff is reaching its prescribed final level.
Even before this level is reached, as a result of the Kennedy Round
the Community has accepted to lower it beyond the target established
by the Rome treaty. This is a significant factor, which substantiates
a posture of the Community itself as an outward-looking system.
The process of economic integration among the six member coun-
tries has had very positive effects in expanding their reciprocal trade,
but, more significant, has made of the Community the first ranking
PAGENO="0132"
128 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN~ TRADE POLICY
trading bloc in the world, and its external tariff also ranks among the
lowest in the world.
Having made these few positive remarks, I will admit frankly that
there are certain negative aspects as well. In the first place, the Com-
munity has been too busy, and justifiably so in holding its own struc-
tures, and has, therefore, been forced to postpone consideration of
other matters, and particularly the establishment of a common tra.de
policy, of which there have been so far only scattered examples.
The Community has also suffered from a certain imbalance, due to
its limited membership. Most Europeans-and I am one of them-are
openly in favor of enlarging the Community and admitting other
members.
However, it is too early to advance any prediction at this stage as to
the outcome of the new application submitted by the United Kingdom,
and as to the prospects of other countries to follow suit.
Writh regard to the Community position regarding developing coun-
tries, one can detect a. certain apparent contradiction. In fact, on one
side, the Treat.y of Association wit.h African States provides a model
of sound cooperation insofar as preferences are established to the
benefit of trade with the African countries concerned, financial assist-
ance is provided through the European Development Fund, and broad
technical and cultural assistance is also envisaged. On the other side,
developing countries, which are not part of this broad scheme, and do
benefit from it., claim that they are discriminated against. A claim,
however, which is not confirmed by statistical evidence, since trade
between the Community and nonassocia.ted developing countries has
increased remarkably in the last few years.
Whether a similar arrangement could be devised on a worldwide ba-
sis as between all developed and all developing countries, is a question
that involves the attitude and the politica.l will of many governments
and not only of the major ones. Nonetheless, I believe that one could
venture to say that the Community, without reneging on its obliga-
tions, freely undertaken with the associated states, would not be
opposed to any broader arrangement, as is evidenced by concrete pro-
posals submitted by the Commission to the Council of Ministers at
the beginning of the year 1967.
With regard to East-West trade, I should like to assure you that
I am fully aware of the deep and serious policial implications which
dominate the issue in your country, particularly a.t this juncture. May
I be permitted to say that we in Europe recognized a.t an earlier sta.ge
the vital importance of establishing lively trade relations with the
East, in the firm belief that we would be helping a positive political
development. In taking this attitude, we had to accept the sometimes
unpleasant fact that societies a.nd economies in Western and Eastern
Europe, including the U.S.S.R., were different, and that there was
no use in our trying to convince the other side to follow our pattern,
nor would it have been practical to wait for the other side to become
more similar to us in structures, policies, and practices. To recognize
this essential fact meant for us to introduce flexible adjustments in
our own methods and approaches. To deal with Government agen-
cies in those countries, for instance, rigid and cumbersome as they
are sometimes, is certainly not so pleasant and congenial as to dea.l
PAGENO="0133"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 129
with our Western business counterparts. However, through time, we
found that a certain evolution had taken place among the Eastern
executives with whom we were dealing. They have come nearer to
our point of view; they might rightly say that we have gone nearer
to their point of view. In sum, we came to understand each other
better.
We find that prospects for business in the TJ.S.S.R. and Eastern
Europe are increasing and expanding continuously. There are, of
course, severe limitations, besides mentality and methods. One main
limitation is a very classical one; namely, that trade being by neces-
sity a two-way avenue, we must, perforce, conceive of exports and,
simultaneously, of imports. And there are not very many products
manufactured in those countries which are readily acceptable to our
markets. Furthermore, in order to accelerate economic development
and actively participate in it, we are confronted with the expectation
that we should extend ever longer credits. `In this context, a rather un-
ruly competition is taking place among Western suppliers. A sobering
international action to bring this factor under reasonable control
would be very helpful.
The United States has kept somewhat aloof so far, and in this con-
nection I should like to express the view that a more active U.S. par-
ticipation in trade with Eastern Europe not only would have positive
political implications and would give momentum to the development
process of that area, but also might help in establishing more accept-
able rules; Personally, I regard the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe
not as a hunting reserve for Western Europe, but rather as a promis-
ing groimd in which international trade may expand profitably for
the world at large. I feel sure that Europe would welcome a healthy
competition there with the United States.
Of course, one must keep in mind that in Socialist countries a cen-
tralized procurement system prevails; therefore competition should
take a very special connotation and be obviously different from the
kind of competition that businessmen meet in market economies.
I am not a politician, and as a businessman I might have a slanted
view. Nonetheless, permit me to say that through my contacts and
transactions with East Europeans I have a.cquired a firm conviction;
namely, that trading with them is an effective way to promote better
political understanding. I would go as far as to say that the great
political issues still dividing West and East would, per se, provide
recurent incentives to perpetuate the cold wave, whereas sound trade
relations have proved to be a thawing factor. The knowledge of
reciprocal requirements and supplies, the comparison of each other's
technological achievements, the prospect of a lively exchange, un-
doubtedly are solid prerequisites for the estabilshment of a psycho-
logical and political situation such as prevailed at Glassboro, and,
hopefully, for its aftermath.
In this connection, Mr. Chairman, I have read with great interest
your statement that this subcommittee's study is the long view of the
U.S. foreign trade policy. But then we, the United States a~id Europe,
should make up our mind as to what are our objectives during the next
10 to 12 years vis-a-vis the U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe. If our objec-
tive is to bid for more time and defer any action likely to strengthen
PAGENO="0134"
130 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
the Eastern economies, even at the risk of making it more difficult
and costly to bring them over to our side in the future, then we may
simply go ahead piecemeal as we have done so far, because the scattered
agreements and contracts the European firms have entered or may enter
into in the future with Soviet bloc organizations, however important
some of these contracts may be, would not appreciably change the
overall situation of these countries relative to our situation. if on the
contrary our objective is to try and bring the vast markets, from the
Iron Curtain to Vladivostok, into closer interdependence with the
Altant.ic markets, and seek to influence through trade and economic
cooperation the entire development of these nations, then we must be
prepared to make a. bold step forward. We must recognize that to help
their economies move toward the mass consumption of more sophisti-
cated goods is a rather long term proposition which will require a well-
planned combined East-West effort. And the more clearly and the
sooner the United Sta.tes and Europe define their common policy in this
respect, the better it is for both of them.
Finally, with regard to trade with developing countries. I should like
to say that I am looking at the issues involved with no little concern.
This is due to the fact that I am not satisfied that developed countries
have made the necessary effort so far in order to devise agreed-upon
solutions.
We have had a first round in the United Nations Conference on
Trade and Development in Geneva in 1964, and now we are approach-
ing the second round, which is scheduled in Delhi in early 1968. The
first conference served undoubtedly the purpose of focusing on the
myriad of problems. Solutions were also recommended more or less
realistically. The second conference should serve the purpose of assess-
ing achievements and suggesting further steps. But are we really in a
position t.o do so? In my opinion we are not.
I will not use here the wealth of statistical information which has
been produced in the meantime to prove that those underdeveloped
remain such, and that in relative terms they are more underdeveloped
than before. There has been a distinct lack of unity in the industrial-
ized world in spite of the best intentions displayed and some efforts
undertaken in various international fora. I would venture to say that
perhaps too much emphasis has been placed on the expected cure-all
implications of trade. If massive trade were possible purely through
intergovernmental debates, then I should say that all the words which
could be spent have been spent. But trade is above all a technical mat-
ter, which requires structures, know-how, competitive strength, dis-
tribution skill, quality, prices, and none of these factors can be ex-
pected to become real by a fiat. Developing countries have indulged in
claims and recriminations; developed countries have indulged too
much in lecturing. Unless we recognize that inducements are only the
starting point of a long and painful process, I am afraid that we will
get nowhere.
To promote trade to the benefit of developing countries, in the order
of magnitude which would be required, we must accept in practice, not
only in principle, the need for an international redistribution of labor
and production. The principle has been heralded forcefully and in-
sistently, but the practice has not yet been adopted, if not in a token
measure.
PAGENO="0135"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 131
This is an extremely unpalatable proposition, since it entails first of
all a bold action within our own countries, and also a willingness to
assume delicate political and economic consequences. It is in fact a
double-edged blade, because we should decide gradually to eliminate
within our own economies certain productions, even though the most
elementary, and at the same time open our doors to the imports of the
same products from abroad.
In the process, domestic production and import production will
have to compete on an uneven basis, and instead of pursuing protec-
tionist policies which would be called for according to classical pat-
terns, we should extend a preferential treatment.
This is undoubtedly one of the hot issues which will be reiterated
in Delhi after Geneva. Are we prepared to face it? I have singled
out this problem and will not take any more of your subcommittee's
time in elaborating on others. The question that this problem arouses
is whether the road which has been taken by UNCTAD at Geneva
is going in the right direction. At a time when aid is declining and is
becoming increasingly unpopular, both in donor and in recipient
countries, the question is whether enough groundwork has been done
in order to have trade replace aid. My own view in this connection is
that too little has been done to establish the necessary technical and
structural prerequisites, and too much political theory has been
thrown on the world's lap.
One important fact should be borne in mind, that is that iiitei~na-
tional trade is no longer going to be governed by a purely mercantile
`basis. International trade requires a more complex and sophisticated
approach: industrial and financial investments, consultative activities
and technical assistance become part and parcel of the commercial.
activity at large. Trade demands nowadays a global participation in
the challenging venture of economic development.
Turning now to the general situation of developing countries, as it
appears to be in realistic terms, I should like to emphasize another
conviction `of mine. To lump together Africa, Asia, and Latin America,
and to label them `as all underdeveloped, provides one of the greatest
misconceptions of whi~h the international community suffers nowa-
days. You, gentlemen, know, as I do, that the countries within these
wide areas are much more different than similar in very many ways.
Their level of development is a widely apart `among them as in certain
cases it is apart from us. We must use a different yardstick. We must
rationalize our intervention's and our contributions.
I may add that, if the Atlantic n'a;ti'ons want, `as I hope, to adopt
a long-term trade policy with `respect to t'he less-'developed countries,
they should (a) realize that the issues of trade are strictly intertwined
with those of aid, technical `assistance, and development at large, `and
cannot `be shred from the `fundam~ntal and increasingly serious world-
wide `problems of `population growth and education; and (b) be pre-
p'ared to `define priorities because their resources, however great, are
not enough to do everything everywhere.
They must also objectively `assess which of `the great world regions
is more likely to reach, with our help, `self-sustained development in
the near future.
In this context, in my opinion, we should concentrate a great part
of our efforts in Latin America.
PAGENO="0136"
132 T~ FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
I have particularly in mind that Latin America provides the most
mature economies to be positively helped by our interventions and
contributions. Speaking to Americans. I know that they are fully
aware of this incontrovertible fact. I see in this area of Latin America
not only the prospect for a further and bold American aid and trade
activities, but even more a fertile ground for an imaginative Ameri-
can-European cooperation.
Thank you.
Chairman Boocs. Thank you very much, Doctor Peccei, for a very
fine statement.
Now, we will hear from the Right Honorable Kenneth Younger.
Mr. Younger.
STATEMENT OF RT. HON. KEI~ETH YOUNGER, DIRECTOR, ROYAL
INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, LONDON, ENGLAND
Mr. Youxonn. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I believe that the statement which I put in has been circulated to
members, and I don't wish to take up the time of the committee in
going through it in much detail. But I would like to pick out some of
the main points that I wish to bring to the committee's notice.
I would like, first of all, like Mr. Peccei, to thank you very much
for having given me the opportunity of coining here. I am all the more
honored by it since your subcommittee already has an international
reputation for looking far ahead and for taking a very wide view of
your country's trading policies.
Some of the witnesses who have already appeared before you have
drawn attention to the many uncertainties immediately following the
end of the Kennedy Round negotiations. I think perhaps your com-
mittee will wish me to say something about the major uncertainty
which affects my country, namely, the question of whether we are or
are not going to become a part of the European Economic Community.
Chairman Booos. We would be very interested in hearing about
that.
Mr. YOnXGER. As you know, we had to go through these negotia.-
tions from outside the Community. It is very ironica.l that some of our
continent friends who are among those who do not wish to see us
inside, nevertheless criticized our negotiators because during the nego-
tiations they didn't behave as though they were entirely inside. This
seems to me an unreasonable proposition. But it illustrates the dilemma
thatwearein.
The point which I wish to make to you is that although there is a
great uncertainty about the time at which we might join the Com-
munity. and in particular about the fate of the present application,
I would put it to you, Mr. Chairman, that the correct calculation is that
sooner or later Britain will be in, and with her one or two of the other
countries of Western Europe.
I say this because I think that the opposition to Britain's ent.ry is
of a more temporary kind than the determination which she has now
reached to get in.
She has reached this determination as a result of looking at all the
alternatives, and has notfound any alternative which appeals so much.
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THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 133
I don't believe this opinion is going to change, whereas it seems to me
that the opposition to her entry has been limited largely to the Govern-
ment of France. And we know that even within France there are
several opinions on this matter. I think that French opinion is more
likely to change than the British one.
Nobody can presume to talk for all sectors of opinion, because there
are still differences. And some people believe that if this application
were to be blocked, Britain might feel a revulsion against Europe and
turn elsewhere. But my judgment is clearly against that. I believe that
the concept of the organization of the Western World to which my
country is likely to adhere with a great deal of determination is what
you might call the grand design of two communities, one on each side
of the Atlantic, with Britain being a part of the European Commu-
nity. I believe very strongly that that is the sanest pattern that has
as yet been put forward at any time. And just because it has run into
difficulties I don't think we ought to give it up.
I would like to make a brief comment on the proposal which is
talked about nowadays for the North Atlantic Free Trade Area. As
I understand it, this is being propounded in this country largely by
people whose first preference would be for seeing Britain inside the
Community, and they think of the free trade area as an alternative
only if Britain is excluded. They see it to some extent as a tactic for
persuading the members of the present Community to allow their
Community to be enlarged.
I don't myself feel a strong appeal in this. I think it is significant
that in Britain it is supported almost entirely by those who do not in
any case wish Britain to join Europe. There is a fear among the ma-
jority in Britain who do wish to join the Community that a proposal
of this kind would not bring any pressure on Britain's friends to
help them into the Community, but on the other hand would cast doubt
upon her continuing determination to become a part of Europe.
The second point about our relations with the Community is that if,
as I believe, we do eventually join it, this will, of course, change our
attitude to certain particular tariffs in tariff negotiations, because we
would then be inside the common tariff barrier instead of outside it.
But I do not believe it would change the general attiude of my coun-
try toward what your Trade Expansion Act called open and nondis-
criminatory trading in the free world.
We would, of course, from the time we got in, be negotiating as
part of the Community. And therefore it is of great importance to
us to assess what the attitude of the Community in general has been
determined to be in these negotiations.
The first point, which is of great significance to the whole world
trading community, is that the European Commission succeeded in
negotiating for the whole body of six countries, despite the fact that
they started with many differences of policy. And I think that this
is an indication that the Community today has the lasting power to go
forward.
Moreover, it emerged from a very difficult period of internal dispute
and conflicts strong enough to be able to show considerable flexibility,
and a degree of liberalism toward the end of the negotiations. I feel
that the fear that many people had 3 or 4 years ago, which continued
PAGENO="0138"
134 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
during much of the negotiating period, namely, that we might be faced
with an inward looking, highly protectionist European Community,
this fear, is much less likely to be realized than was then thought. I do
not believe that great differences of doctrine about trade have been
thrown up in these negotiations either between Britain and Europe,
or Britain and the United States, or the United States and the Com-
munity. I think there has been a high degree of doctrinal agreement,
and most of `the difficulties have arisen out of the pull and push of
sectional interests.
I would like to say a few things about the less-developed countries,
realizing, as we all do, that the United Nations Conference on Trade
and Development is due to assemble next year, and that we shall not
be allowed simply to sit back and forget that the less-developed coun-
tries were not so satisfied as they might have been with the outcome of
the Kennedy Round.
So far as preferences are concerned, I would hope that the more-
developed countries may be a little nearer together than they were. in
the Conference in 1964. At that time, as I understand it, the United
States was opposed to preferences of all kinds on the ground that they
were a legacy of imperialism which was no longer appropriate. The
Community upheld its preferences because it said tha.t this protection
was required by the struggling economies of what had been formerly
the dependent territories. While Britain at the end put forward a pro-
posal generalizing these various systems, giving preferences to all less-
developed countries alike.
I would hope that that proposal might be seen now to have made
some progress.
I have seen many references in your statement, Mr. Chairman, to
President Johnson's speech at Punta del Este in which he seemed to
be accepting the idea of some temporary arrangement which would
enable preferential treatment to be given, not to the regions based on
old imperial systems, but to all underdeveloped countries by all devel-
oped countries.
I have some reason, though it is not a very firm one, for thinking
that the European Community might be moving in the same direction,
at least so far as thinidng in the Commission in Brussels is concerned,
though I understand that no decisions have been taken which would
enable the Community to negotiate on this basis at the present time.
I would hope. that the U.S. policy might begin to move in the direc-
tion of a concept of this kind. And in this connection I would like to
mention the proposal of the Director General of GATT that the con-
cepts we agreed on in the Kennedy Round might be applied more
rapidily to the developing countries. I realize that there are difficul-
ties about that, not least, perhaps, the difficulties of new legislation.
But I would hope that this might have favorable consideration in this
country.
Of course, it is not only preferences that are of interest to the de-
veloping world; indeed other questions are of greater importance. I
think perhaps in my paper I have rather underplayed the interest of
less developed countries in having better access to the markets of de-
veloned countries for their manufactured and semimanufactured
goods. They say, not without reason, that we are always telling them
PAGENO="0139"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 135
that they must diversify their economies, that they must not depend
on exports of agricultural products, particularly one special crop in
the case of many countries, and that they must therefore begin to in-
dustrialize. But the structure of tariffs applied by most of our coun-
tries in the developed world makes it exceptionally difficult to do
this. And from the moment they begin to try to export semiprocessed
goods they meet a higher tariff, and fully manufactured goods, a high-
er one still. This is something I think which very urgent attention
should be given.
The other great issue for them is the question of commodity agree-
ments. And here there has been, I think, a considerable resistance in
the developed world, not only because of what one might call doc-
trinal grounds, but because it is intrinsically a very difficult thing to
regulate prices in a reasonable way, if you once start interfering
with the market.
The point here that I would like to make is that, particularly so far
as agricultural produce is concerned, since virtually no country is pre-
pared to apply the principle of free trade to its own agriculture, it
is not plausible to object to the organization and regulation of the
international market in agricultural produce on any kind of theoreti-
cal ground. I think the pressures that prevent it being done are very
largely against interests. I hope that we may see a more active support
in the future, certainly from my country and from other countries, but
perhaps particularly from the United States, and the U.S. Congress,
which has a very powerful influence in these matters.
Mention has already `been made of the nontariff barriers to trade,
which are rapidly becoming the most important issue, more impor-
tant than further reduction of tariffs.
I don't know whether it is true, it may well be quite untrue, but I
think it is fair to say that there is a general impression outside the
United States that the protection `offered by nontariff barriers to U.S.
producers is somewhat more marked than it is in the case of other
countries. `This may only be because you have explicit expressions of
this, such as the Buy American Act. All of our countries, of course,
adopt practices of one kind or another, often very subtle, and often
very hard to identify, which have the same effect. And they all affect
particular `business interests, and they are therefore `particularly hard
for us to change.
The famous instance of the American Selling Price, which is the
most prominent one which has come up in the Kennedy Round, is a
good example of this. But it is, of course, by no means the only one.
Indeed, these non'tariff barriers are so varied and so numerous that
one's `heart quails at the though't of a round of negotiations on a multi-
national basis which are directed to this particular problem.
One `aspect to which I would like particularly to call your attention
is that the removal of nontariff barriers nearly always takes one
directly into what have previously been considered purely domestic
matters. There is therefore a specially strong resistance to what seems
to be foreign interference.
Here again I would like to come back to what I understand to be
the approach of the European Economic Community.
PAGENO="0140"
136 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
It is generally assumed that the most important aspect of the Com-
munity's policy directed to creating future unity among the six has
been the common external tariff. This was prebably so at the beginning.
But I have been assured by well-informed officials of the Community
that this importance has been decreasing. It is still important, of
course, that they have a. common external tariff. But the level of it,
whether it is high or low, has become much less important from this
particular point of view. What has become more important has been
the efforts which they have made, with varying success, to coordinate
their policies in a whole range of other matters, bringing them nearer
to the concept of an economic union.
I don't. think that we can doubt that this has been their experience.
But I think we ought to give our mind rather carefully to the impli-
cations of this sort of doctrine, if it is applied to wider groupings of
countries which have little prospect in the near future of becoming
an economic community.
How far can one, in fact, hope to go beyond the point that we have
now reached in eliminating tariffs among a group of countries which
are not contemplating economic union? It may be that the limiting
factor will turn out to be precisely what we can achieve in the field
of nontariff barriers, in the field of harmonizing and coordinating
policies on taxation, on governmental procurements, on various indus-
trial practices, and so on.
Whereas few doctrinal differences emerged in the Kennedy Round,
because the target for reducing tariffs was limited to 50 percent, had
the target been 100 percent, that is to say complete free trade in these
products, at once some of the discussions on whether this could be
achieved without a much higher degree of harmonization in other
fields would have become important.
Here again, if I may revert for one moment to the North Atlantic
Free Trade Area, if I am right in what I have said about the Com-
munity's attitude over this, it seems to me almost inconceivable that
the Community would be willing to become a member of a free trade
area which was not accepting economic discipline in a wide range of
other fields. Therefore this free trade area has to be seen as some-
thing which excludes the European Economic Community.
In that event I would think that it would be likely to remain a
rather unacceptable concept to Britain, and I think to her EFTA
partners, too, because if they were to join in the free trade area this
would have a tendency to separate them, perhaps, forever, or at least
for a long time, from the Community. I do not think that they would
be prepared to envisage that. I think they would feel it more realistic
and worthwhile, to wait, even if they have to wait for some yea.rs, in
order to become a part of the European Community.
The lowering of tariffs in the Kennedy Round of negotiations would
make that period rather less difficult for them than it would other-
wise have been.
I would like, to say a. word a.bout East-West trade which Mr. Peccei
mentioned. And here I want to make what is primarily a political
point. I realize that East-West trade is not quantitatively of great
importance in the trade of most countries, and probably very unim-
portant in the trade of the United States. But it is becoming politically
PAGENO="0141"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 137
important in Europe for two reasons. First, because improved rela-
tions with Eastern Europe have begun to take a very high priority
in the policy of the leading Western European countries, particularly
France and Germany. Indeed, this is one of the few major policies
at the moment in whIch the Federal Republic and the present Govern-
ment of France are at one. While everyone realizes that the limit to
East-West trade is broadly set by the limited capability of the Eastern
countries to produce the right kind of goods, there nevertheless are a
number of Western restrictions which limit this trade.
Some of these fire either not applied at all or are somewhat resented
in Europe. I am thinking particularly of the regulations which prohibit
the export to Eastern European countries of a range of goods outside
the strategic field, which happen to incorporate certain U.S. patented
items. In my paper I cite the rather ridiculous example of my own
institute, which was anxious to buy a rather modest, secondhand
office calculating machine, one with no special modernity. But it found
that it could do so only if it undertook not to export it to a wide range
of Communist countries or to the British Colony of Hong Kong. This
didn't prevent it from buying the calculator. But this extension of
restrictions over a wide range of items which are not normally con-
sidered of direct strategic importance does cause a certain resentment.
And I think it is important to have a fresh look to see how far these
export regulations still fulfill an important American purpose.
The second aspect of political importance is that there is clearly
great concern felt in a number of Eastern European countries to in-
crease their trade with the West. There are many signs that in order
to do this they are prepared to modify their trading systems. Some
of them see this quite specifically as a development through which they
will also be able to liberalize their internal systems. Since this has
always been something to which the West has attached importance,
I think this is a political motive which should not be ignored.
\~That we have to get away from is the assumption which grew up at
the worst period of the "cold war" that our policy should be directed
to impeding the progress, or perhaps even weakening Communist
countries. This is not generally thought in Europe to be an objective
of policy today. There is still an acquiescence, of course, in certain
strategic controls, but of a much narrower kind than our present
practice. I think that the doctrine that Western Europe ought to be
trying to impede the progress of countries in Eastern Europe runs
directly contrary to the present trends. And it is very important that
it should not be thought in Wesern Europe that, because in general
Western trade has an orientation to the West and across the
Atlantic, this is going to be an impediment to improving their
relations with the East. It is one of the arguments that is most
frequently used by those who wish to see Western Europe separated
from the United States. I believe it to be a false argument, and I
would hope that in our future policy we should see that no color is
lent to it.
Mr. Chairman, there are not many other comments that I would
wish to make. If I have said certain things to suggest that the old con-
cept of free trade has its limitations, this is not because I think that
we should therefore do less to achieve the freeing of trade, but simply
PAGENO="0142"
138 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
to point out that we need to do many more things as well, that we
cannot stick to the old simplicity of the idea of freeing such things
as tariffs, and that we have got to take the matter much further. We
have become quite accustomed to the idea that in order to help the less
developed territories we must be prepared to depart from pure free
trading doctrine in order to help the weaker parties.
And I think it is worth mentioning that something of the same issue
arises between industrialized countries in the so-called technological
gap which there is between the United States and Western Europe.
This again is one of the arguments most frequently used by those
who are urging Western Europe to separate itself from the United
States. I am not going to spend much time on it. It is not strictly, I
suppose~ a question of trading policy. It is more a. question of invest-
ment policy. And it largely concerns the great American corporations
which engage in international investment on a large scale.
The only point I would like toleave with you on this is that it seems
to me that there are many great American corporations highly ex-
perienced in the field of overseas investment which have realized that
in order to avoid political resentments against American power, against
the taking over of local industries by American companies. they have
to adjust their policies. They have to accept something which in the
purely commercial sense may be less than the best solution for them.
I think it would be very wise of themto do so, because unless this does
happen-and perhaps in particular unless rather special steps are taken
to see that a substantial amount of advanced research is done in coun-
tries outside the United States-I am afraid there may be a tendency
to put up certain barriers to the free interchange of technology and
investment between Europe and the United States just at a time when
we would like to see the opposite happen. The fact that this situation is
no fault of the United States. indeed it is precisely due to the fact that
they are teclmologica.lly excellent, and that their industrial manage-
ment is normally better than that of other people, doesn't affect the
fact that there are political disadvantages which may result unless
the problem is fully recognized.
In conclusion, I would like to say that it is well realized, certainly
in my country, and I think in most other countries of the Western
World, tha.t we owe a great deal to U.S. policies in recent decades for
the liberalization which has occurred. If the United States had taken
a different line, we would he very much more sharply separated from
each other technically and politically than we in fact are. It is of enor-
mous importance to all of us that the United States should maintain
this attitude of wishing to see trade on a multilateral basis and freer so
far as it can be made freer.
We are encouraged to think that this will go on by our experience of
U.S. policy in the past, which has shown that, even at the cost of
short-term inconvenience, the United States is often prepared to take
the long view.
(The prepared statement of Mr. Younger follows:)
PREPARED STATEMENT OF KENNETH YOUNGER
I am grateful to you, Mr. Chairman and to this subcommittee for the honour
you have done to me in inviting me as a non-American to participate in your
hearings on future United States Foreign Trade Policy. Now that the Kennedy
PAGENO="0143"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 139
Round, with whose initiation five years ago many membersof this subcommittee
were so closely associated, has just been brought to a much more successful con-
clusion than had at one time seemed possible, it is good that we should all be
reminded by you that this is a moment not only for congratulating ourselves
on what has been achieved, but also for giving our minds to the next steps which
we have to take in the promotion of world trade.
The moment is of course a difficult one for forecasters, since it is still too
early to feel sure what effect the agreements reached in Geneva will actually
have upon the flow of trade. It will be several years before the negotiators will
know for certain whether their calculations were sound; and until this becomes
clearer, governments are unlikely to commit themselves to fresh policies. For
that very reason there may be a chance to influence future thinking by free
discussion.
There is one uncertainty in the present situation which particularly affects
Britain, her exclusion up to the present time from the European Economic Corn-
inunity and the doubt whether her second application for membership is going
to succeed. It may be appropriate for me to start by saying something on this
issue.
BRITAIN AND THE E.E.C.
Contrary to the hope entertained in 1962, Britain .had to participate in the
Kennedy Round negotiations, from start to finish, on the assumption that she
would be outside the Community at least for several years to come. From Janu-
ary 1963 until the end, negotiations for her entry were not even in progress and
there was no certainty about their renewal. In these conditions the British nego-
tiators could hardly be expected to adopt all the positions which they might have
done had British membership of the Community seemed imminent. The fact that
some continental critics have blamed Britain for having shown herself in suffi-
ciently European in these talks illustrates the dilemma in which she is at
present placed.
It is still impossible to name a date when Britain might join E.E.C., but on
the issue of whether she will join at some time or other, I would suggest that
calculations should now be based on the strong probability that she will. Al-
though it is clearer now than in 1962 that President de Gaulle will keep Britain
out if he can, he has obtained virtually no support for this policy among his five
partners in the Community, and even in France there is a substantial body of
opinion which does not share his view. The opposition to British entry has thus
a temporary look; whereas the conversion of Britain to the policy of joining
E.E.C. seems more durable. It has occurred as a result of serious examination
of available alternatives over a period of more than five years, and this has
produced unanimity among political leaders of all the main parties, solidly
backed by an overwhelming consensus of industrial opinion. The British drive
for entry therefore seems less likely to change than the French opposition to it.
It is true that the question is still being asked whether, if the British applica-
tion were to be blocked again, the British government and people would undergo
a revulsion against Europe and look elsewhere. I do not think this likely, if only
because Britain has already considered all other possibilities and found them
wanting. I believe that she will cling to the concept of a partnership between
Europe and North America, in which she will be an integral part of a growingly
united European component. This concept, which used to be called the Grand
Design, has suffered some setbacks in the last five years. Its realisation may now
seem a longer business business than was once hoped. But it is still the sanest
pattern that has been proposed for the Western world and it should not be lightly
given up, nor should anything be done for tactical reasons which might make it
harder to resume an advance towards it.
In this connection I should like to make a comment on the proposal for a
North Atlantic Free Trade Area. As I understand it, those on this side of the
Atlantic who have promoted it are, broadly, those who favour the entry of Britain
into E.E.C. as part of a wider Atlantic grouping, but feel that, if this course is
blocked, an immediate alternative should be envisaged, which does not require
the Community's co-operation. The Free Trade Area could leave room for the
Community to join in at a later stage, but in the meantime would proceed sepa-
rately. There is the further idea that the mere formulation of this alternative
may in itself be a useful tactic in bringing pressure upon the Community to
agree to Britain's entry.
PAGENO="0144"
140 T~ FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
This proposal has not met a ready response in Britain where, in contrast to
the United States, its supporters are to be found wholly among those who have
been either hostile or at best lukewarm towards British entry into the Com-
munity. As a tactic, it is seen as being unlikely to bring pressure upon Britain's
friends in the Community to help Britain join and more likely to cast doubt upon
the firmness of Britain's newly-accepted commitment to Europe.
I shall return to the NAFTA proposal in another context. For the moment I
only want to say that it does not affect my belief that Britain will now pursue
her objective of joining E.E.C. with persistence and that she will succeed, only
the date of success being in doubt.
By the time that governmental decisions have to be taken about new trading
policies, this uncertainly may or may not have been resolved. In any event, I do
not anticipate that British entry into E.E.C., though it would inevitably affect
her attitude on particular tariffs, would alter her fundamental attitude to what
your Trade Expansion Act called "open and nondiscriminatory trading in the
free world". From the time of her entry, Britain would of course be negotiating
through the E.E.C. and would have to adopt as her own the common attitudes
which had been agreed within that body. I now turn therefore to consider w-hat
the attitudes of the E.E.C. have been shown to be in the course of the Kennedy
Round.
THE EvoLvING ATTITUDE OF E.E.C.
It is of great significance for the Community and for the w-orld that these
gruelling negotiations were carried through to success on behalf of the Six mem-
ber nations by the European Commission as their sole spokesman. There could
hardly have been a stiffer test of the Community's ability to represent a common
interest among countries whose national attitudes were widely divergent at the
start. It will be remembered that the negotiations were seriously held up for
many months while the Community sorted out its sharpest internal conflicts.
Frustrating as this was for the other partners, encouragement can be drawn from
the fact that, once the internal difficulties were resolved, the Community emerged
strong enough to negotiate as a single whole and, in the closing stages, proved
capable of greater flexibility than would have been attributed to it only a few
months before.
I have already referred to the fact that, on a number of important points,
Britain came into conflict with the Community. As examples, our attitude over
steel disappointed them; their attitude over heavy trucks disappointed us. But
on the wider issue of the approach to the structure of industrial tariffs among the
advanced nations, no serious differences of philosophy or principle emerged.
Indeed the fact that. in a field where the target had been set at a 50% across-
the-hoard cut in tariffs, an average cut of 35% was actually achieved is surely
strong evidence that really serious differences of principle cannot have existed
among any of the main trading nations represented at Geneva. It was not doc-
trinal differences which caused the greatest difficulty, but rather the power of
sectional interests to exert pressure upon governments. Whether a different
situation might have been revealed if, as had been hoped in 1962, the enlarge-
ment of the Community had led to the raising of the target for many of the cuts
from 50% to 100%, we cannot know. For the difference between lower tariffs and
no tariffs at all is a qualitative as well as a quantitative one and raises some new
issues on which there might have been more fundamental disagreement.
All that one can confidently state about the attitudes of E.E.C., as demon-
strated in the negotiations. is that within the limits which were set by the actual
course of events, the earlier fear that we might be faced with a determinedly
inward-looking and protectionist Community was not borne out. At the end of
the Kennedy Round a split between the Gommunity and her Western trading
partners on this score seems much less probable than it once did.
THE LESS DEVELOPED COI~NTRIES AND TJNCTAD, 1968
It has been widely noted that the success of the Kennedy Round in satisfying
the wishes of the more advanced countries in respect of industrial tariffs was
by no means matched by successes on the issues of primary concern to the less
developed countries. To some extent, this is a reflection of the fact that the
efforts of the negotiators had to be concentrated on avoiding a failure of the
whole Kennedy Round, which seemed all too likely during the greater part of the
period, and that the necessary time and energy for dealing adequately with the
PAGENO="0145"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 141
problems of developing countries simply could not be found. This is one of the big
pieces of unfinished business to which attention must now be turned. The pros-
pect of the second United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, due
to be held next year in Delhi, is sufficient to ensure that we shall not be allowed
to ignore it.
We all remember how, at the first UNCT'AD in 1964, the `impressive solidarity
of the less developed countries was matched by almost total disarray among the
leading industrial nations-~includ'ing incidentally the Soviet Union. On the
issue of preferences, the differences within the Western world at that time could
be crudely stated in these terms; the United State's maintained its traditional
opposition to preferences, as a legency of dying imperialist systems; the Com-
munity, in upholding its association agreement with former colonial territories,
maintained that though this might be a legacy of colonialism, it was nevertheless
an essential prop for these `struggling economies; while Britain, at the end of the
Conference, proposed to generalise the various preferential systems, giving pre-
ferences to all the h~ss-developed countries alike.
Various events which have occurred since then enc'ourage me to believe that
something on the lines of the British proposal of 1964 may now be more generally
acceptable that it then was. I base my o'ptimism partly on President John'son's
~tatement to the Inter-American Summit Conference at Punta del Este last
April, when be said that the temporary tariff advantages for all developing
countries by all industrialised countries would be one way of increasing the
export earnings of the less developed countries. I base it also on the belief that
the thinking of the E.E.C. on this issue, though not yet crystallised in any
decisions, has been moving in the same dire'ction, and that it too might now be
willing to consider generalising to all developing countries the preferences at
present given only to its associated states. The amount o'f tariff protection given
to these states on their main tropical products was in any case substantially
lowered by the Yaounde Convention of Association of December 1962 in return
for increased financial aid for development. Moreover, the importance of prefer-
ences, as opposed to other aids to development, will diminish as tariffs are
generally lowered, and this should make it easier to secure the acceptance by
the Community and its Associated States, of a change in the system.
So far as United States policy is concerned, I `would hope that President John-
son's willingness to consider giving temporary tariff advantages to developing
countries might lead to the United States adopting a more positive attitude to
the recent proposal of the Director-General of the GATT, that the Kennedy Round
cuts might be implemented in full in a single installment for the developing coun-
tries, or at least at an accelerated rate. It seems to me that this, by giving them
an advantage that would diminish to zero at the end of 5 years would exactly
correspond to the President's thought. I understand that legislation would be
needed before such a scheme could `be implemented in the United States, but I
would suppose that this might seem a less formidable obstacle to a Committee
of Congress than to the Administration.
If I am right in thinking that doctrinal differences among the major trading
nations on this question are beginning to lose their sharpness, I would hope that
UNCTAD might produce an agreement to pursue the question of generalised
preferences being given to the less-developed world by the more developed world,
and that serious negotiations in the GATT might follow the UNCTAD Conference.
Something of this kind is surely going to be needed, if the tendency to favour
regional preference systems is to be checked; for the abolition of the present
systems without anything being put in their place would be fiercely resisted.
In contrast, a generalised system would enable both the Community and Britain
to reconcile their concern for the interests of their former dependencies with the
desire, which they share, to give some satisfaction to other trading areas, par-
ticularly Latin America.
There are other questions which are of even more concern to the less developed
countries. One of these, which admittedly only affects a limited number of them,
mainly in Asia, is access for their manufactured and semi-manufactured goods
to the markets of industrial countries. Of more general concern to a w-ider range
of countries is the question of commodity agreements for raw materials and
food stuffs. I believe that the United States accepts in principle the need for agree-
ments to establish stable and reasonable prices for at least some of the staple
commodity exports of developing countries and to avoid continuing surpluses.
But in practice progress has so far been exceedingly limited, partly no doubt be-
S2-1S1-6T-vol. I-1O
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142 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
cause of a built-in tradition in Western trading countries, and especially in the
United States, against interference with market forces.
The main point which I wish to make on this is that it is now tacitly recog-
nised that the concept of free trade does not include free trade in agriculture-
in circumstances in which virtually every country insists on regulating its own
agriculture and protecting its producers, it is not plausible to object on theoret-
ical grounds to the organisation of international markets. Here again the main
obstacle, apart from the intrinsic difficulty of establishing what are reasonable
minimum prices, levels of production, and so on, is not the doctrinal one, but
quite simply the strong pressure exerted by special interests.
These pressures are particularly strong in the United States, whose nego-
tiators have, in general, felt able to work towards commodity agreements only
where there is an American export interest, as in cereals.
I would not feel myself well-qualified to dispute with you the details affect-
ing particular commodities, but I think it important to stress that the general
issue of commodity agreements is of the greatest significance to the developing
countries and that full American co-operation is going to be indispensible if
progress is to be made. In some cases, such as cocoa and sugar, the problem is
already urgent and is bound to be a main topic at the UNCTAD in 1968. It is
very much to be hoped that, when the time comes, it will be possible for Con-
gress to give its support to a more active policy in this aspect of international
trade.
NOxTARTh'P BARRIERS
One thought which seems to have imposed itself forcefully upon all those who
participated in the Kennedy Round is the growing importance of non-tariff bar-
riers to the free flow of trade. As tariff barriers are lowered, the relative im-
portance of the non-tariff barriers increases.
This issue arose from time to time during the Kennedy Round and in a few
cases some practical progress was made, but it did not occupy the centre of the
stage. It was, however, identified by almost everyone as being one of the next
and hardest items for inclusion in any future agenda. Indeed, it is not at all
certain that agreement on a further round of substantial tariff cuts will be even
worth attempting unless it can be preceded or accompanied by progress in this
more intractable field. Some tidying up of the results of the Kennedy Round
will no doubt be possible and perhaps some further attempt to "harmonise"
tariffs which are seriously out of line with average practice. But measures of
this kind would be the completion of the past phase rather than a step forward
into the new.
Some of the more obvious non-tariff barriers, such as discriminatory customs
definitions, attracted attention during the Kennedy Round, but many others
have hardly begun to come under discussion in the GATT. I am thinking of such
devices as differing tax provisions, or discriminatory arrangements for tender-
ing and purchasing by governments and public authorities. These often cover
a wide range of capital goods and equipment and are by no means limited to
the defence field.
There is a fairly wide-spread impression that, although all governments en-
gage in these practices to some extent, non-tariff protection given to producers
is more extensive in the United States than elsewhere and that, in consequence,
there will have to be active co-operation from the United States if this thorny
subject is to be adequately tackled. It is well recognised that this may pose
difficult problems for the United States Government.
Many of these practices are deeply engrained in the business thinking. Any
attack upon them is fiercely resisted by the industries affected, a current ex-
ample being the agitation in some parts of the chemical industry against the
undertaking given by American negotiators at Geneva to reconsider the Amer-
ican Selling Price. Since American exports only account for about 3% of the
Gross National Product and imports for even less, it is harder than it would
be in some other countries to argue for reducing protection on grounds of the
national economic interest. It is instructive to note that the corresponding
figure for Britain in 1966 was 22% of Gross National Product for exports and
slightly more for imports.
If this particular difficulty applies to the United States in special measure, other
difficulties apply to everyone. In the first place, whereas an exchange of tariff
concessions can be quantified and its fairness made apparent, in non-tariff nego-
tiations like is not being traded against like. Nor is the effect of a concession
PAGENO="0147"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 143
similar as between different countries. A round of non-tariff bargaining on a
multilateral basis is therefore something of a nightmare to contemplate. Never-
theless its possibilities and limitations must be explored if any further freeing
of trade is to be attempted. In the second place, most of the practices involved
are widely regarded as matters of domestic policy and pressure from foreign
countries to alter them is consequently resented as interference.
The approach of the E.E.C. to this question is of very special interest. Although
in the early days of the Community the common external tariff was seen as the
essential instrument for forging future unity, as the work has proceeded, the
task of reaching common economic policies and of harmonising such things as
tax systems and transport arrangements has come to seem more important still.
Indeed it is sometimes said that the elimination of internal tariffs could never
have been accepted by the member states had the Community not also begun to
secure greater standardisation over a wide range of economic activity. There is
nothing surprising in this when one remembers that the object of the Six in
coming together was always to form an economic community, the Common
Market bein golly one of the means for achieving it.
In the light of its experience so far, the Community looks with growing dis-
favour on any policy which aims simply to abolish tariffs without imposing any
form of common economic discipline. A Free Trade Area, it is contended, is a
nineteenth century concept. The concept appropriate to the twentieth century is
economic union, which permits the taking of responsibility not just for foreign
trade but for such purposes as stability, growth, currency strength and full
employment.
So far as E.E.C. itself is concerned, it is hard to challenge this doctrine or to
deny that, whatever may have been the case at the start, other things are flow
more important than the common external tariff in holding the Community
together at least in the sense that it is only the existence of the common tariff
and not any particular level of tariff that now matters from this point of view.
But in applying this to wider groupings, such as the Atlantic nations or the
members of O.E.C.D., for whom common political and economic institutions are
either impossible or a rather distant dream, the implications require careful
thought.
What limitations, for instance, does this doctrine place upon the elimination of
tariffs among a group of countries which are not contemplating economic union?
May it be that the willingness of the constituent parts to work towards con-
formity over a wide range of essentially domestic matters is the limiting factor
which determines how far the group can usefully attempt to go in abolishing
external barriers to trade? I had this in mind when I reflected earlier that if
the target for the Kennedy Round had been a tariff reduction of 100% instead
of 50%, differences of fundamental doctrine might well have been exposed.
NORTH ATLANTIC FREE TRADE AREA
It is in this context that I wish to revert briefly to the proposal for a
N.A.F.T.A. In view of the E.E.C.'s attitude which I have attempted to describe,
it is inconceivable that the Community would join such a body, either initially
or at a later stage. For Britain and some or all the members of EFTA, to join
the NAFTA would be the surest way of making permanent the present division
of the Six and the Seven within Western Europe, and of inviting the very separa-
tion of E.E.C. from North America which it is one of the objects of Western
trading policy to prevent.
It will be, in my view, much wiser and more realistic to cling to the concept
embodied in the Old Grand Design, namely that there should be a genuine com-
munity on each side of the Atlantic, and that the economic relationship between
the two should be as free and non-discriminatory as persistent negotiations can
make it. Britain should form part of the European Community and if at first
she cannot get in, it is nevertheless worth her while to wait. The lowering of
tariffs as a result of the Kennedy round will make the waiting period less difficult
for Britain than it would otherwise have been.
I can imagine a pattern of this kind creating in due course a genuine, if
institutionally limited, unity within the Atlantic world, whereas the NAFTA
solution, if it were to be accepted by governments, which at present I do not
expect, would in my view lead only to a dangerous fragmentation and would
risk a lasting estrangement of Britain from the Oommunity.
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144 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
TRADE WITH CoMMUNIsT COUNTRIES
Before I close I want to call to your attention one other topic upon which
European and British views have been changing fast in the years since the
Kennedy Round began.
I refer to trade between the West and the Communist countries, especially
those of Eastern Europe. This has been, I know, a relatively small part of the
trade of all Western countries and an almost negligible part of United States
trade. Although there are Communist governments in the GATT, the work of
GATT has had little relevance to what has come to be called East-West trade.
The point which I wish to make is that the importance of this trade has been
rising fast in Europe and that great efforts are being made, on both sides of
the divide, to accelerate this trend. Over a 0-year period the exports of the East-
ern bloc to E.E.C. have gone up by 125%, starting, it is true, from a very modest
base.
Though quantitatively this trade may still be of only secondary importance,
its political significance is increasing in two w-ays. In the first place, improved
relations with Eastern Europe have become one of the major political objectives
of both France and the Federal Republic of Germany. In the new atmosphere
in Europe, it is important that the Atlantic orientation of western trade should
not seem to be an obstacle to simultaneous increase in trade with the East.
While the limit of trade with Eastern Europe is still set principally by the capa-
city of the Eastern countries to produce goods which are acceptable in Western
markets, there are various forms of Western discrimination or quota restric-
tion which add to the difficulties. For instance, in so far as restrictions are im-
posed upon the export by Western Europe to Communist countries of goods
which incorporate American patented processes, this is now counter-productive
in relations between Western Europe and North America. I had a rather ludi-
crous example of this in my own Institute recently, where we found that we
could acquire a second hand American calculating machine, worth some S450
only if we signed an undertaking not to export it to a long list of Communist
controlled countries and even the British colony of Hong Kong. It may be timely
to consider how far these regulations still fulfill any important American
purpose.
The second way in which East-West trade is acquiring new significance lies
in the keen wish of several East European countries, notably Czechoslovakia,
Poland, Hungary and Romania. to maximise their Western trade. There are
growing signs that they may be willing to make adjustments in their own in-
dustrial and commercial practices in order to facilitate this trade and that these
adjustments in turn contribute to the general process of liberalisation and to the
decentralisation of authority within the Communist world, which the West has
long professed to welcome.
What is being suggested here is not any drastic re-orientation of the trade of
the United States itself with Communist countries, which seems likely to remain
marginal. It is rather a further shift away from the spirit of the old policy.
which deliberately discouraged the growth of trade between the countries of
East and West Europe, presumably on the assumption that, even apart from
strictly strategic issues, it was a Western objective to impede wherever possible
the economic advance of the countries of the Communist bloc. This is not a
doctrine which any longer commands support in Western Europe.
Coxoi~usiox
1 would emphasize in conclusion, how decisive it has been for the stability and
prosperity of the Western world that the United States has given the lead since
the Second World War in working towards a free system of multilateral trade.
Had she pursued a contrary course-and there must have been many tempta-
tions to do so-we should today be faced with much sharper divisions among
the Western countries, especially between the United States and Europe; while
the large number of newly independent countries, whose need is for the diversifica-
tion of their foreign trade, would now be tightly encased within much more
rigid discriminatory preferential systems than they are today.
For much of the period since 1945, strategic arguments for keeping the At-
lantic countries together in the economic as well as the military sphere have
been persuasive. I have indicated my view that these particular arguments have
PAGENO="0149"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 145
lost much of their force in Europe in recent years, though they have not yet
entirely vanished. But, quite independently of these arguments, there will con-
tinue to be an enormous advantage, both for the developed and for the less
developed world in keeping international trade upon a multilateral and, so far
as possible, a free basis. We do not want to see another retreat into national or
regional economic defensiveness such as the world experienced in the inter-war
slump.
It is true that we are not likely to achieve the objective of complete free trade,
in the sense in which we inherited this idea from the 19th century. The respon-
sibilities which modern governments have to accept for a wide range of economic
policies virtually rule out any such simple solution. Moreover, when trading
partners are at widely different levels of economic and industrial development,
unregulated, free trading relationships tend to favour the stronger partner, so
that special arrangements designed to facilitate the development of the weaker
have to be envisaged.
We have become accustomed to this notion in considering the arrangements
to be made between the developed and the less developed world, though, as I
have said, we have not yet gone far enough in carrying it into practice and are
under pressure to go further. We are less accustomed to recognise that a similar
kind of tension may also arise between industrialised countries, as it has in the
current argument about the technological gap which has opened up between
the United States and Europe.
I have not spoken of this because it is not strictly a question of trade policy,
but it is one of the causes of a certain defensiveness in the European attitude
to its economic relations with the United States and it would be unwise to
ignore it.
An improvement in European performance in both technology and industrial
management is, no doubt, the indispensible remedy for this situation and one
may hope that the evolution of a larger and more integrated community in
Europe will contribute to this end. But this is bound to take time. In so far as
American policy can help, perhaps attention should be paid to some modification
of the attitude of American Corporations in the modalities of their overseas
investment. The reluctance to share ownership of the equity of overseas sub-
sidiaries with non-Americans and the difficulty of decentralising advanced re-
search so that an undue share of' it is not concentrated in the United States is
already giving rise to defensive reactions in some European countries, both
against American domination of whole industries and against the prospect of
advanced technology becoming increasingly an American prerogative.
The fact that this situation arises from American excellence rather than from
errors of policy does not make it less disruptive in American-European relations.
It is in fact one of the most powerful arguments used at the present time in
Europe by those who, for a variety of reasons, wish to see Europe maintain a
certain distance and aloofness in all her dealings with the United States. There
would be political and, in the long run, economic dividends to be earned if
American investors could be persuaded to content themselves with less complete
control and to permit a larger amount of research and development to take
place in Europe. This is a serious problem which if it cannot be handled in co-
operation with American business, is likely to result in the erection at the
European end of new barriers between the United States and Europe at a time
when in the general interest, we should be moving in the opposite direction.
I will not pursue further this question of the technological gap, only remarking
that it provides an example of the extent to which United States policies are of
direct concern to her trading partners in Europe and elsewhere. These partners
have reason to be grateful for the attitudes adopted by the United States in
recent decades. If they seem to Americans to be constantly asking for more, this
is a tribute both to United States strength, which carries inescapable obligations
with it, and to past American policies which have shown that the United States
is capable, even at some cost in short-term inconvenience, of taking a long view of
world trading problems.
Chairman BOGGS. Thank you very much, Mr. Younger.
Mr. Rumsfeld was here first, so I will call on him first.
Representative RUMSFELD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would be interested in having a comment from both of these
distinguished gentlemen, concerning the procedures used within their
PAGENO="0150"
146 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
respective governments, to the proposal to create an international
department of economic affairs in our Government. Unquestionably
this proposal is a result of Mr. Curtis' feeling of dissatisfaction with
the procedure of handling these matters through a variety of different
agencies and segments of our Government. As I understand it, in
Great Britain there is a procedure that is not dissimilar to this pro-
posal. And I would be curious to know how you in your respective
countries do handle the problem.
Mr. PECCEI. Thank you, Mr. Rumsfeld.
I suggest we should look at Europe, not at Italy or France or Ger-
many, or at least at the EEC in Brussels. In Brussels there was a start
at institutionalizing a common economic policy by delegating a mem-
ber of the commission to represent the EEC in external affairs. It was
M. Jean Rey, who is now president of the EEC. And I think that more
and more the external economic policy of the six would be made or
inspired by joint decisions taken in Brussels. We are going toward
economic integration in Europe. though at a slower pace than we would
like. And that will mean that we will have a. unified organization of
the Community for foreign economic affairs.
Mr. R.UMSFELD. In Italy, if I might ask, are the foreign trade and
monetary policy aspects combined within a single division of
government?
Mr. PECCEI. No. In our country, as in most European countries, the
Foreign Ministry has a kind of overall supervision of foreign economic
relations. In addition, we have a Foreign Trade Ministry. And we
have the Treasury, which deals with monetary affairs.
Mr. RUMSFELD. Mr. Younger?
Mr. YOUNGER. We have a number of ministries concerned with a mat-
ter of such great breadth as the Kennedy Round negotiations. I am not
myself in Government and I may not be up to date on this. I think
I am right in saying that the primacy of the Foreign Office for coordi-
nating all of these aspects of overseas policy is still maintained at least
insofar as politica.l issue ma*y be at stake. But in practice, of course, it
depends very much on the content of the particular thing that is being
dealt with. And the board of trade would be, and indeed was, during
the Kennedy Round, the leading agency for coordinating the trading
policies of the Government. There are so many ministries involved that
I don't think it would be possible to see it as be.ing wholly centralized
under one agency. All one can hope to do is to have an adequate system
of interdepartmental consultation and good representation on various
ministries on the delegation which is actually doing the negotiating.
And it should be possible to do it that way. You have to bring in, for
instance, the Ministry of Agriculture on some issues. I think that to at-
tempt to centralize all the work in one ministry would only be lifting
the problem of coordination to a~ slightly different. level. You couldn't
release yourself of the obligation to consult all of the different interests
in your government at some point or other.
I am not aware, incidentally-although I think here you would have
to ask somebody who has been personally concerned at the official level
with these negotiations-I a.m not aware that we in Britain suffered
any very grave difficulties from a lack of coordination among the dif-
ferent agencies during the Kennedy Round.
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THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 147
Mr. RUMSFELD. I would like to have some clarification on the ques-
tion of East-West trade from each of you, also.
Doctor, in your statement you mention the firm belief that we would
be helping a positive political development with respect to East-West
trade. On page 10 you said it would have positive political implica-
tions. On page 11 you said it would be an effective way to promote
better political understanding, and added that, whereas sound trade
relations may prove to be a thawing factor. This is, of course, a point of
view. And as you know, this country engages in modest East-West
trade. And as each of you has suggested, it is well to say we should
have East-West trade, but the cold facts are that there has to be an
economic advantage to trade and a need, and a pressure within the
economic communities of the various countries to trade. Can you ex-
pand on any of these three statements?
And Mr. Younger, you also referred to this. Can you think of any
instances where you can point out positive political developments, or
could you possibly enlighten the committee by giving some examples
where it hasn't really accomplished very much? One example might be
Cuba, where the United States did over a long period of time have
close economic ties. And our current situation with respect to Cuba cer-
tainly couldn't be described as that trade having resulted from positive
political development or a thaw. I think that this question needs to be
more precisely discussed, if you could provide me with some insight.
Mr. PECcEI. If I may, Mr Rumsfeld, first of all, I would like to tell
you one, I believe that I have. And I think it is substantiated by facts.
And that is, the economies of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union
are very weak economies. When they are exposed to contacts with
Western Europe, and more especially when they will be exposed to
contacts with the United States, they see that many of their proce-
dures and many of their ways and methods of organization are not
a match for those that we have in the West. And there are more and
more technocrats, Or leaders in their countries who wish to adopt our
methods of organization in manufacturing of motor cars, or data
processing and handling, and many others. I might cite the situation
in Yugoslavia and Rumania, where we see people of high standing
from the Ministers downward who are prepared to do practically
everything that they can and to influence the organizations of their
States to come very much our way, because it is the only possible
way for them to manufacture at cost and in quality acceptable to their
markets, and to export new goods as their markets are widening.
I think that this has an impact. Let's take the motor car, the boom
on which is going on in practically every Eastern European country.
The motor car will change ways of life of those countries. Roads,
service stations, repair shops, and the possibility of moving within
their national boundaries and outside-this is a new outlook that they
have. If they had had no motor cars, they would have been much
more inward looking, restrained.
Mr. RTJMSFELD. My time is up, I am afraid. Let me just see if you
would say that this is correct. From your response is it safe to say
that your suggestions concerning the desirability of East-1~Vest trade
are restricted to instances wherein the United States could be trading
with a country that did not have a strong economy because the ad-
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148 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
vantages that would accrue from encouraging that country to evolve
to a system that, as you say, would encourage consumer products,
automobiles and so forth, would not be applicable if the economy
were already strong. The argument that you have given is an interest-
ing one, and has some merit, hut it would not apply to a. country that
already had a strong economy, and where there was already emphasis
on consumer products, according to your definition. Is that correct?
Mr. PECGEI. Yes, sir. But I don't know of any Eastern European
economy which is strong.
Mr. RUMSFELD. I am just trying to pin down the argument.
Mr. PECCEI. And it would take a very long time before they became
stronger than they are now.
Mr. RUMSFELD. Tha.nk you very much.
Chairman BOGGS. Thank you very much.
Senator Miller?
Senator MILLER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have just a couple
of questions.
Mr. Younger, you referred to a narrowing strategic goods policy.
Would you elaborate on that?
Mr. YOUNGER. Mr. Chairman, I think it is probably fair to say that
the importance of this particular issue, the strategic list as it used to
be called, has already diminished a good deal; that is to say, the range
of goods covered by the strategic list is already substantially less than
it once was. But I think that it would not be felt in Europe that it is
yet as narrow as it really should be. At the back of this dispute lies
a question almost of philosophy, which I tried to raise at the end of my
remarks, as to whether it is still part of the background to our policy
that we are aiming to weaken Communist countries wherever we can,
as opposed to merely seeking to deprive them of direct strategic ma-
terial and weapons.
I have no doubt at all that there was a time when the doctrine went
much beyond the strictest strategic argument, and where it was felt in
some WTestern circles that to hold up economic development, and to
make things difficult for the Communist countries, was in itself a legi-
timate objective of Western policy.
What I am saying is that in Europe, at any rate, I feel sure that this
is no longer the case.
I think the trivial example that I gave of my own institute shows
that the Amerknn list-which is, I think, still considerably wider than
the list applied by other countries to their own trade-must be quite
wide. This instrument that I was referring to was a rather ordinary
office calculating machine. Of course, you can argue that it can be used
like anything else, as part of a war effort. But to include it in a list of
strategic goods is stretching the term strategic very wide indeed. This
is the sort of thing I had in mind. I am afraid I don't know in detail
what are the particular items to which objection would now be taken
on the American list, hut I do know that there are items which are
considered to fall within altogether too wide a definition.
Senator MILLER. Do you think the European attitude on this has
altered at all in the light of the Middle East situation, and especially
if it is true that the Soviet Union and the bloc nations are resupplying
the Arab States with fighter aircraft and war armaments?
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THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 149
Mr. YOUNGER. I wouldn't have thought it made any difference. I am
not suggesting that European countries would wish to see all limita-
tions on strictly strategic goods and weapons removed. But I don't
think it would be felt in Europe that what has happened in the Middle
East was particularly relevant to the withholding of marginally stra-
tegic goods, the sort of hardware that could conceivably be used in some
military connection, but would be more normally used in civilian af-
fairs. I wouldn't think that Europeans would feel that that was at all
relevant when you are considering trade with a country like Poland
or Rumania. It would be thought to have nothing to do with it at all.
Senator MILLER. Well, suppose that Czechoslovakia were providing
tanks for Egypt, and other war armaments, and there were a danger
that this could result in a closing of the Suez Canal to the European
nations. Do you think that under those circumstances that it would be
prudent to expand trade between Britain and Poland and Czecho-
slovakia?
Mr. YOUNGER. I would very much like to know from Dr. Peccei if I
am misrepresenting the European point of view on this, but I would
think that in most countries of Europe, and I am sure in Britain, peo-
ple are looking to a continuation of closer relations and of detente,
which after all has been going on between the Communist world and
the Western world at least for the last 3 or 4 years, at least since the
Cuban crisis. They are not thinking of reverting to the earlier situa-
tion which existed, say, in the late 1940's or 1950's, because there was
never believed to be a military danger. The object then was to weaken
the adversary without any discrimination. Whether it was the Soviet
Union or Poland or Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia, the object was to
weaken them. I do not believe that this philosophy holds anywhere in
Europe at the present time.
Senator MILLER. But if the philosophy moves from a philosophy of
weakening to one of strengthening, or to one of a timing, the oppor-
tunity for expansion of East-West trade would be a factor in causing
certain actions which Europe does not like to stop. What I am getting
at is that it seems to me that a closing of the Suez Canal, possibly the
withholding of petroleum shipments from Arab States, is of great
importance to Europe, and that with a view to enabling that situation
to cease, there is the opportunity for East-West trade to be expanded
which could be used as a bargaining point to mediate the situation in
the Middle East. In other words, it doesn't necessarily come down to
widening an economy, I don't think that is putting it realistically. It
gets dowi'i to a matter of the negotiating propositions.
Mr. YO[INGER. I would go this far, that if one is trying to get im-
proved relations between the East and West there is an element of
diplomatic bargaining over a situation like the Middle East, in the
sense that you can say, well, if you are wishing us to be more friendly
in this or that sphere of policy, you can't expect to be free to conduct
wholly hostile policies in another area. This, of course, is generally true,
I suppose, as a diplomatic proposition. The whole world in that sense
is one, when you are dealing between great powers. But I would have
thought the connection between the closing of the Suez Canal, possibly
as a result of some Soviet moral or material backing for Egypt~ and the
provision of more or less normal civilian goods, capital equipment
PAGENO="0154"
150 THE FUTURE OF TJ.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
to, say, Rumania or Hungary would be thought in Europe to be very
slight and, indeed, virtually nonexistent. I don't think people would
see this as a. possible bargaining element of any importance.
Senator MILLER. But certainly this must be a~ two-way street. If the
bloc nations looked upon the expansion of East-West trade with great
hope and expectancy, I can't understand why you say that this is a
rather slim or marginal factor. I would think it would be a very great
factor. And certainly, as you point out, their economies are weaken-
ing. If they have a hope to strengthen them, I would think it would
be a very big -factor. I can't understand why you would play that factor
clown in the diplomatic bargaining arena.
Mr. YOUNGER. I think there are rather important differences, if I
may say so, between us on this. I suppose one of them is perhaps the
assumption that by wititholding some commodity from Rumania one
can thereby bring direct pressure on the Soviet Union because of these
other matters. It is much more the Soviet Union that is involved in
the Middle East than it is Rumania, Hungary, or Poland. We don't
regard the bloc, to use the old out-of-date phrase, as being very much of
a bloc any more. And the danger that I see in what you have been say-
ing is that this sort of doctrine can be used in Europe to support the
proposition that Western Europe and Eastern Europe can never get
back on reasonable terms so long as they have to follow an American
policy of the kind which you have outlined. If the United States is
always going to suggest holding back on East-West tra.de with
Hungary or Poland because of amloyance with the Soviet Union in
the Fa.r East or Middle East or somewhere, this is precisely the argu-
ment that is used in Europe for separating Europe from the United
States. I always combat that argument.
Senator MILLER. I don't think you have precisely stated the American
policy as I understand it. And the American policy is certainly not
this at all. It is a temporary matter hoping that in time it can develop
into a genuine trading partnership. But it is a matter of timing. It
is not an always, forevermore negative proposition at all. So, I think
we ought to make that clear. But it just seemed to me-and I appre-
ciate your frank comments about the attitudes, the European atti-
tudes-and I was trying to point something that might be timely,
because I know petroleum is of great concern to free Europe, and if
Europe received the impression that the bloc nations were contributing
to the difficulty of petroleum, I would say that from an American
standpoint it would not appear to be a proper and prudent time to
start expanding the trade. It would be a proper and prudent time to
hold out the opportunity for expanding trade when the petroleum
problem is diminishing.
Now, there is another point, too. I don't think that we ought to say
that the American viewpoint toward the Soviet Union is identical
with the American viewpoint toward the so-called bloc nations. I
would like to ask you whether you feel that the trade approach ought
to be identical vis-a-vis the Soviet Union a.nd the bloc nations or
whether you would recommend perhaps a more relaxed trade position
with some of the bloc nations as against the position toward the Soviet
Union at this time.
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THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 151
Mr. YOUNGER. I don't know that I really can conceive of any prac-
tical way of distinguishing between the Soviet Union and the other
Communist countries in terms of discrimination against their goods.
I wouldn't have thought that one would want to have any specifically
separate policies. But of course I can see that on the other level that
you were referring to; namely, diplomatic negotiation over certain
situations unconnected with trade, like the attitude toward such areas
as the Middle East or Southeast Asia, there might be a different diplo-
matic situation between the United States and the Soviet Union from
what there would be between the United States and one of the small
countries of Eastern Europe, whose say in those matters would ob-
viously be minimal. These are matters which it would hardly be rele-
vant to talk about in the smaller capitals, but it would be relevant to
talk about them in Moscow. To that extent I can see that there is a
distinction to be made.
Senator MILLER. And then that would lead you to conclude that
there could be a difference in the trade basis as between one or more
of those countries, and the Soviet Union? Would you go that far?
Mr. YOUNGER. I would expect that there probably would be as far as
the United States is concerned. I think I am right in saying that there
are distinctions made by the United States as between, for instance,
the Soviet Union and China, or the Soviet Union and Cuba. These
countries are not on an absolutely equal footing in U.S. policy at the
present time, as I understand. So, I expect that for political reasons
this distinction would probably be maintained. I don't know whether
it would have much relevance except as regards the United States own
trade. So far as the trade of, shall we say, Belgium with Poland, or
with the Soviet Union, I doubt if the distinction would have much
relevance.
Senator MILLER. As far as you are concerned, you can see no partic-
ular difference in the trade basis that should exist between Poland,
Czechoslovakia, Rumania, and the Soviet Union?
Mr. YOUNGER. As regards the regulations one made for it, I would
think probably not, no.
Senator MILLER. Thank you very much. My time is up.
Chairman Boocs. Thank you, Senator.
Mr. Widnall?
Representative WIDNALL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Dr. Peccei, Mr. Younger, we certainly appreciate your coming be-
fore the committee this morning and giving your statements. I am sure
you have made a fine contribution to the discussion we have at hand.
I want to express my regret that I was unable to be here at the time
you gave your statement. But I had advanced copies, and I read them
last night, and I prepared questions.
Dr. Peccei, you mentioned the need for a sobering international ac-
tion to bring under reasonable control the tendency toward the extend-
ing of longer credits to Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Would
you say that in the technological position that Eastern Europe finds
herself today that there is an opportunity beyond which long-term
credit becomes, in actuality, a form of economic assistance?
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152 T~ FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Mr. PECCEI. Yes, sir. Very substantial and long-term credits to any
of these countries will in the end result in economic assistance. I think
that what we should have for the United States and Europe is a com-
mon yardstick, and that we should not compete with each other in
extending more favorable terms, eithe.r for long-term or short-term
credits, to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
Representative WIDNALL. Would 15-year credit tenns on a million
dollar industrial plant incorporating the latest Western technology
constitute a form of `assistance not generally available to normal trad-
ing partners? I think you know what I have in mind when I am talking
about that.
Mr. PECCEI. Yes, sir.
Representative WIDNALL. We have, as you know, the Berne Union,
which was a multilateral agreement reached by Western Europe and
the United States in 1934. This informal agreement discouraged credit
terms beyond, I believe, 5 years. The Berne Union limitations, are they
still rea.listic, or should they be renegotiated?
Mr. PECOEI. The provision for the limit of 5 years in the European
agreements has been in fact disrega.rded by all exporting countries with
respect to all the developing nations and also in the case of Eastern
Europe. Europeans have extended credits to India., Argentina, Brazil,
and others on much longer terms than those. As to Eastern Europe I
think we should come to a certain understanding among us that the
rule should he for instance, 8. 9, or 10 years, and then stick to the
agreed terms. The terms you mentioned a while, ago should be consici-
ered as a. very exceptional case.
Representative WID~ALL. What are the. terms?
Mr. PECCEI. Payment will begin after completion of delivery and
will take place from 1971 to 1979.
Representative WIDNALL. What interest rate is charged?
Mr. PECCEI. 5.6 percent.
Representative WIDNALL. Is it not a. fact that sometimes reckless
extension of credit. to the Ea.st was one of the prime sources of trouble
for the Krupp industries in West Germany?
Mr. PECCEI. Wouldyou repeat that?
Represent.ative WmxAr~L. Is it. not a fact that reckless extension of
credit to Eastern Europe was one of t.he prime sources of trouble for
Krupp Industries in Western Germany ?
Mr. PECOnI. I am not sure of that, because I think the credit ex-
tended was not in very big amounts. I think in the case of Krupp the
trouble had something to do with management.
Representative WIDNALL. I don't have the figures here, but I thought
it was quite sizable. With regard to the proposed Fiat deal with the
U.S.S.R. have any orders for machine tools been placed with U.S.
firms yet?
Mr. PECCEI. To my knowledge no, because the necessary credit ar-
rangements have not yet been approved. If they will eventually be ap-
proved, there is a long list, of machines which will he ordered by the
Soviet Union on the recommendation of our technical people.
Representative WIDNALL. Would Export-Import Bank participa-
PAGENO="0157"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 153
tion in the U.S.S.R.-Fiat arrangement be an absolute necessity or
consummation?
Mr. PECOEI. I am not in a position to give you a lucid answer.
Representative WIDNALL. Is Fiat prepared to move ahead without
U.S. machine tools?
Mr. PEC0EI. In all likelihood, yes, because there surely are other
machine tools, which can be obtained from England, Germany, and
perhaps Italy, and which can be a substitute for the U.S. machine tools
which are considered now.
Representative WIDNALL. I have been very interested in looking over
some trade figures which I obtained from the Library of Congress on
the balance of trade of Western European countries and the Soviet
Union and Eastern European countries in 1965, and the first half of
1966. These figures show a considerable deficit in trade with the Soviet
Union for both 1965 and 1966, and a deficit changed to a surplus
with Eastern Europe in 1965 and 1966. Now, given the change between
1965 and 1966 from a deficit to a surplus intrade with Eastern Europe
as opposed to the Soviet Union, what has been the reason for this?
Mr. PECCET. I think in the case of the Soviet Union they are buying
presently more than they are selling in Western Europe; and they
are buying on credit terms and selling mostly cash.
Representative V\TIDNALL. Actually, the balance is in favor of the
Soviet Union for both 1965 and 1966 in the trading with Western
Europe?
Mr. PECOBI. It might be that they stepped up their sales to Western
Europe to offset the adverse trade balances.
Representative WIDNALL. I would like to ask both of you, should
we really be talking of East-West trade as a whole, or rather trade
with particular countries?
Mr. PECGEI. I think that if we consider our long-term policies, that
is, what are we going to do as far as trade is concerned with that part
of the world during the next 10 years, we should devise an overall
harmonious policy for the whole area, which then may have different
implementations as to different countries. For instance, already now in
the case of Yugoslavia, many European countries are following dif-
ferent practices than those applied to Eastern Germany. But I be-
lieve that we must come to an overall decision as to what to do on the
long run for Eastern Europe and the U.S.S.R. as far as trade is
concerned.
Representative WIDNALL. Mr. Younger, would you answer that,
please?
Mr. YOUNGER. I don't know that I am very well qualified in this
field to say more than I have already said. What my original remarks
were aimed at was an over-all discrimination in Western trade against
trade with Communist countries as such. And my view there was that
one would wish to see that discrimination diminished or abolished, ex-
cept in a purely strategic aspect, for all alike. Obviously, the applica-
tion of this might work out differently in the case of different coun-
tries. They have very different capabilities of trade with the West.
PAGENO="0158"
154 T~ FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Some of them would probably not be able to take much advantage of
any relaxation.
But I would agree with Mr. Peccei that in the long run one has to
treat the whole of Eastern Europe as one in this regard. East Germany
has been an obvious exception up to the present time on political
grounds. I don't know myself whether this exceptional position is
going to survive another 10 or event 5 years. I think that the future
problem is going to be one of the attitude toward Communist coun-
tries in Eastern Europe as a whole rather than of discriminating in
each case, at least as far as legal discrimination is concerned.
Representative WThNALL. It would seem to me that there is more
opportunity for economic and political benefits for trade with par-
ticular European countries rather than just in general East~~\Test
trade. Don't you think that that might be the best approach?
Mr. PECCEI. No doubt, and practically that is a reality already.
Also, in the near future it will be much easier to deal individually
with the Rumanians or the Hungarians, the Czechs or the Eastern
Germans. But that will be the practical side of an overall policy which
should be considered, having in mind the whole of the area.
And if I may add one comment, I think that we must try to assess
accurately which would be the results of much greater trade with that
whole area, say, in the next 15 years. Because much greater trade with
the West would probably mean a greater diversification of their econ-
omies. And this diversification will probably reduce the efforts they
are doing now, say, in the military or paramilitary fields, increase
the importance in their societies and economies of the civilian sector
and divert resources and energies towards the production of consumer
goods; that is, toward more peaceful ends. And that study is something
that I think has not been really done yet, but is worth doing on the
part of the United States and of Europe, too. In this connection I
would like to add to the records of this subcommittee if you allow me.
Mr. Chairman, a paper I prepared on this subject and which was
published in the spring issue of the Atlantic Commlmity Quarterly.
Chairman BOGGS. We will include it in the record.
(The report supplied by Mr. Peccei's follows:)
DEVELOPED-IJNDEBDEVELOPED AND EAST-WEST RELATIONS5
[By Aurelio Pecceil
To place in perspective the growing world problems during the next ten or
20 years requires far more understanding and imagination, wisdom and capac-
ity for synthesis than we are accustomed to demand of ourselves.
In modern society the issues are so broad, complex and global, and the speed
of change has become so rapid, that man's very qualities and his capacity to
meet them will certainly be put to test.
To start with, he must realize where he is in the world and what his assets
and liabilities are; then he must consider in what direction he is actually
heading; and finally, decide where he wants to go and can go, using which
means and at what price.
What in the past was only abstract design or moral commitment we are now
in a position to consider in more positive, operational terms. And this we must
*A paper presented at the Business International Bermuda Roundtable on Corporate
Planning Today for Tomorrow's World Market, December 15-18, 1966. Reprinted by per-
mission, from The Atlantic Community Quarterly of the Atlantic Council of the United
States, Inc. Spring 1~61.
PAGENO="0159"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 155
do, for our own sake, for now we control forces which match those of nature
itself and produce machines capable of multiplying the power of our arms and
brain. For the first time we may decisively influence our future, create a great
society or totally destroy it.
Therefore our thinking has to acquire a new dimension, in keeping with human
expectations and the dangers and opportunities of ~ur various societies at this
point of history; failing which we may all too easily lose control of the shrink-
ing arena of growing contrasts which is our world.
I will attempt to give some indications as to what kind of thinking in my
opinion we should produce not only to keep this explosive arena manageable
during the next decade, but also to insure that life therein can be lived in a
way befitting our quality as civilized human beings.
Above all, the new relation between man and his future poses problems of
leadership.
If we take our macrocosm, the world as a whole, the first-choice first-refusal
right to leadership should be in the hands of peoples and countries capable of
taking up the main challenge of our times. I am convinced that West and West
alone can, at the present time, muster the intellectual and organizational ca-
pacities in order to marshal and guide the tremendous pace of the technological
revolution and to provide thereby means and rules for the progress and pros-
perity of all mankind.
Furthermore, Western culture can greatly contribute, in a joint effort with
the other new and older cultures of the world, to the solution of the supreme
dilemma of how to reconcile man with the world which he himself is progressively
dc-humanizing.
However, at the present reading the West has not yet picked up this leadership
option. Although in the race for progress it is way out ahead, this hardly means
that it is offering guidance to the others. It is not even clear if the West knows
itself where it is going.
The Western nations in fact are not united. And lack of unity has so far pre-
vented them from taking a constructive long-range lead in world affairs.
Moreover, their unprecedented riches and the protection of the U.S. nuclear
umbrella are lulling them into the illusion that they can live permanently in a
privileged position.
This is another reason why we should wake up to the complexities of our world
and think well ahead.
THE ONION LAYERS CONCEPT
It is not only a question of updating our mental approach. The necessity of
forecasting and planning for the future will have to be profoundly rethought and
the supersonic and superhuman speed of our time gives us very little respite.
Looking ahead, the first question is what new and convenient reference frame-
work can be devised to replace the now obsolete and misleading North-South,
East-West schematization.
Let me then sketch a unitary view of the world, a kind of model for the next
decade, although I have to concede that it is an optimist's view. I hope it may help
formulate our forward thinking and systematize our approach to this complex
world of ours.
The world is represented by a strong core where the main forces of progress
are centered and which exerts leadership; and that is in fact the Atlantic Com-
munity. Around this great Atlantic center, irradiating force and support, are
concentric belts of countries linked to the core itself by a variety of bonds and
interests which gradually diminish from the center towards the periphery. (See
map.)
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156
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
PAGENO="0161"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 157
This image may be compared to the layers of an onion, and there are three prin-
cipal layers around the Atlantic core:
The special relationship countries; the great outside development regions; and
areas of later development.
This concept of the world of the seventies, is again geopolitical. But it makes
sense, not least when we consider it from the socio-economic development angle
and understand that development, though it be a global issue, cannot be promoted
everywhere at the same time nor at an equal rate and with equal success.
In the first layer there are groups of countries which, for different reasons,
such as tradition, culture, geographical position and level of development are
in a special relation with the Atlantic countries.
We should not spare any effort nor leave any stone unturned in order to have
them develop as rapidly and as homogenously as possible with respect to the
Atlantic area during the next decade.
OPERATION EASTERN EUROPE
First among them is Eastern Europe. We can foresee that these countries will
tend to gravitate ever more toward Western Europe as they gradually develop
and increase their foreign trade and also because of the consequences of peaceful
engagement policies towards the East. Operation Eastern Europe should, how-
ever, be geared to Operation USSR of which we will speak in a moment.
This new rapprochement between two groups of European peoples which have
been historically engaged in trade, alliances and wars, and which are bound by
a common culture, may represent a basic feature of the coming decade. Further-
more, it represents a sine qua non condition for the coming together of the two
(lermanies with a view towards a later reunification; it is therefore the keystone
for resolving one of the great problems which has remained unsolved so far.
A second group consists of the non-European countries of the Mediterranean
basin which are linked to Europe more than to any other region or country. The
reciprocal attraction between them and Europe is likely to increase in the near
future, again under the spur of growing trade, coupled with investment and
tourism and the complementary nature of the two areas in terms of demand and
supply of manpower.
Europe should see that it is not only to her advantage but also her mission to
develop these countries, which in any case cannot do the job themselves. The
concept that the Mediterranean basin-as a development area-is a prolonga-
tion of Europe serves the interests of all the peoples around its shores and by
extension the interests of the Atlantic Community itself. Probably the thorny
problem concerning Israel and the Arabs could, with strong United States back-
ing, find a solution in this enlarged European framework.
A similar special relationship is that linking the United States with the
peoples living in the great continental and insular expanse Immediately to her
South.
THE CENTRAL AMERIGAN AREA
This is an area to which the United States is obviously rather sensitive. It
includes the Caribbean countries (Cuba as well, in due course), those grouped in
the Central American Common Market, and Mexico although she is a member
of LAFTA and deserves a position of her own. It is of prime interest to all
these countries that one of the main objectives of the Atlantic Community, and
the United States for sure, should be that of helping them draw up and imple-
ment a long-term growth and modernization plan.
Finally, the developed countries of the Pacific: Australia, New Zealand and
Japan, also participate in the Atlantic area of progress and prosperity although
they do not directly belong to it. The same is probably true for the Philippines.
All countries belonging to this first layer are in one way or another a logical
extension of the Atlantic Community and should be considered as such. They
can receive immense benefits from their integration into or association with
the Atlantic Community, while keeping their own national characteristics and
their own political philosophy and institutions.
If these achievements and developments are feasible, it would be unforgiv-
able if the Western countries did not plan ahead this way. The urgency is such
that from this very moment the United States and the European nations should
consult on how to cooperate and lead these first layer countries towards a future
of progress within the Atlantic framework.
The second layer is represented `by two great regions: the Soviet Union and
South America. It will depend on their amalgamation into `the Atlantic area
82-181-67--vol. I-11
PAGENO="0162"
158 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
of progr~s and prosperity whether history will see the next decade as a decade.
of great development or as a time of growing dangers for mankind.
The peaceful and constructive engagement of these external areas should he.
contemporaneous to the consolidation of the inner layer of countries more.
tightly linked to the Atlantic Community.
As far as the USSR is concerned, it is difficult indeed to forecast her political,
economic and organizational development in the next ten years.
The Soviet leaders have repeatedly declared that the Soviet Union must make.
an all-out industrial effort, and that this effort is essential to her future. How~
ever, the giant bureaucratic apparatus of the country has yet tq prove that it can
undertake it.
At the beginning of this century a Russian historian pointed out that his
country's progress was barred by the enormous weight of the state administra-
tion. Presently there is no great change in this situation. Furthermore, the
USSR must also overcome great internal difficulties before attaining such
essential goals as self-sufficiency in the production of agricultural and consumer
goods, increasing the quality and variety of industrial products, and diversifying
exports.
A NEW SOVIET COURSE OF ACTION
The Soviet Government is making an agonizing reappraisal. They have come
to accept that their industrial economy and their administrative apparatus
are entirely inadequate. Hence the new course of action based on profit and
automation.
The new Five Year Plan approved last spring embodies these directives, and
its objectives seems much sounder and more coherent than those of the previous
Plans during the last 30 years. Its nonvoluntaristic character, as they call it now
in the USSR, means that it should be more reliable, less bent on propaganda.
In this respect it goes somewhat back to the earlier Soviet tradition which is
at the root of the technique of modern planning.
The five-year period covered by the present Plan may represent a crucial turn-
ing point for the second world power. After the galling and costly setbacks in
agriculture, the system has a second chance to prove its validity by successfully
modernizing industry and substantially increasing overall productivity.
On the basis of the present situation in Russia some observers have considered
various possible developments in their forecast. In our analysis we shall con-
sider two opposite and extreme alternatives whose seeds are apparently already
present in Soviet society.
According to the first alternative, whose plausibility is to some extent borne
out by some attitudes of the present Soviet leadership, the Party and the Gov-
ernment will go all the way with the new course, courageously devoting their
energies and capacities to devising and trying new measures to bring about all
the necessary structural and economic reforms. For the top echelons in the
Soviet Union this will also represent a dramatic form of self-criticism.
Apart from the expected results in the economic field, important political
consequences may ensue. The inevitable social and psychological crises which
will be caused by such reforms may lead to a partial democratization of the
political system and an alliance of the establishment of the top echlons with
the intelligentsia permitting better use to be made of the country's intellectual
capacities.
Accurate balance of these reforms will be necessary within the USSR to avoid a
sharp downturn in the standard of living, thereby igniting social explosions. As
to external conditions, peaceful coexistence alone will probably not suffice. Only
extensive cooperation extended to the USSR by the Western countries can put at
her disposal the vast resources of foreign exchange and the managerial tech-
niques which only the West possess and w-hich are indispensable for this historic
transformation of the Soviet economic system.
If this perspective is not altogether unrealistic, new opportunities undreamed
of during the `50s and early `GOs open up before us. Can we let them pass us by?
Is it possible for us to cautiously foster their appearance?
The other extreme alternative is that reactionary elements will block renova-
tion so that the status quo will continue within the USSR; and the present in~
ternational situation of bare co-existence will go on, interspersed with recurrent
crises of the ~Tietham type.
DISRUPTIVE FORCES IN THE USSR
If this occurs, the economic vicious circle of low standard of living-low produe.~
tivity will in all likelihood be perpetuated. Under the spur of increasing demands
from the population the situation may one day become untenable. The disruptive.
PAGENO="0163"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 159
forces still present in Soviet society would then emerge. The efforts to marshal
events by a drastic return to stalinist methods would inevitably result in a
worsening of the domestic and international situations, without solving the prob-
lem altogether.
The result might be a progressive disruption of the country with the possible
break-up of Soviet society into forms we cannot anticipate. This occurrence would
spell suffering and grave risk, not only for the USSR. And the development of
such a disruptive process could result in the Soviet leaders pursuing aggressive
policies abroad.
In any case, the break-up of a country which has a world position such as the
USSR would create a power vacuum and a chain reaction of unpredictable but
extremely dangerous crises in international relations, thereby increasing once
again the effective dangers of war.
In conclusion, the Soviet Union may shortly find herself at the crossroads. The
decisions she will take may powerfully affect our lives. Ours may advance hers,
and greatly influence her course. They may represent the decisive factor for the
East-West and world relationships in the years to come.
When the chips are down, the United States is bound to accord first place to
her own hemisphere and to the risks and opportunities which lie on her own
doorstep. Europe as a whole, not only Latin Europe, is linked to Latin America
by a variety of bonds: bonds of culture, bonds of tradition, and complementary
economies, unique in comparison to other regions of the world. There are other
objective reasons why Latin America comes first and these are illustrated by the
case of Adela.
THE CASE FOR LATIN AMERICA
Adela was devised for Latin America; it could not have been launched for
any other developing area. When this novel undertaking was decided upon, the
case for Latin America was stated as follows:
The continent has been independent for 140 years, whereas in Africa, non-
Communist Asia, and most of the Middle East countries independence is new or
quite new. Latin America has had decades of experience with various forms of
self-government, or at least local government, and in most of the countries there
is deeply-held popular allegiance to the concept of government by the people.
There is a great deal of illiteracy, but there is also a great deal of literacy. The
cadres are made up of reasonably well-trained and responsible people. It will
be a miracle if Africa, for example, manages to have comparable cadres two
decades from now.
Latin America is also more fully prepared than the other developing areas
in the growing validity and strength of its regional institutions, such as IADB,
OAS, ICAP, LAFTA and CACM.
Another basic difference characterizes the problem of development in Latin
America, where there are fundamental contrasts between regions and within
economic sectors. Underdevelopment in Asia and Africa, on the contrary, is
much more even. These contrasts, which are the reflection of bottlenecks and
obstacles to development, are also the symptoms of ferments and vitality which
are not to be found in the stagnating areas. They also mean that the forces of
organization are beginning their process of polarization.
LATIN AMERICAN TESTING GROUND
Finally, Latin America has had extensive experience with a system of economic
activity based primarily upon private endeavor. The bulk of activities which
Americans or Europeans would consider to be normally in the private sector,
are in the private sector in Latin America.
Latin America therefore is presently the great testing ground as to whether
a system substantially based upon poltical freedom and private economic en-
deavor can work iii an underdeveloped region. And the world work has to be
interpreted not only economically but also socially and politically.
It depends on Latin American decisions whether an adequate and combined
policy for Latin America can be started by Europe and the United States, or
whether Europe and the United States will be inclined to indulge in their present
uncoordinated and sometimes antagonistic policies with little benefit to Latin
America.
Another question was raised some months ago by a prominent American politi-
cal leader: "whether or not Latin America can successfully walk the razor's
edge across the development threshold depends to a large extent on whether or
not civilian, democratically elected governments there can provide sufficient
satisfaction."
PAGENO="0164"
160 TI~ FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
But the progress and prosperity of 200 million Latin Americans will greatly
depend on the vision and on the action taken by the Atlantic countries as well.
If the Atlantic countries will accept their prominent responsibilities towards
Latin America as a basic feature of their long-term policies, and not only as an
extemporaneous posture in times of political and financial emergency, another
sound basis will have been established for tackling the problems of the `lOs.
The third and last layer comprises the remaining countires of the world,
namely Africa south of the desert belt from the Sahara to the Red Sea (except
the Union of South Africa, which I am at a loss to categorize), China and that
part of Asia which does not belong to the first two layers.
With respect to these really underdeveloped countries (including China, some
4ay) we should-during the next decade-expand trade w-ith them and extend
*trade facilities; step up economic aid, technical assistance and credit support;
and help them exploit their natural resources; jointly devise how they should
industrialize, increase agricultural productivity and organize their markets; and
do as many other things for their benefit as we can.
We should, and do doubt will, also adopt emergency aid measures, expressing
~ur solidarity in case of calamity.
But in our global appraisal and planning w-e must be clear in our mind.
Whatever we do, these countries by and large will not mature towards anything
apnroaching our standards of organization and growth capacity. Their philoso-
phy of life, their beliefs, values, motivations and attitudes-in some cases the
heritage of a great culture older than ours-their total approach to w-hat we call
modern civilization, all these fundamental elements on which the future rests
are not homogeneous with ours.
THE WEST'S ROLE IN UNDERDEVELOPMENT
Whatever we do, these countries will remain areas of later development as we
understand it, and a matter for our thoughts during the `80s under this aspect.
As we realize this situation and try to map out the future globally, we are led
to make a most painful reappraisal, that of redimensioning and timin.g the West's
role with regard to underdevelopment.
It is quite obvious that we are facing here a most critical contradiction.
In fact, on the one side, interdependence is growing and modern communication
systems make it possible for any point on the globe to be reached speedily and
promptly, and for any people to reach other people, no matter how far apart
they are geographically, culturally or politically. Yet, on the other side, the
technological revolution, which has reached such momentum in the last few years,
is creating at the same time a gap in this shrinking w-orld among countries w-hich
were by and large considered to be at a compatible level of development until not
too long ago.
This gap becomes immense and awesome when it is considered w-ith regard to
underdeveloped peoples. It is a gap in development level. The less endowed coun-
tries are not in a condition to absorb aid and the new technology, and therefore
sink further in relative terms. In its turn, this causes a greater quality gap. As
time posses the acquisitive capacity of these countries becomes weaker and weaker
as technology becomes ever more complex. The gap w-idens to unbridgeable pro-
portions: a gap in per-capita income, in growth capacity, in understanding. in
everything which characterizes societies nowadays.
In fact Asia encompasses societies permeated with ancient traditions and cui-
tures, which under present conditions can hardly be expected to be influenced
from outside to the point of accepting radical change. Their customs are such
that many aspects of modern life appear to be totally uncongenial to them.
Suffice it to consider the tragic struggle in India between the need of moderniz-
ing agriculture and the religious belief which makes cows and monkeys sacred,
when the sancity of cows and monkeys perpetuates starvation among men. Suffice
it to consider the turmoil incomprehensible to Western minds which is the torment
of China.
As to Africa. the last continent affected by the hurricane of political independ-
ence, it is still trying to weather the transition from a highly divided tribal
society, to a nationhood in many cases difficult to trace and define. There is very
little chance of planning ahead there. The economic and political viability of too
many of the new African states is questionable at best.
In the face of this situation, we must also recognize that there are definite
limitations with regard to both our human and material resources. We may feel
deeply the human urge, but it would be unrealistic for us to plan a massive and
decisive contribution toward solving the problem of underdevelopment in Asia
and Africa.
PAGENO="0165"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 161
It follows necessarily that the West will have to give priority to the countries
we have airoady mentioned, and postpone consideration of this massive commit-
ment in Asia and Africa by ten years or so. In the meantime, present technical
and financial aid should be continued and possibly increased for humanitarian
reasons, irrespective of the fact that we do not expect that it will in the least
change the situation for the time being.
THE ATLANTIC CORE
In the meantime we will hopefully also have set our Western house and its
adjoining areas in order, and gained more strength. From that expanded and
consolidated platform the problems besetting the vast human masses of Asia
and Africa can then be systematically tackled with some better chance of
success.
Advancing this conclusion, I realize that ten years is rather a long time for
a human being, and even more so for a suffering human being. But it is not
a long time in history.
The contrary solution would be self-defeating. The world, East-West-South-
North all together, would be doomed to bankruptcy, should large (and yet in-
sufficient) resources be prematurely drawn into the blotting paper named Asia
and Africa. And probably none of the other objectives we have indicated for tl1e
next decade would be accomplished.
The unitary concept of the world we have expounded as a basis for our
thoughts for the future rests on the assumption that the Atlantic core be there,
and that it will exude vitality and guidance.
Although the Atlantic Community of the United States, Canada and Europe
is our foremost concern and hope, I will- not deal with it here, beyond saying
that I believe it represents quite an attainable objective for the early seventies.
Let me, however, make a few observations about Europe, the old yet respect-
able continent with -traditions, vested interests, divisions, contrasts and contra--
dictions, and which represents the crux of the matter.
It is much harder to correct and amend rather than create anew, and Europe
is an example. Europe has already caused two world wars; the germ is still
latent, fortunately inactive and perhaps rendered innocuous. There is also the
danger that new affluence may soften its societies, dampen the driving force and
imagination its best spirits must possess at the present juncture.
DISARRAY IN EUROPE
Moreover, Europe is presently at low ebb. Disarray in the EEC, difficulties
in the ECSC, gloomy economic outlook for England, uncertainty in Germany,
Scandinavia going through a recession, Spain still reluctant to adopt modern
institutions, Italy slowr in reforming and modernizing her structures, Gaullism
rampant not only in France.
In spite of these real dangers, these shortcomings and these psychological
obstacles, there is, in my opinion, room for optimism. Within 18 months from
now all internal custom barriers will be abandoned in the EEC; and the great
majority of people want the United Kingdom in. Most European corporations
and many American ones, too, plan ahead with an integrated European market,
not against it. Public opinion is mature. Many other instances may be offered
that European unity-economic integration at least-is not too far off.
The day the Europeans find themselves free from their present divisions and
inhibitions, `and realize the marvelous adventure they are about to embark
upon, all of them together, a new Europe will emerge and the stage will be set,
I believe, for another Renaissance.
But in the context of the world situation, Europeans cannot consider Europe
merely as a new continent-state whose birth is nothing more than the integration
of an array of nation-states. They must conceive it as Europe-plus. They must
form it with the objective of marching towards an Atlantic Community, with
a keen sense of their responsibilities and `chances at this juncture in history.
And in this process the influence of the United States on Europe will be enor-
mous. The major burden of steering the future course of humanity and shaping
our destinies certainly resides with the United States of America, at least pending
the creation of the Community.
There are the authentic and effective levers of power. There a new society is
growing out of its continental confinement, out of its obsolete inclination for iso-
PAGENO="0166"
~i62 THE F1TTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Tlationism, a society evermore aware of its worldwide responsibilities. There are
the most advanced technological achievements, effectively and unceasingly con-
ceived and utilized.
There the Atlantic Community must be prepared while Europe evolves towards
~iinity.
Because of all these formidable assets, the world, and Europe in particular
until it has reached its unity, rightly expect the United States to take decisive,
bold and enlightened initiatives toward a new world.
SECURITY IS DEVELOPMENT
In this survey I have not touched upon the military aspect, firstly because I
am utterly unqualified to speak on this matter, and secondly because I am naive
enough to believe that if we succeed imaginatively and courageously in mapping
out our objectives and in intelligently charting our way towards them, the world
will be immensely more secure, and military problems will become less and less
relevant.
For Americans and Europeans alike, let me quote a top-flight expect, Secretary
McNamara, hoping that his words really have the high moral meaning I read
in them:
"In a modernizing society, security means development. Security is not mili-
tary hardware-though it may include it. Security is not military force-though
it may involve it. Security is not traditional military activity-though it may
encompass it. Security is development.
"Without development, there can be no security. A developing nation that does
not in fact develop simply cannot remain secure. It cannot remain secure for
the intractable reason that its own citizenry cannot shed its human nature. If
security implies anything, it implies a minimal measure of order and stability.
Without internal development of at least a minimal degree, order and stability
are simply not possible. They are not possible, because human nature cannot be
frustrated beyond intrinsic limits. It reacts-because it must."
I am afraid that what I have been saying will stir controversy more thafl
arouse consensus.
If, however, some merit is to be seen in the concepts and the study program
which I have outlined, practical questions will follow.
Let me suggest that three steps may be considered in this respect.
Firstly, that the program for the seventies be sponsored by the highest political
authorities who should lend it their prestige and maximize the impact on inter-
national public opinion of this nonpartisan endeavor to penetrate into the future.
A PRAGMATIC APPROACH NEEDED
Secondly, that the program be entrusted in fact to a non-political non-contro-
versial institution such as a foundation of high repute, whose task should be to
prepare the terms of reference and then to mobilize and co-opt the most qualified
institutions, research centers, academies and individual experts from all over
the world. A pragmatic approach should be adopted to carry it out and use should
be made of studies by other bodies; assignments should be given to ad hoc groups
in the various fields, political, social, economic, technical, scientific, and so on;
specific investigations, appraisals and model simulations ShO~id be made in areas
and sectors of special interest; alternative assumptions and trends should be con-
sidered and their effects discussed; and finally the entire documentation should
be reviewed for coordination and harmonization and with a view to making pos-
sible recommendations.
Thirdly, that a report be prepared on what is expected to be the shape of the
world during the next ten years according to various alternative groups of a~-
sumptions, objectives and policies; and on which strategies could make it a
better world to live in. The report should be made public, save for those recom-
mendations which by their very nature would be submitted for consideration only
to centers of power.
Business cannot progress if society and the world do not progress. Corporate
planning is meaningless if North-South, East-West relationships go unplanned.
Corporate long-range international programs require that the future world en-
vironment, conditions and consequently business climate be reasonably assured.
However, I am fully aware that it is unthinkable that a program of the nature
and magnitude I have outlined should be conceived, formulated and enactea
PAGENO="0167"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 163
without the determinant participation of the International Corporation which,
inasmuch as it is international, is certainly world aware, and inasmuch as it is
a corporation, represents the highest expression of modern efficiency, drive and
capacity to deliever.
For these reasons, I believe not only that large banks and big industrial con-
cerns have a great stake in our society setting its course towards systematically
striving for a more secure and developing world; but also that all of them should
combine and commit their unequalled organizing and planning capacity towards
decisively contributing to this objective.
Representative WIDNALL. Mr. Chairman, I have two unanimous con-
sent requests, one to include to my remarks today the Library of Con-
gress report from the Legislative Reference Service on the "Balance
of Trade in Western European Countries with the Soviet Union and
East-West for 1965 and the First Half of 1966."
Chairman BOGGS. Without objection.
(The report follows:)
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE SERVICE
Balance of Trade of Western European Countries With the Soviet Union and East Europe,* 1965 and 1st Half of 1966
[In thousands of dollarsj
Country
1965
January-June 1966
U.S.S.R.
East
Europe
Total
U.S.S.R.
East
Europe
Total
Austria
Belgium-Luxemburg
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany, West
*Greece
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
`Netherlands
Norway
Portugal
`Spain
Sweden
`Switzerland
Turkey
United Kingdom
Yugoslavia
Total
+4, 383
-23, 492
-3,759
-4,620
-73,993
-63, 973
-9,620
-5,333
-1,025
-83, 178
-23, 632
-9, 640
-116
-19, 058
-2, 087
+3,111
+2, 019
-204, 453
+79,641
+13, 765
-3, 612
-14,243
-1,924
+102,647
+48, 951
-17,874
-1,705
-11,120
-25,733
-22, 801
+4, 543
-5, 673
-24, 974
-3, 201
-59
+7, 118
-89, 351
+10,792
+18, 148
-27, 104
-18,002
-6,544
+28,654
-15, 022
-27,494
-7,038
-12,145
-108,911
-46,433
-5, 097
-5, 789
-44, 032
-25, 288
+3,052
+9, 137
-293, 804
+90,433
+6, 641
-7, 900
-6,876
-31,843
-47,902
-52, 560
+3,242
+849
-1,250
-51, 013
-10,934
-5,042
(1)
-1, 839
-20, 489
-3,003
-2, 760
-50, 964
+18,226
+11, 044
+4, 378
+808
+1,051
+87,312
+98, 450
+3,200
+1,036
-5,553
-23, 785
-558
-1, 026
+642
-764
+6, 186
+10,246
+4, 648
-39, 969
-59,937
+17, 685
-3, 522
-6,068
-30,792
+39,410
+45, 890
+6,442
+1,885
-6,803
-74,798
-11, 492
-6, 068
+642
-2, 603
-14, 303
+7,243
+1, 888
-90, 933
-41,711
-458, 825
-34, 454
-493, 279
-265, 417
+97, 409
-168, 008
1 Less than $500.
*prepared by Vladimir N. Pregelj, analyst in international trade and finance, Economics Division, Legislative Reference
Service, Library of Congress, Apr. 4, 1967.
Source: U.S. Bureau of International Commerce, International Trade Analysis Divinion, exports of free world countries
`to Communist areas and imports of free world countries from Communist areas, January-December 1965 and January-
June 1966. All Western countries listed value exports f.o.b. and imports cit.
Representative WIDNALL. And the second request is on behalf of
`Congressman Curtis. He would like to have placed in the record the
European Free Trade Association Experience in Abolishing Barriers
to Trade, a report issued from the Washington Information Office.
`This is a very able discusison of how the EFTA has adjusted to the re-
duction `of trade barriers. I think it would be very helpful.
Chairman BoGos. Without objection it will be incorporated in the
record.
(The report referred to follows:)
PAGENO="0168"
164 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
THE EFTA EXPERIENCE IN ABOLISHING BARRIERS TO TRADE
GEORGE B. YOUNG, DIRECTOR
JULY 10, 1967.
In the past ten years there have been two large-scale practical demonstrations
in Western Europe of the effect of the adoption by industrial countries of liberal
trade policies. In both cases the abolition of trade barriers has been accompanied
by remarkable increases in trade and also in the economic growth of the partici-
patirig countries. The fears of particular industries have been proved, almost
without exception, to be without foundation in practice. The `escape clauses"
which were incorporated into the agreements between countries to reduce tariffs
have been little used, and then only for short periods. Perhaps most striking of
all, as a result of these experiences the industrialists of Europe, with few ex-
ceptions, now have a much more relaxed attitude in regard to protection. They see
a steady rate of economic growth as being much more important to their future
prosperity than any measures to protect them from outside competition.
This recent European experience means that decisions on trade policy can
now be made on a much sounder factual basis. In past years, decision-making on
trade policy consisted of trying to choose between different hypotheses. The
advocates of liberal policies expressed their confidence that all nations would
greatly benefit from the reduction of barriers to international trade. Advocates
of protection, on the other hand, sought to forecast the serious and possibly
calamitous effects on particular industries, and on the economy as a whole, of a
flood of foreign imports following the reduction of trade barriers. Government
decisions on trade policy therefore thevitably represented a choice, or more often,
a compromise between these different hypothetical possibilities.
The European experience of free trade in practice has vindicated those who
analyzed U.S. prosperity as being very largely due to the existence of a huge
single market without significant barriers to internal commerce. This example
was accepted as the one for Western Europe to follow twenty years ago, when
the OEEC was established to administer Marshall Aid and to liberalize trade
and payments throughout the region. The effects of this liberalization were
already apparent when decisions were made to embark on more intensive reduc-
tion of trade barriers in Europe, first by the formation of the European Economic
Community and secondly by the creation early in 1960 of the European Free
Trade Association (EFTA). This paper seeks only to analyze the economic
effects produced by EF~TA integration; it need only be said in passing that
results in the EEC have been of the same type.
On the last day of 1966, trade in manufactured products between the EFTA
countries-Austria, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland
and the United Kingdom-became free of quota or tariff barriers, save for some
minor temporary exceptions. EFTA became a single market, as is the United
States, and industrial trade between its member countries became the equivalent
of interstate commerce. Externally, of course, each EPTA country maintains
its own tariff structure toward other countries. EFTA has no common external
tariff.
For the largest member of EFTA. the United Kingdom, completion of the free
trade area represented a doubling of her home market. For the smaller members
of EFTA, their home market was enlarged between 10 and 25 times. In conse-
quence, production and trade in the EFTA countries now operate in a quite
different environment. The Swedish manufacturer, for example, now has a home
market 12 times its previous size. It follows that his investment, production and
marketing decisions must be set against a new background. It follows also that
structural economic changes must be expected over future years. The tendency
toward larger units of production and distribution is already very marked in
EFTA and can confidently be expected to accelerate.
But the free trade area did not come into being overnight. The process of
reducing trade barriers began in 1960 and proceeded by reductions of 10% to 20%
a year until the end of 1966. In other words, the businessmen of the EFTA
countries have had a new background for their decisions for several years past,
based on the commitment by their governments to the timetable of tariff cuts.
Even during the transition period, therefore, very encouraging results were
obtained in terms of increased trade. Taking EFTA as a whole, commodity trade
between its eight countries increased from $3.5 billion in 1959 to $7.5 billion in
1966, an increase of 110%, or an average growth of about 12% a year. In those
PAGENO="0169"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 165
years the trade of EFTA countries with each other grew at almost twice the
rate of their trade with the outside world-and at twice the rate of growth of
trade between the EFT'A countries in the six years before the Association came
into `being. `This development was `certainly partly due to the stimulus of general
world prosperity in those years and possibly partly due to some diversion of
trade from non-EFTA countries to EF~TA partners, but largely also a result o'f
new trade `created through EFTA. tariff dismantling.
Within the overall figures for EFTA., however, there were even more striking
trade increases between member countries. `One of the difficulties of EFTA
cooperation is the fact that its member countries lie in a sort `of ring around
Western Europe, `so that the Associati'on does not share the `advantage of the
EEC of being `a geographically contiguous grouping. It happens, however, that
the four Nordic countries are all in the Association, and they do represent a
contiguous grouping with a relatively homogeneous structure and outlook-and
intra-Nordic trade increased by 160% between 1959 and 1966.
This was a rate of growth which could not have been forecast. All four
countries are competing in6ustrial economies, and this fact prevented the
realization in the `SOs of the plans for a Nordic Common Market, due to the
usual protectionist fears. The Nordic countries achieved their free trade area,
however, under the wider umbrella of EFTA and found to their surprise and
gratification that the enlargement of their markets more than compensated for
their loss of protection. It should be noted that the great majority of the
new trade between the Nordic countries is in manufactured goods, based on a
high degree of specialization and producing a great extension of consumer
choice.
Many more figures could be produced, if desired, to illustrate the success-
ful effect of the adoption of free trade in EFTA, but what has been said above
should suffice for the purposes of this paper. It may be noted, however, that the
free trade argument is supported in reverse, so to speak, by what has recently
been happening to trade between the EFTA countries and the six members of
the EEC. This trade held up very well up to 1964, but thereafter the effect of
the barrier between the two markets began increasingly to be felt, and trade
between the two groups ceased to grow as fast as before. This is, of course, one
of the main reasons why the majority of countries in both groupings are anxious
to enlarge the Community and thereby to obtain the even greater advantages
which would flow from a single Western European market of almost 300 million
population.
It is recognized, of course. that certain safeguarding measures are necessary to
make the process of trade liberalization as smooth as possible. One example is
the special timetable which was given to Portugal in EFTA, based on the realiza-
tion that many Portuguese industries are still at a very early stage of develop-
ment and cannot be exposed too quickly te free competition from outside. Another
necessary safeguard is that the generally accepted timetable for the reduction
of trade barriers should be long enough to enable businessmen to make the
necessary adjustments. In EFTA the total timetable was originally set at nine
and a half years; it was later `shortened without difficulty to six years. The
essential thing is that sufficient time should be allowed for new investment and
marketing decisions to come into operation. It is also necessary, of course, that
provisions should exist for the retraining and relocation of work people who may
be displaced by competition. It has not been found in EFTA in practice that this
constitutes a serious problem, since most EFTA countries have been very short
of labor in recent years. In any case, such factors as automation, new processes
and new products seem to mean much greater structural cha'nges in industry than
a growth of imports. It is therefore a matter of seeing to it that arrangements
for retraining and relocation can also cope with needs ari'sing from free inter-
national competition. But it should be stressed again that, by and large, industries
in EFTA have not encountered the difficulties which they feared at the outset.
The number of complaints has been very small; the number of requests for special
treatment has also been small and has been dealt with satisfactorily on the basis
of common-sense compromises. Where exceptions have been allowed to the tariff
reduction timetable, they have been limited in scope and in time.
It may be observed also that success in the abolition of the more obvious barriers
to trade, tariffs and quota restrictions, has also caused the EFTA governments to
tackle non-tariff barriers, whose effects might become more serious once tariffs
and quotas are out of the way. As a result of a process of successful negotiation,
PAGENO="0170"
166 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
agreement has already been reached in EFTA whereby the governments, when
they are in agreement about the harmful effects of a restrictive business practice,
will use the legislative and administrative means available to them in order to try
to abolish the practice. In these circumstances EFTA governments will thus try
`to prevent their own nationals from impeding the growth of EFTA trade.
Similarly, even though EFTA industries now enjoy no tariff protection from
their EFTA competitors, their governments are also committed over a fairly
wide area to ensure that government purchasing agencies and other public
undertakings in EFTA should not discriminate against suppliers from other
EFTA countries when they purchase goods for which tariffs have been abolished.
Work is now proceeding to make EPTA a complete free trade area by eliminat-
ing barriers arising from patents, compulsory and other standards, labeling
and so on. It should be noted, how-ever, that there is no tendency to seek purely
EFTA solutions to most of these problems. The EFTA. countries are trying to
obtain and to subscribe to the widest possible international agreements, so
that their trade with the rest of the world should not be impeded. There is
also activity inside EFTA on the possibility of a multilateral double taxation
agreement to cover all the EFTA countries.
Trade in agricultural goods and fish products is not covered by the rules for
free trade in industrial goods. but is governed by special provisions in the
Stockholm Convention. The EFTA objective in these two fields is to facilitate an
expansion of EFTA trade in agricultural goods and fish products, and trade in
them has as a result grown substantially.
The effects of economic integration on the prosperity of Western Europe and
its citizens have been, of course, considerable. As a whole, the area has enjoyed
a high rate of economic growth. The demand for labor over most of the period
has been so high that large numbers of workers have been attracted from out-
side. As in other parts of the world, of course, the rapid rates of economic
growth achieved have produced growing pains of varying severity, and govern-
ments have frequently had to step in to moderate growth in order to prevent
too high a degree of inflation. By and large, prices have risen fairly steadily in
Western Europe over the past twenty years, but not so rapidly as the rise in
income; the rate of economic growth has been such as to take care of the
amount of inflation generated. In these circumstances, it is difficult to give a
simple answer to those who wish to know how the consumer has benefited from
the process of tariff reduction. With all economic factors in motion, it is hard
to analyze separately the effect of only one factor, the reduction of import
duties. But a good deal of serious analytical work has been done in EFTA on
this aspect and has led to the conclusion that the tariff cuts have in fact been
passed on to importers and to consumers. It is clear that the prices of EFTA
imported goods have tended to rise less rapidly than prices of similar goods of
domestic production or from sources outside the Association, and also less rapidly
than the general trend of prices in the member countries. In other words, the
consumer is benefiting from free trade policies not only in terms of higher
employment and wages but also in terms of greatly increased choice and more
stable prices.
In drawing conclusions from EFTA's experience with free trade policies, it
should be remembered that the total foreign trade of the group is as large as
that of the LTnited States. EFTA, with only 3% of the world's population. and
9% of the world's annual income, does 18% of the world's trade. The results
are therefore those of a large-scale experiment.
And the conclusion seems obvious and clear. Free trade policies have shown
themselves to be of great advantage to industry and trade, not only in the EFTA
area but also for third countries. EFTA has been able to build its single market
without erecting any new barriers to trade with countries outside the Asso-
ciation. Indeed, two-way trade between EFTA as a group and the rest of the
world grew by 70% between 1959 and 196G. United States exports to EFTA
almost doubled in the same period, from $1.8 billion to $3.5 billion.
The acceptance by EFTA that free trade pays was illustrated in the "excep-
tions lists" submitted by its member countries in the Kennedy Round. (These
lists were of items on which the country concerned gave advance notice that it
would not negotiate a 50% tariff cut, nor, perhaps, even any cut at all.) Five
EFTA countries-Austria, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland-made
no exceptions. The United Kingdom submitted the shortest exceptions list of any
major participant in the Kennedy Round, affecting only about 5% of her
trade.
PAGENO="0171"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 167
In short, the lesson of~ the EFTA experience is that advocates of liberal trad-
ing policies can now prove their case in practice. Advocates of protection by
tariffs, quotas and levies have to face the fact that experience has proven their
fears to be illusory, and even damaging in the long run to their own best
interests.
Chairman BOGGS. Mr. Younger, why doesn't General deGaulle
want the United Kingdom in the Community?
Mr. YOUNGER. Mr. Chairman, you are in danger of receiving a long
speech from me on a question as wide as that.
I feel myself that if you are talking of President deGaulle himself,
his whole philosophical concept of what Europe ought to be, and
what France's place in that Europe ought to be makes it very hard
for him to accept the enlargement of the European Community, par-
ticularly by Britain and other North European, non-Latin coun-
tries. I think this is partly a cultural matter, quite apart from political
interests. It is partly a question of maintaining Latin culture, the
predominance of the French language, and so on. I think this goes
back very deeply into his political attitude throughout the whole of
his life, and that of the generation of Frenchmen of a particular po-
litical tradition to which he belongs.
Therefore I am inclined to discount many of the contemporary
economic arguments which he uses against our membership. When he
says, with some plausability, that we ought to put our house economi-
cally in order, and that we ought to have a strong currency before we
can be acceptable, I don't dispute that. But `I feel fairly sure that if
we did these things and became strong, he would like our entry even
less.
Therefore, I have always taken a very pessimistic view of his per-
sonal attitude to British entry.
But I think that influence is bound in the nature of things to be
more or less temporary.
Chairman BOGGS. In the light of that attitude, when do you think
you will get in?
Mr. YOUNGER. Well, I must say that it is likely to be a year or two.
I have been in the habit of saying 1970. But it could take a little
longer.
Chairman BOGGS. If and when the United Kingdom comes in, will
the other EFTA countries apply for admission?
Mr. YOUNGER. Certainly some of them will, and nearly all of them
will want some kind of economic association, if they don't actually
want to join. I don't think there is any doubt-
Chairman BOGGS. Which ones in your opinion will apply?
Mr. YOUNGER. Denmark and Norway. I am not quite so sure about
what the Swedish attitude will be. It used to be said that Sweden
couldn't possibly aim for more than association, but even that is not
quite so certain as time goes by. It depends largely on the strategic
issue.
And then, of course, apart from EFTA there are other countries,
like Ireland, which is not in EFTA, but which would also wish to
join.
So that the British entry would certainly bring with it an enlarge-
ment of three or four others, say, at least.
PAGENO="0172"
168 T~ FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Chairman BOGGS. Do you envisage, with the growth of the Corn-
m~mity. greater political strength in the Community?
Mr. YOnNGER. I think so, yes. I think the political aspects of the
Community are likely to develop rather slowly. The emergence of
common economic and foreign policy are slow growths. But I would
think that a larger Community would have an inherently greater
stability, probably from quite an early stage, even before the full eco-
nomic benefits of a large Community had become obvious. I think
from the point of view of the outside world that relationship with the
Community should become easier with this country inside it., because
there would be a. larger element inside the Community than there now
is with very widespread world trading ties. There are already very
large and strong forces inside the; Connnunitv that take a world viewS
but they would on the whole be strengthened by the enlargement of
the Community.
Chairman Bocus. Dr. Peccei, would you like to comment on that
question?
Mr. PECCEI. I share Mr. Younger's view that by 1970 we may come
to have the United Kingdom in the Community. I think that it will
not be a much larger Community than six plus one, say seven, because
of the difficulty adapting the Community mechanism to a larger mun-
ber of participants. If there are more than seven or eight countries,
they will have to be somehow associated with all the benefits. but not
represented in Brussels, becuuse it would be too cumbersome. The Com-
munity would benefit immensely from the United Kingdom entry,
politically as well as in outlook, and I think, also, to balance more the
Saxons and the Latins.
Chairman BOGGS. You will mix them up pretty good. Dr. Hender-
son, our staff economist, has a question for you, Dr. Peccei.
Mr. HENDERSON. Mr. Boggs has permitted me to address a question
to you, Dr. Peccei.
I will be happy if you will comment on the role of the international
corporation. As you know, the increasing share of world trade that is
between affiliates must have some influence on trade policy. Does this
influence, go in the direction of making harmonization of national poli-
cies easier or more difficult? Does it go in the direction of making easier
the policy that YOU mentioned of redistributing productive facilities?
Mr. PECCEI. First of all, I will answer that the international corpo-
ration is but one of many t.ransnational movements.
There are so many t.ransnat.ional movements in Europe now going
on, breaking through the State boundaries so that Europe may as well
be built from below much earlier than might be expected. Some of
these tra.nsnat.ional movements mav be found in the fields of culture
entertainment, sport, and music; others are now appearing in entre-
preneurship. In Europe we feel that we are at a disadvantage with
respect to the U.S. corporations which operate in our continent, because
it is easy for them to define a unified European policy, or devise a uni-
fled European organization; while companies in Italy or Germany
cammot have that if they do not acquire some kind of European status.
Pending the approval of a Europea.n corporate statute, there will
be more and more European arrangements on the line of the Agfa-
Gevaret deal.
PAGENO="0173"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 169
Looking at this issue in more general terms, I think that the inter-
national corporation is one of the forces for the future, and we may
expect that a much greater part of the world production will be ac-
counted for by a limited number of international companies.
I think that this is one of the features of the future, and that the
international corporation will have a stabilizing effect on world mar-
kets, be a prime factor for moving technology from one country to
the other, and be a means of creating a new kind of international
managers and staffs recruited in many countries.
There is afoot a movement to create a kind of club of the interna-
tional corporations to foster the spirit of cooperation and competition
on the open markets of the world. Thus, I think that we will see much
more of the international corporations in the next few years.
Chairman Bocos. Thank you very much.
At Senator Javits' request we will insert in the record of today's
hearing an address delivered by him in London.
On behalf of the subcommittee I would like to express our apprecia-
tion to both of you gentlemen for coming here *and for the very
splendid contributions you have made to our discussions.
The committee will now adjourn until Tuesday, July 18, We will
meet at 10 a.m. in this same room. At that time we will have a panel
of businesses executives.
The subcommittee will now adjourn.
(Whereupon, at 12 noon the subcommittee adjourned, to reconvene
at 10 a.m., Tuesday, ,July 18, 1967.)
(The address of Senator Javits follows:)
BRITAIN AND THE FUTURE OF EUROPEc.
The Middle East crisis which we are just passing through dramatizes a stark
reality of the present world situation. The plain fact is that before hostilities
began only the United States and the Soviet Union jointly could have prevented
war and even thereafter a cease fire depended on agreement between them. By
any standards-especially when possible nuclear confrontation between the two
super-powers is always with us-this is hazarding too much for all mankind.
Western Europe should be able to play a greater role than it does now in the
maintenance of world peace outside of Europe. The world needs a Europe cap-
able of playing its full role in world affairs; and the adherence of Britain to the
European Economic Community is an essential element in bringing this about.
This, in my judgment does not call for a "third force" but rather for marshall-
ing their full strength on the side of conditions that can bring peace by that
group of nations which has a common tradition, a common state of society, and
a generally common outlook on world conditions and the way to establish the
rule of law to replace the rule of force.
It must also be frankly faced that many in the United States feel that the
climate of policy now haing created for Europe by President de Gaulle's France
is hardly representative of Europe. We see a striking example of this in the
tortured effort by President de Gaulle to make Israel the aggressor in the
Middle East and to take the side of Arab leaders who have kept the Middle
East a tinder box of war for 20 years. Nor can this be justified by strained and
tautological reasoning regarding the struggle in Vietnam, as it relates to the
Middle East. There is a world of difference between these two world crises. To
suggest cause and effect simply ignores the fact that the Middle East has seen
three wars in the last 20 years.
~Remarks of United States Senator Jacob K. Javits (Rep. N.Y.), at a dinner in his
honor sponsored by The Pilgrims, Savoy Hotel, London, England, June 27, 1967, and
released In London.
PAGENO="0174"
170 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
* The presence of Britain in the European Economic Community and through
it in Europe as a society, will, I believe, lend a far more European note to
European world policy than the colouration General de Gaulle gives that policy
now in a practically unchallenged way. The voice of Europe needs to be heard
again, as such, and I doubt that this will happen unless Britain's European Eco-
nomic Community application is successful. It is alarming for us in the United
States to see one man, President de Gaulle, giving a twist to Europe on world
policy as archaic as Metternich and as mischievous as de Gaulle. The rest of
Europe wants Britain but President de Gaulle is unwilling to accept the competi-
tion of British leadership in policy-making with its wider vision and deeper
insight.
But we, in the United States, I feel, have every interest in seeing Britain
remain vigorous and becoming even more productive. The tremendous experi-
ence and skill which she has acquired during centuries in world affairs must con-
tinue to be utilised in the cause of peace and of regional and international co-
operation. It dismays many Americans to see economic reasons compelling
Britain to consider withdrawing from East of the Suez-and trimming back such
of its responsibilities in Germany as it would otherwise carry. It is sad, too,
that Western Europe is not playing its full part in co-operation with North
America in providing needed assistance to the developing nations and in world
trade, technology and science.
When will the people of Europe-and even the people of the United Kingdom-
understand that my fellow countrymen do not glory in the responsibilities which
they now carry so heavily in the world? When will they understand that we
are more than anxious to share this responsibility-not only as to its burdens
but also as to whatever benefits and glory it may bring? There is no imperial
spirit in the United States. This should be clearly understood in Europe and in
Britain.
By every measure Britain seems to me to have reached a crossroads of its
nfitional life. British industry needs modernisation both in terms of machinery
and manpower. The requirements of maintaining a modern defence establish-
ment and sustained domestic growth place a heavy burden on the British econo-
my and Britain's balance of payments. It seems now to be widely accepted among
the British people, whether Labour or Tory, that Britain must take steps to
deal with the dangers of the erosion of British energies.
By taking the initiative to apply for Common Market membership, although
long and difficult negotiations lay ahead, Britain signified its readiness to take
the road that is more challenging. It is not every nation that invites competition
to sharpen itself and enable it to compete in broader markets.
The American people, I feel, strongly support your government's decision to
apply for Common Market membership and not only because British membership
in the Common Market is vitaliy important to Britain in economic and political
terms. In my judgment, the American people believe that this decision is vitally
important to Europe as well, if Europe wishes to provide itself with the authori-
ty necessary to assume a significant share in the responsibilities of world leader-
ship as well as to compete effectively in the world's markets.
Clearly, if Europe is to play a role commensurate with its traditions and com-
bined power, the European Economic Community must include Britain and other
European nations.
Beyond that, it is also my conviction that this greater Europe should eventual-
ly associate itself in some formal economic way with the other industrialised
nations of the West. In our world, only these nations together possess the capital,
the technical resources and manpower skills essential to the modernisation of the
developing nations. Such modernisation, if accomplished in time, can win the
race with the revolution of the have-nots, a revolution that often endangers
world peace and is accompanied often by an erosion of freedom.
It should be kept clearly in mind, therefore, that the negotiations for United
Kingdom membership in the European Economic Community are but one step in
the process of forging closer links among Western European nations; and in
turn, between Western Europe and the other industrialised nations of the free
world, including the United States.
There will be those who will express serious doubt that under present condi-
tions, Western economic unity can be established. I disagree. The successful
conclusion of the Kennedy Round of trade negotiations in Geneva offers proof to
the contrary. Here was a situation where the vital economic interests of the
PAGENO="0175"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 171
EEC, the Ufilted States and the other industrialised nations were at stake. Yet
when It was clear to these supposedly deadlocked negotiating trade partners that
the price of failure was the unravelling of the entire painfully constructed fabric
of Western multilateral trade co-operation, there was an agreement and an enor-
mously significant one at that.
1l~urope (if it really wants to lay claim to the future), it seems to me, must
work toward a single-minded objective. The development of a free trade area of
the broadest possible grouping of the industrialised nations of the free world
(International Free Trade Association) who have the capacity to compete with
each other on relatively equal terms in brains and skill and equipment. An
Atlantic Free Trade Area can lead to the broadest possible exchange of goods,
people, and ideas, in order to stimulate maximum production and the maximum
power in the interests of a free and prosperous world. Such a development is
as inevitable as the tides, and I suggest it will be a reality in 10 to 15 years.
The next few months will determine whether the first step in that process-
i.e., the UK joining Europe economically-will be taken. But even if this step
should fail, Britain can stall leapfrog the stage of European Economic Communi-
ty membership by the helping to form, and then joining an Atlantic Free Trade
Area. Eventually, the European Economic Community will come along and accept
Britain into membership or join such an Atlantic Free Trade Area itself.
It is for these reasons that I believe so deeply that whatever occurs within
the coming months, a full examination must be made of the Atlantic Free
Trade Area proposal. This is necessary to enable Britain to size up the Atlantic
Free Trade Area as an alternative to joining the EEC, should an alternative
`become necessary. Such an examination would also serve to assess the costs
and benefits to Britain involved in EEC membership, as the costs may very
well be high indeed-if President de Gaulle has his way. Proper contingency
planning may well strengthen Britain's bargaining position and therefore its
chance of entry into the European Economic Community on favourable terms.
And should admission be denied it-such planning `would `leave Britain in a much
stronger position f'or facing the future. For, although an Atlantic Free Trade
Area is not the preferred alternative, it is by no means without `benefit to
Britain for the same economic reasons for which it wishes to join the EEC.
What would be the principal benefits of an Atlantic F'ree Trade Area? It
would `create `a single competitive market among the United States, Canada, and
other industrialized countries of the West-not in the EEC-some' from the
European Free Trade Association, some from the Commonwealth-through
gradually `lower tariffs and other trade barriers `on manufactured products and
raw materials over a 15 to' 20-year period. At the end of this period there
would `be substantially free trade within this area with special arrangements
made to a'ssure access to this market `by developing countries which agree
`to the rules of the Atlantic Free Trade Area.
According to estimates I `have seen, the principal benefits in trade terms would
accrue to the United Kingdom and Canada rather than the United States. It
would provide "a home market" for the UK certainly equal to that which
would be offered by the EEC (the total trade of the UK with the EEC in 1966
was 2.1 billion pounds sterling as `compared with a `little over 2 billion pounds
sterling with North America) and it is `reasonable to expect that the UK's
trade with North America would expand at least at the same rate a's that
with the EEC. It would free Britain of many of the obsessions and restraints
incident to Britain's position now as an economic "loner". Indeed, the `alterna-
tive might also have a sa'lutory effect on the European Common Market, in
enabling it to reject the counsels `of those w'ho' seek to make it an exclusive
protectionist trading area rather than an effective part `of a liberal world
trading system.
I don't agree with those who feel that in a situation of free competition, U.S.
firms would drive British firms out of business or that they would take over
key industrial sectors in the United Kingdom. To a large degree U.S. technical
superiority in certain industries would be offset by lower wages in the United
Kingdom, Including the costs of scientists and research.
`There would be new American investments in Britain and a new infusion
of technology via joint ventures-but thi's would contri'bute t'o the increase of
Britain's rate of economic growth. It is entirely possible, however, that the
United States Investments in the UK may in fact slow down from past
trends. The relatively high UK tariff on manufactured goods may have caused
PAGENO="0176"
172 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
some U.S. capital to "jump" this barrier to U.S. exports. The removal of this
barrier might slow down the capital flow. On the other hand should the UK
begin to grow at an accelerated rate, U.S. investors, especially by direct in-
vestment, may consider UK investment opportunities enhanced and the U.S
capital inflow may increase.
An Atlantic Free Trade Area would also create conditions which would
strengthen sterling as an important trading currency and as one of the tw&
key reserve currencies. It would be important to the world economy to con-
tinue a significant role for sterling; at least until the international monetary
system is reformed to relieve the heavy pressure on the dollar and sterling.
Our interest in `the continuation of a role for sterling is not entirely unselfish.
Should there be any general movement to shift reserves away from sterling to
dollars, the effect would be to place tremendous additional burdens on the
dollar and thereby to challenge the ability of the United States to maintain
the free convertability of a dollar into gold at $35 an ounce. In the absence
of new sources of international liquidity, a crisis of confidence in the dollar
could cause a serious economic crisis in the world economy.
I have heard much talk about a 51st state if Britain must accept an alterna-
tive to the EEC. This is an invention of Britain's isolationists or Europhiles
and is demeaning to and contemptuous of Britain, its people and its history
and the United States, its national identity and its `honour. What is more to
the front is that Britain should not wait to the eve of disaster before joining
in integration of the Atlantic economy as did Churchill in his call for union
with France on the eve of the blitz.
Every person on `both sides of the Atlantic who is in authority and of mature
years has a great stake in the current course of Britain. Will we be good trustees
and hand on a better and more unified world to our successors or will we be
enmeshed in our own inability to agree and hand on a poorer and more dis-
organised world? This is the question that we must ask ourselves at this critical
moment in the history of Europe.
PAGENO="0177"
THE FUTuRE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
TUESDAY, JULY 18, 1967
CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES,
SuBCo~In'iTE ON FOREIGN ECONOMIC POLICY,
JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE,
Was Icington, D.C.
The subcommittee met at 10 a.m., pursuant to notice, in room 1202,
New Senate Office Building, Hon. 1-lale Boggs (chairman of the sub-
committee) presiding.
Present: Representative Boggs; and Senators Symington and
Miller.
Also present: John H. Stark, executive director; John B. Henderson,
staff economist; and Donald A. Webster, minority staff economist.
Chairman BOGGS. The subcommittee will come to order.
This morning we are pleased to have with us a panel made up of
Mr. S. M. MeAshan, Jr., president, Anderson, Clayton & Co., Houston,
Tex., who was so helpful to us when he was here some years ago;
Carl Gilbert, chairman of the executive committee, Gillette Co., Bos-
ton, Mass.; Henry Balgooyen, executive vice president, American
and Foreign Car Co., New York; and N. H. Danielian, president,
International Economic Policy Association.
Mr. McAshan, we will be pleased to hear from you first.
STATEMENT OP S. M. MeASHAN, flt., PRESIDENT, ANDERSON,
CLAYTON & CO., HOUSTON, TEX.
Mr. MCASHAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is S. M.
McAshan. I am chairman of Anderson, Clayton & Co., of Houston,
Tex.
None of us can foresee all the trade negotiations which will follow
the recent Kennedy Round agreements, but I would like to mention
briefly a few points which can arise as our long-range trade policies
take shape.
FOLLOW UP ON KENNEDY ROUND
First, to follow up on the Kennedy Round, authority `to continue
negotiations is essential, if we are not to lose much of the good `that
has come from 5 years of hard trading.
Great accomplishment has come from these 5 years of tough nego-
tiations in. freeing up large parts of the international trade of the
world's most important industrial trading nations. But it is inevitable
that sorne industry or some country will try to make changes or
renege for their own advantage. Mr. Roth, or his successors, will need
173
82-1S1----67-vO1. I-12
PAGENO="0178"
174 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
to be empowered t.o negotiate adjustments to prevent such changes
from becoming too one sided or too deep.
You gentlemen know how far such authorization can or should be
the subject of legislation, but some form of continued authority
will surely he needed to implement. the recent agreements and to
apply a fair interpretation to the many nonspecific clauses.
A NATIoxAI~ TRADE PoLIcY
We will need to clarify our long-range international trade policy.
We have such a. hodgepodge of liberal thinking and special privi-
leges that. we cannot present a clear, united front in negotiating with
any foreign country or group.
We need to decide whether we reafly believe in the mutual benefit of
comparative advantage, allowed free play without tariffs or quotas, or
whether we want to continue special privilege for a few at the expense
of the whole.
If the former, and I think we must enjoy the efficiencies and benefits
of trade expansion, we should make it clear to the rest of the world
~nd require them to adopt similar treatment of our exports.
The EEC has proven to themselves the efficiencies of expanded
trade, but unless we force them to come along with us on a worldwide
free-trade basis, they are likely to try to retain petty reStrictions for
the benefit of certain industries, aimed primarily at us.
We must take the lead in establishing a world pattern.
THE hUNGRY WORLD
Unless populations a.re controlled more successfully than we have a
right to expect, agriculture of a. large part of the world must `be
modernized, mostly by private business, the success of which depends
as much on trade as technological processes.
(a) Many of the less-developed countries cannot be expected to
become fully self-sufficient in foods and fibers, since such a large part
of the world's land best `adapted to these products lies within the
temperate zones of the developed Northern Hemisphere.
Self-sufficiency being too much to expect, the problem becomes
so serious that the world ca.nnot afford any waste of efficiency. Any
sound solution to the problem of feeding the hungry millions of the
presently underdeveloped countries must include provision for freer
access to markets for their surplus products; not only to those of West-
ern Europe, Japan, and North America, but to markets generally.
The needs of the hungry peoples `are so great. that the free world
must be organized to assure maximum food and industrial productiv-
ity, organized so free t.rade will guide production into its most efficient
channels.
(74 If, say, India can get more wheat by exporting textiles and buy-
ing wheat than by attempting to raise it, are we not reducing India's-
and the world's-efficiency, if in the name of self-sufficiency we ask
India. to do otherwise? If, to come closer to home, we were to lift our
reStrictions upon the import of all minerals and raw materials, we
would surely obtain more of what we need through trade than by our
own produdtion, while at `the. same time the countries better fitted for
PAGENO="0179"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 175
the production of these materials would not only be able to pay cash
for our surplus grain, but to get more of it.
It is with productivii'ty-world productivity-thhait we must all be
concerned. I do not minimize the importance of the contributions that
technical efficiency can make to productivity, but I wish to emphasize
that economic efficiency is fully as jmportant.
Not all developing countries must necessarily remain the hungry
countries. Their basic need and hope lies in permitting the working of
free economy, free business determination to guide the way to maxi-
mum productivity.
The first requirement is the wide opportunity to trade what they can
best produce for what they need from others. This is too basic, too
urgent, to debate it further.
WESTERN HEMISPHERE COMMON MARKET
The time has come for us to start a Western Hemisphere Common.
Market by removing all tariffs and quotas on any products from
`Canada and Latin America.
In 1965, the so-called four wise men-Messrs. Herrera, Santamaria,
Mayobre, and Prebisch-vigorously recommended a Latin American
Common Market, but excluded the United `States. They did not even
offer us associate membership. Their proposal has been the basis for
hemispheric discussions since April 1965, particularly at Punta del
Este `this year.
I do~ not know what President Johnson meant by "temporary prefer-
`ential tariff advantages for developing countries" in his Punta del
Este talks. But I hope it was `a `bid `for U.S. participation on `a more
liberal basis in the beginning than would be required of less industrial-
ized Latin American countries. The eventual effect could be disap-
pearance of negotiated temporary preferential `treatment, perhaps after
some 10 years of graduated equalization.
One of your members, Senator J'avits, has wisely helped develop
this idea, and ha.s made it clearly `to be reckoned with in future trade
negotiations.
COMMODITY AGREEMENTS
Several lesser developed countries are requesting us `to back up
international commodity agreements, `particularly `as a means of price
stabilization of their major export items.
Our position in this respect will depend partly on our basi'c free-
trade policy, and partly on w'hat we are willing to d'o with some of our
own protected commodities.
(1) Commodity agreements, such as the international coffee agree-
ment and the `international sugar agreement, have shown `up as forums
for attempted negotiation of special treatmei~t.
To the extent that these become restrictive in their effect, and
particularly to the extent that restrictions run in terms of produc-
tion quotas, these agreements obviously violate the principle of
maximum productivity. Particularly this is true when the product
is affected by long-term adverse influences and when the effect of con-
trols is to freeze production in increasingly obsolete patterns. Many
of the products of the less-developed countries are, it is true, nor-
PAGENO="0180"
176 T~ FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
madly subject to substantial price fluctuation from year to year, and
as a result their balances of trade and of payments are for the time
being distorted. But when such distortions occur, the Provision of
"supplementary financing," as by the IMF and the World Bank,.
appears to be least disruptive of market principles.
And in that connection I would like to mention for the record
an article by Dr. John A. Pincus entitled, "Commodity Agreements,.
Bonanza or Illusion?" printed in the Columbia University Journal
of World Busmess, January-February 1967. I would like it made
a part of this record.
Chairman BoaGs. Without objection, it is so ordered.
(The article follows:)
COMMODITY AGREEMENTS: BONANZA OR ILLUSION?
By Jonx A. Pi~cus
Kwame Nkrumah loiters in Guinea, a solitary redeemer, savoring memories:
of former potency and dreaming of power as yet untasted. A protesting Su-
karno slides inexorably down a pole greased by his cabinet ministers. Middle
Eastern sheiks command without deftness a power that their fathers, in
mud-walled isolation, could never aspire to, even in the most paranoid of
reveries.
These vagaries, which help to shape the world's political destinies, all re-
flect in part the fluctuations of world markets for commodities-the food-
stuffs and raw materials that enter world trade. Nkrumah suffered politically~
from the consequences of falling prices for cocoa; Sukarno from declining
rubber prices and reductions in export volume for tin and rubber; while the
Middle East rides a petroleum boom.
Each of these examples deals with underdeveloped countries. This is no
accident, because only in the poor countries of the world is commodity pro-
cluction-farming, forestry, and mining-the principal source of income.
Many of the rich nations, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, and
the Scandinavian countries, are major producers and exporters of commod-
ities. In fact, the rich countries export half of the world's primary com-
modities, but only a small part of their population is employed in commodity-
production, and only a small part of government revenues stem from com-
modity taxes. Even Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, which export mostly
commodities, today produce much more manufactured goods than commodities.
No wonder therefore that the pressure for world commodity controls comes
largely from poor countries allegedly seeking to stabilize, but really to in-
crease, their export earnings. Commodity export earnings account for a large
part of their total production, with most of the people living and working as
farmers. Exports of commodities (or in some cases capital inflows) are the
prime source for financing the capital imports that they need now in order-
to become rich later. Furthermore, when commodity exports are booming,
export taxes and import duties offer the governments a ready source of reve-
nue to finance the ambitions of a Sukarno or a Nkrumah, as well as the less
flamboyant goals of an Eduardo Frei in Chile, or a Kenneth Kaunda in
Zambia.
PLEA FOR INTERNATIONAL REsoun
Most poor countries seek rapid economic growth, which inevitably generates
inflationary pressures and the demand for imports. Increases in commodity
export earnings are therefore seen as a key to development without excessive
inflation. Large-scale export of manufactured products still seems remote, and
accounts now for only one-tenth of underdeveloped countries' exports. Finally,
the governments of most poor countries take it as an article of faith that-
the terms of trade of commodity exporting countries are in a long-term dc-
dine that can only be overcome by conscious international action. Otherwise,.
in their view, as expressed in the resolutions of the United Nations Conference
on Trade And Development (UNCTAD), the normal operation of world trade
will tend to make the rich nations richer and the poor nations poorer.
This pressure for higher commodity prices has generally been resisted by-
the industrial importing countries, despite their own widespread use of farim
PAGENO="0181"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 177
price supports as a means of transferring income to farmers. Their standard
arguments against price control through international commodity agreements
are:
(1) They interfere with normal operation of markets, and tend to build up
surplus production in response to higher prices; pressure of these supplies
leads to breakdown of agreements, or at least to erosion of their effects on
price.
(2) Because commodity agreements are usually based on export quota sys-
tems, they tend to freeze historical production patterns, to the disadvantage
of efficient producers.
(3) They require a complex apparatus for control of exports and supply,
which is further complicated by the existence of different grades of each
commodity, each of which has a submarket of its own with fluctuating prices.
(4) Price and output controls, as established in commodity agreements, are
an inefficient way to redistribute world income, as compared to direct sub-
sidy, because price controls lead to less efficient production and lesser satis-
faction of consumer preference than subsidies do.
(5) The income-redistributing effects of higher commodity prices may
mean in effect that low-income consumers in industrial countries are forced
to pay for improvements in the living standards of high-income producers
in the underveloped countries. * *
The controversy between governments of rich and poor countries has been
thoroughly confused because they are simultaneously discussing several different
issues without necessarily recognizing it.
First of all, much of the discussion of commodity agreements stresses price
stability as an objective at least coequal with higher prices. Thus the UNCTAD
resolution on the subject calls for: "suitable international arrangements . . . de-
signed to increase and stabilize primary commodity export earnings, particularly
of developing countries, at equitable and remunerative prices..
In fact, Stabilizing earnings as such (i.e., smoothing out periodic fluctuations
around a trend) is a trivial goal in poor countries' eyes. It has been much
stressed, `however, for two reasons: (1) year-to-year commodity price fluctua-
`tions are dramatic, and the advantages of greater stability, in term's of central
economic planning and private investment, seem `both obvious and ideologically
innocuous; and (2) the stabilization goal offers an acceptable argument for
introducing international commodity agreements, which can then be used to
raise prices to "remunerative" levels.
STABILIZATION SMOKESCREEN
Statistical evidence indicates that short-term fluctuations in export earnings
do not slow d'own economic development, as compared to steady annual receipts.
Though this statement is the reverse `of what is usually said by spokesmen of
,poor countries, the proof-of-the-pudding principle casts substantial doubt on
their conten'tions. If a country wants to stabilize annual export revenues, it has
only to set money aside in good years, and spend it in bad ones. Yet very
few countries do this.1 The obvious answer is that poor countries lack the reserves
to finance such stabilization in light of their aspirations for development. While
this proposition may be perfectly valid, those who offer it frequently fail to
recognize that it amounts to a demand for ` more foreign exchange in the guise
of stabilization goals. Alisdair MacBean's exhaustive study of this subject 2
demonstrates conclusively that there h'as been no correlation in recent decades
between income growth in poor countries and export fluctuations. Indeed, Mac-
Bean's conclusion, based on extensive analysis, is that short-run fluctuations in
national income bear very little relation to fluctuations in export earnings.
`To the extent that short-term balance-of-payments problems arise entirely as a
result of short-term fluctuations around an earnings trend, IMP credits, `bi-
lateral l'oans, and suppliers' credits are readily available; poor countries appear
to feel no urgent need for `additional safeguards aimed solely at the objective
of stabilizing year-to-year earnings. What poor countries do want is higher
prices (`or at least no decline in prices) for comm'odities; "stabilization" ob-
jectives are primarily a tactic toward `that goaL
A second source of confusion is between fact and theory about underde-
veloped countries' terms of trade (export prices divided by import prices).
According to theories developed by the Argentinian economist, Raul Prebisch,
who now serves as Secretary-General of UNCTAD, there are inexorable forces
~it work tending to reduce the prices of commodities relative to manufactured
products. This tends to hurt poor countries, which export mostly commodities,
Footnotes at end of article, p. 184.
PAGENO="0182"
178 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
and to benefit rich countries, which import commodities and export manufac-
tured products. In support of this view, Prebisch has argued that undercle-
veloped countries' terms of trade have in fact fallen since the latter part of
the 19th century. He has been challenged by a number of economists, both as
to theory and fact, but unfortunately the distinctions between logic and ob-
servation have not always been maintained. The theoretical objections point
to a number of inconsistencies in his rather complex argument. The empirical
ones question the data he has cited and argue that conclusions as to the long-
term course of terms of trade depend on the choice of base period.
Pni~an~ PRODUCER C~c Bou~cca BACK
No final conclusions about either fact or theory seem to be possible as yet.
In recent years world demand for most major commodities other than petroleum
has increased slowly compared to demand for goods and services in general,
while commodity supplies have increased rather rapidly, thanks to the stimulus
of high prices in the 1950's, the growth of synthetic output (particularly fiber
and rubber) and protectionist policies in the rich countries. It may however
be doubted whether world commodity prices will long continue sluggish or
declining if world population continues to increase at current rates. * *
A third source of confusion lies in the debate about what commodity agree-
ments can accomplish. The poor countries, supported at UNCTAD by tbe gov-
ernment of France, sometimes appear to claim that higher commodity prices~
secured by international agreement, are a source of instant prosperity. Most
rich countries seem to argue that commodity agreements could not be effective
in raising prices above market levels, but only in stabilizing prices o'v~er a cycle.
This contention in its extreme form is obviously wrong, as witness the high prices
paid to farmers in countries where agriculture is protected, or the high prices
received for crude petroleum by low-cost exporters in the Middle East and
\Tenezuela. The confusion lies both in the effort of rich countries to prove that
because the policy is undesirable, or leads to administrative complications, it is
therefore impossible; and in the effort of poor countries to show that because
high commodity prices have often been beneficial in the past, they can therefore
be legislated as a development panacea for the future.
This last dispute of course reflects the fact that each side assumes away the
obstacles to its case and, thereby, simply sidesteps the central issues: What are
the effects of commodity agreements on price? Who pays and who benefits from
the higher prices? What commodities could be subject to effective international
action in the interests of underdeveloped countries? Could the objectives of
commodity agreements be met more easily by other devices that are both feasible
technically and likely to be adopted?
THE TROUBLE WITH Sussmrns
It is clear that rich countries can pay poor countries any "price" they want
for commodity exports. There is no logical, constitutional, or economic barrier
to doubling or tripling the revenues that underdeveloped countries receive for
commodity exports. This has nothing to do with whether demand is elastic
(revenues declining in response to price rises) or inelastic (revenues rising in
response to higher prices). If, for example, the governments of industrial coun-
tries want to pay some amount into an economic development fund for each
pound of coffee they import, that sum can be as large as the generosity of
governments allow. It is simply a subsidy to coffee-growing countries, and there
is no limit to the amount of a subsidy.
But subsidies are not a popular technique for supporting farmers' incomes.
The technique of operating through market prices via supply control is uni-
versally preferred by farmers and governments, because the consequent income
transfer takes on the status of an impersonal market transaction rather than
a gift, and does not enter as an item in the government budget. Furthermore,
there is no particular reason to tie direct subsidy into commodity production.
If rich countries want to subsidize poor ones, they can do it by foreign aid
appropriations rather than subsidies to commodity exporters.
Loxa LIsT, BUT MA~ HITCHES
Therefore the income-increasing objectives of international commodity agree-
ments are expected to operate through supply restriction. These techniques can
normally succeed in raising producers' incomes only if demand for their output
PAGENO="0183"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 179
is inelastic.3 Demand for a number of the major commodities in world trade is
quite inelastic. The principal traded commodities are, in order of trade value:
petroleum, meat, wheat, fats and vegetable oils, cotton, coffee, copper, wool,.
sugar, rubber, dairy products, tobacco, rice, corn, tea, cocoa, tin, jute, zinc, lead,
bananas, and citrus fruit. The combined annual value of trade in these products
is about $35 billion.
There are, however, a few hitches that would cause a number of these products
to be dropped from any list of candidates for price-fixing agreements aimed at
benefiting underdeveloped countries. Petroleum, accounting for nearly $10 billion
of exports, is already subject to international price fixing by private agreements
between oil companies and governments of the major petroleum-exporting coun-
tries. Meat, wheat, wool, dairy products and corn, amounting to an additional $5
billion, are primarily exported by rich countries, so that price-fixing schemes
would hurt poor countries more as consumers than it would benefit them as
exporters. Of the remaining sixteen products, six (oils and fats, citrus fruits,
tobacco, copper, lead and zinc) are exported in substantial quantities by both
rich and poor countries, so that the United States, Canada, Australia, Spain, and
South Africa would be major beneficiaries of price-fixing schemes. This diffi-
culty is not necessarily crippling, because these countries could presumably agree
to pay their "profits" into a fund for the benefit of developing countries. How-
ever, these products present other problems for regulation. Nonferrous metals
substitute for each other (and for plastics in some uses), so that the price of
each would have to be regulated in light of all others. Vegetable and animal fats
and oils also substitute for each other (and for synthetic detergents), so that
the problems created by control efforts would be even more complex than for
metals. Citrus fruits substitute for other fruits in the consumer budget. Finally,
since each of these products, or a close substitute, is produced in a number of
the major importing countries, a rise in the world price might lead to substitu-
tion of home production for imports, unless importers agreed to maintain home
production at preexisting levels.
This leaves 10 major traded commodities for initial consideration under price-
fixing schemes aimed at benefiting underdeveloped areas: cotton, coffee, sugar,
rubber, rice, tea, cocoa, tin, jute, and bananas. All of these products are primarily
exported by poor countries.
Jute and rubber are ruled out from the start, unless other textile fibers and
synthetic rubber prices are also controlled. General control of world fiber prices-
seems out of the question, and while joint control of natural and synthetic
rubber prices is theoretically possible, the countries that produce synthetic rub-
ber show no interest in such a program.
AND THEN THERE WERE Six
Cotton and rice are special cases in that the United States is a major exporter.
Even if the United States renounced its potential profits under price-fixing
schemes, other difficulties would arise. Raising cotton prices again implies control
of other fiber prices, both natural and synthetic. The problem with rice is that
underdeveloped countries are the principal importers, so that raising the price
simply helps producers in some underdeveloped countries at the expense of con-
sumers in poor countries. Furthermore, such a price rise would simply stimulate
production in the importing countries.
The 10 products therefore reduce to six. The following table shows the average
value of trade in each for the years 1959-61.
Value of
exports
Product (millions)
Coffee $1, 878
Tea 61G
Cocoa 521
Sugar 1,498
Tin 392
Bananas 334
Total ~ 239
Two of these products, coffee and tin, are now organized under international
commodity agreements. Tea was marketed under a commodity agreement from
Footnotes at end of article, p. 184.
PAGENO="0184"
180 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
1933 to 1939, as was sugar intermittently from 1931 to 1961. Negotiations for an
international cocoa agreement have been proceeding without success since 1958.
Bananas. produced exclusively in the tropics, are probably ruled out because of
competition with other fruits, both imported and domestic.
MORE FROM THE LAGGARDS
I have indicated elsewhere that establishment of effective price-fixing agree-
ments for these products, excluding tin, might have succeeded in raising under-
developed countries' export earnings by 5450-$900 million in I9~1. The United
States would currently pay about 35% to 40% of this total, and the other major
industrial nations the following percent shares: United Kingdom, 11-12; France,
7-8; Japan, 6-9; Germany, 8-10. These percentages are based on estimates of
each country's elasticity of demand for each of these products at monopoly
price levels.
If these monopoly prices were in effect, the upshot would be to increase the rel-
ative share of western foreign aid now paid by some of the laggard donors-
U.K., Japan, and Germany-and decrease the shares of the major donors, United
States and France. United States and France now provide respectively about
60% and 17% of western foreign aid. If their aid through commodity pricing
were respectively 35-40% and 7-8% of total western costs under a system of
commodity agreements, then their relative share of total official aid would be
reduced.
But the most important point to note from these figures is not their effects on
the distribution of foreign-aid costs, but their total amount: S450-$900 million
in 1961, rising to more than SI billion by 1970. and nearly $2 billion by 1975.
This compares with 1965 capital flows from rich to poor countries of about $9
billion, and poor countries' total merchandise exports of $36 billion. By 1970,
capital flows may not have changed substantially from 1961 levels, while export
values will have risen to about $45 billion if current trends are followed.
The effects of monopoly pricing on export earnings would therefore be modest,
but far from insignificant. This after all is what we would expect. The price
of coffee (and the earnings of coffee exporters) has risen about 20% since the
International Coffee Agreement was negotiated in 1962. Meanwhile, the world
price of sugar has fallen to record low levels since the breakup of the Sugar
Agreement in 1961, with disastrous effects on those exporters who depend heavily
on world market sales. There is obviously a relation between prices of these
products and exporters' foreign exchange earnings.
FIVE INGREDIENTS
But signing agreements is no guarantee of high prices, high export earnings,
or favorable effects on economic development. For the agreements to work ef-
fectively as agents of development goals, several conditions are required, in
addition to inelastic long-run demand:
(1) Effective provisions for control over supply (not only export control,
because when supply builds up, the pressures for breakup of the agreement
become strong).
(2) Effective capacity on the part of existing governments to channel
the increased earnings into economic development, rather than into higher
profits for plantation owners.
(3) Less generally recognized. a market organization in which one or two
producing countries dominate world supply, so that they are willing to prac-
tice restraint in the face of the inevitable supply control violations by
smaller producers.
(4) A large number of producing countries, in order to assure a fairly
wide distribution of gains from higher prices.
(5) Agreement to limit domestic production in those importing countries
that can or do produce the commodity.
Let us take a look at existing and proposed commodity agreements in light of
these criteria. First of all, it should be noted that the impetus behind most of
them was the desire to stem price erosion rather than to achieve some maximum
long-run level of earnings for producers. However, in terms of development goals,
the issues listed above are nonetheless predominant.
Footnotes at end of article. p. 184.
PAGENO="0185"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 181
TEA, WITH SUGAn
The Tea Agreement (1933-1939) clearly succeeded in stabilizing world prices
during the depression, but its impact on development may be doubted. Most
of India's and Ceylon's tea gardens were under British control, and the benefits
of earnings' stabilization largely accrued to the plantation owners. Furthermore,
with tea production then largely concentrated in four Asian countries, the bene-
fits were also concentrated geographically. These very, limitations made it rela-
tively easy to control tea supplies. With a small number of large producers and a
very inelastic demand for the product, each could see his advantage in cooperat-
ing in export control. Furthermore, tea can be "stored" on the bush, so that
control can be exercised up to a point by picking more or fewer leaves at any
time. V
The Sugar Agreement (1931-1961) was a completely different matter. In the
first place, the agreement covered only the so-called "free market," accounting for
perhaps two-fifths of world trade. The rest of the world's imports are controlled
by national legislation, notably British, American, and French import systems,
under which each country imports from preferred suppliers at a premium price.
The essence of the Sugar Agreement, as operated from 1954 to 1961, was a
bargain by which Cuba, as the dominant free market supplier, agreed to manage
its supplies and stocks, in exchange for its large quota in the high-priced U.S.
market. The objective was to maintain world prices between 3.25 and 4.25 cents
per pound, through a system of export quotas. The system worked moderately
well until 1960, when the United States first reduced and then abolished the
Cuban quota. The agreement has not been renewed since 1961, when Cuba in-
sisted on and was refused a large increase in its basic quota. It presumably
will not be renewed until the underlying political issues are overcome.
Any effort to maintain very high prices for sugar (more than 5 or 6 cents a
pound in the long run) is probably self-defeating, even though world demand
for sugar is increasing steadily. Unlike tea, sugar can be produced almost any-
where, even if at high cost. Therefore if prices rise, and are expected to remain
high under a system of export control, production in importing countries would
tend to rise sharply. This puts sharp limits on the price objectives that export-
ing countries could aspire to. In these circumstances, it is arguable that develop-
ing countries would gain more from free trade in sugar than from price manipula-
tion. However, the tendency seems to be for more rather than less agricultural
protectionism in importing countries, so that a sugar agreement still retains
considerably more luster in exporters' eyes than the unlikely alternative of
free trade.
TIN STAYS BTJOYANT
The Tin Agreement (1954 to date) operates under some of the same condi-
tions as the earlier Tea Agreement. There are only five major signatory exporters
(Malaya, Indonesia, Thailand, China, Bolivia), dominated by Malaya; there are
a relatively small number of producing units. Tin, like tea, can be "stored" easily,
either by mining less, or by stockpiling. The agreement provided for a buffer
stock, in addition to export quotas, which helped to manage supply. The buffer
stock manager bought tin when prices fell below a floor level and sold it when
they rose above a given ceiling. After considerable price fluctuations in the
1950's, the world price of tin began to rise in 1960. By 1961, the buffer stock was
sold out of tin, all export quotas were off, and world prices since have been
consistently far above the pre-1961 levels. The agreement remains in effect
inoperative today, because of continued strong demand. Both floor and ceiling
prices were raised when the agreement was last renewed (1965). The presump-
tion is that tin prices will therefore remain well above the levels that led to the
original agreement.
As in the case of tea, it may be questioned whether international action in the
world tin market is a significant force in promoting economic development. Con-
centration of production is great, and although Bolivian, Indonesian, and Chinese
governments, with their nationalized tin industries, clearly benefit from the rise
in price, Bolivia is the only one that is heavily dependent on tin exports as a
source of income.
PAGENO="0186"
182 THE FDTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
COFFEE Is SUCCESSFUL; On Is IT?
The International Coffee Agreement, negotiated in 1962, has clearly succeeded
in maintaining export earnings of coffee producers above equilibrium levels by
a system of export quotas. As might be expected, its very success threatens the
stability of the agreement. By providing high and stable prices for coffee, it
:tempts producers to evade export controls. It therefore places a great burden of
self-restraint on the major producers. Brazil and Colombia, who face erosion of
their market shares at the hands of Central American and African producers.
These smaller producers are unwilling to establish close control over exports
and production. Even though importing members are theoretically unable to take
- extra-quota imports from exporting members, there seems to be a good deal of
evasion in the form of transshipments through nonmember countries or so-called
~`new markets" not subject to the quota provisions.
In terms of many of the criteria discussed-demand elasticity, substitution,
widespread benefits-coffee is an appropriate product for price-fixing arrange-
ments. But the willingness and ability of the smaller producers to control supply
utill remains an open question, and it may be doubted that Brazil will consent to
continual reduction of her share of the world coffee market by what are in effect
extra-legal methods of quota evasion on the part of small producers. Recent modi-
fications of the Coffee Agreement are designed in part to solve this problem.
CHANGING THE RULES
1i'he agreement is administered by a Coffee Council, composed of representatives
of importing and exporting countries. The council regularly receives pleas for
export increases from members who are unable or unwilling to control produc-
tion and exports. The agreement assigns fixed percentages of the export market
to each exporter so that selective quota changes are theoretically forbidden. In
practice, however, when the alternative is collapse of the agreement, the council
has devised ways of changing the rules. The most recent set of rule changes,
adopted in September, 1966, is worth reviewing in detail as the first consistent
effort to deal with the obstacles to price-fixing objectives and economic develop-
ment goals.
First, the council explicitly recognized that the world coffee market is com-
posed of submarkets for the four main types of coffee: Brazilian arabica, Colom-
bian and Central American arabica, and African robusta. In the future, export
quotas will vary by coffee type. This will presumably allow the major robusta
producers (Ivory Coast, Cameroons, Angola) to increase their exports faster
than other growers, reflecting the steady growth of demand for the lower-priced
robusta in instant coffee preparations. It also offers an additional advantage:
robusta producers generally complain that their quotas are too small under the
existing agreement, and these producers are also often the least able to control
production and exports.
A second element of the revised agreement combines temporary quota increases
of varying percentages (zero for Brazil and Colombia and up to 10% for some
African producers) with use of the proceeds to promote production control. Each
country receiving a quota increase agrees to put into a special fund either 20%
of the increased sales proceeds, or an amount of coffee equal to the amount of the
quota increase. Each country will use the fund, under rules established by the
Coffee Council, to promote agricultural diversification. This provision is presum-
ably aimed both at promoting the economic development of the exporting coun-
tries and at meeting the objections of Brazil and Colombia to the perpetual growth
of uncontrolled supply in other countries.
The third element proposed in 1966 (but not yet adopted) was a tax of one
dollar on each bag of coffee exported under the agreement, to be paid by the
exporting country. This would produce a revenue of about 845 million during the
current marketing year. The proceeds would be used to finance programs of agri-
cultural diversification, under control of the Coffee Council.
Finally, the council took steps to limit evasion of export quotas. Importing
members agreed to limit their imports from nonmembers. Beginning in 1967,
exporting members cannot ship coffee unless the export documents bear a stamp
obtained from the Coffee Council. These devices can also be viewed as efforts to
satisfy Brazilian demands for more effective control over world supply.
PAGENO="0187"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 183
OUTLOOK ON COCOA
Among the major products discussed here, only cocoa and bananas have not
~yet been subject to international commodity controls. Cocoa qualifies on many
of the same grounds as coffee, but is difficult to store in the tropics, and faces a
greater threat of competition, either from vegetable oils (used in place of
cocoa butter) or from other confectioneries. Efforts at agreement failed in both
1963 and 1966, because of disagreements between producers and consumers as
to the price at which export quotas would become operative. More recently, it has
been suggested -that a cocoa agreement include provision for a buffer stock,
along the lines of the tin agreement, in order to maintain price within agreed
limits. A cocoa agreement would provide a number of the prerequisites: one or
two major exporters (Ghana, Nigeria), large numbers of producers, inelastic
demand, good possibility of devoting excess profits to development goals. It is
less certain that the African countries can effectively control supplies. This is
probably one major reason for their insistence on an international buffer stock.
Unfortunately, the producing countries seem reluctant to recognize that buffer
stocks exist not only to buy, but also to sell, so that the buffer stock cannot be
relied on as a permanent siphon for excess production.
Is IT ALL WORTH THE EFFORT?
This review of the major products suitable for conscious efforts at price fixing
~shows that the possibilities are limited, the complexities of production control
great, and the technique essentially inefficient as compared to direct aid. Further-
-more, as noted above, the export quota system offers little incentive to efficient
~new producers, because it freezes an historical production pattern, without
:rnuch regard for changing cost and demand patterns (alth'ough it is theoretically
possible to adjust export quotas selectively, no exporter wants his share
reduced).
Coftee and cocoa are widely produced by individual farmers, so the allegation
that high prices benefit only the plantation owner Is clearly untrue for these
crops. For sugar and tea, the charge may be closer to the mark, although there
are many small producers and export taxes can be used to siphon off excess
profits, unless the government is dominated by producer interests. Tin is a rather
special case where demand has long been buoyant; half the world's output
stems from nationalized industries (Bolivia, Indonesia, China, Russia) and
most of the rest from Malaya. There seems no particular reason to believe that
for these five products the distribution of gains from higher commodity earn-
ings need be more inequitable than those stemming from other forms of aid
(except food aid, which presumably benefits low-income groups most).
Recent developments in the Coffee Agreement indicate the commodity agree-
ments may be a more flexible device for promoting economic adjustment than
was previously supposed. It is obviously too early to judge the success of these
measures in their dual objectives of controlling coffee supply and promoting
the agricultural development of exporting countries. The most significant ele-
ment is clearly the diversification fund. In embryo at least, it foreshadows a
principle of international control of the proceeds of monopoly pricing in the
interests of economic development. In that respect, the Coffee Agreement be-
comes, in part, an aspect of international economic assistance under the joint
policy control of rich and poor countries. This novel organizational device may
if successful, offer broad possibilities for application to other commodities and,
-for that matter, for other forms of economic aid.
However, this qualified support for a limited number of commodity agree-
ments is, from another viewpoint, an admission of their weakness as answers to
-the world's commodity problems. Such agreements are only -one element in a
general policy to improve the trade position of commodity-exporting countries.
-The other elements include:
(1) Major efforts to increase the productivity of industries facing com-
petition from synthetic substitutes or competing production in importing
countries (rubber, fiber, sugar, rice, oilseeds).
(2) Reduction of protectionism in importing countries (petroleum, sugar,
tobacco, nonferrous metals, fruits, meat, etc.). This is probably the largest
potential source of increased exports for poor countries. Free trade in
sugar alone might increase underdeveloped countries' exports earnings by
nearly one billion dollars, at least as much as the amounts forthcoming from
price-fixing agreements for coffee, cocoa, sugar, tea `and tin combined.
PAGENO="0188"
184 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
(3) A system of international compensation for countries whose export
earnings lag over a period of several years because of market factors beyond
their policy control (e.g., Brazil from 1959 to 1963). This would be in ad-
dition to existing IMF loan facilities for countries facing short-term bal-
ance-of-payments problems that have arisen from commodity price
fluctuations.
The excessive emphasis that the poor countries have placed on high prices~
reflects in part ignorance of the limitations of this technique; in part. the
related belief that economic justice requires a fair price for exports; and, per-
haps most important, pessimism about the likelihood of trade liberalization by
the rich countries. But their confidence seems misplaced; the experience of the
past five years makes it increasingly clear that no panacea w-ill emerge. Each-
of the four elements-price objectives, higher productivity, trade liberalization~
and balance-of-payments compensation-should play a part in a long-run ad-
justment effort for the nearly two billion people whose livelihoods now- depend
on commodity production. As long as the economic welfare of most people
depends on markets for food and raw- materials, the commodity problem will
remain in the center stage of the world's political economy.
NOTES
1. The commodity marketing boards in West African countries were designed
to operate in such a manner, and during the era of high commodity prices follow-
ing the Korean War actually amassed considerable reserves. The combination
of declining prices and pressures to spend reserves, stimulated by postindepend-
ence developmental goals, has largely succeeded in eliminating the income-sta-
bilizing functions of the marketing boards.
2. Export Fluetnations, Growth and Policy (Harvard LTniversity Press; to be
published this year).
3. Exporting governments can profit from higher prices even under elastic
demand, if the labor and capital released from commodity production can be
effectively used in other economic activities. But the mobility of labor and
capital in poor countries is often quite limited.
4. John Pincus, Trade, Aid, and Development, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1967.
FOOD Am
Mr. MOASHAN (continuing). American farmers can produce food
as efficiently as any part of the world, due to their mechanization,
cultural practices, sound infrastructure and marketing organizations,
particularly if our farmers are not prevented from doing so by
acreage restrictions or other controls.
In a shortly to become hungry world our ability to provide food
aid will give us a strong negotiating tool to persuade the rec.ipient
nations to follow sound development programs of their own, and to
take the lead among other developed countries who should share
this burden proportionately wit-h us.
Food for aid must be bought from our farmers by our Government,.
and partially processed in American plants, thus providing a measure
of stabilization here at home with less market disturbance than recent.
price support programs.
PAYMENTS UNION
Just as the United States ffnanced trade ba-lances for and between
European nations in the early days of the Marshall plan, and with
very small ffnancing loss to us in doing so, we ca-n now provide back-
ing for a payment union or clearing pool with the LAFTA countries-
or other free trade areas.
PAGENO="0189"
TUE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 185
The advantages would be two:
(a) it would introduce more credit in a credit-hungry area, and
(b) it could encourage trade liberalization within the area by
providing a cushion against any immediate adverse balances.
The value to new trade areas in the developing countries of such a
*cleai~ing pooi will be so great that it can become one of our strong
bargaining points, at negligible cost to us.
Representative BOGGS. I thank you very much.
Mr. MCASHAN. Mr. Chairman, one other thing.
On the plane coming up last night I had a chance to read the papers
submitted by Mr. Roth and Mr. Solomon, both of which I obviously
endorse as basic parts of our future trade policy.
Representative BOGGS. Thank you very* much for your very fine
:staterneirit.
We will now hear from Mr. Gilbert.
We are very happy to have you with us, Mr. Gilbert.
STATEMENT OF CARL J~. GILBERT, CHAIRMAN OF THE EXECUTIVE
COMMITTEE, THE GILLETTE CO., BOSTON, MASS.
Mr. GILBERT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Carl J. Gilbert.
I am chairman of the executive committee of the Gillette Co., but I
will testify in my individual capacity.
We are concerned here with future U.S. trade policy. In the
light of what has occurred in the Kennedy Round, I would think that
what we need immediately is an extension of the unused authority in
the 1962 act for housekeeping purposes, as Ambassador Roth proposed,
a liberalization of the adjustment assistance provisions of that act
and the approval by Congress of the second package on chemicals (or
ASP). This seems to me a minimum at this time. And I join with
Mr. McAshan in endorsing the comments Mr. Roth made before this
subcommittee last week.
It seems to me that the deliberations of this committee are very
timely in view of the need for early action by the Congress on the
course of action proposed by Ambassador Roth. Equally important,
it seems to me, is the hope that your deliberations may help to focus
uational attention, both in the Government itself and on the part of
the public, on the formulation and appreciation of a national com-
initment to a long-term trade policy as a part of a considered national
foreign economic policy. I suppose that there is no other area of public
affairs in which there is a greater need for consistency and stability
than in the broad area of foreign economic policy. The day must come
when every decision-legislative, executive, and private-must be
tested against the standard of its consistency with the country's for-
*eign economic policy before taking action. We cannot expect consisten-
cy or stability so long as our foreign economic policy remains obscure,
unformulated, and ascertainable only by a process of deduction from
a series of ad hoc actions in various areas of national concern. This
need has gone unanswered for many, many years. Our involvements
in the world scene are economic as well as political and equally so are
irrevocable and call for long-term policy planning of a very high
order.
PAGENO="0190"
186 THE FUTURE OF U.S. ~O~EI~N TRA~ ~OLIC1~
The trade policy goal on which we should set our sights is freedom
of international trade on the part of the world's economically advanced:
countries and regional instrumentalities, accomplished in accordance
with a negotiated timetable and providing for appropriate differences
in phasing to reflect the capabilities of specific countries and specific~
types of production. Setting our sights on this objective and identi-
fymg ourselves unmistakably with its implementation is the route
of maximum effectiveness in overcoming the many obstacles that
made the very real a.chievements of the Kennedy Round considerably-
less than the goals considered a few short years ago to be essentiAl
(and which are still essential) to our national interest. A clear national
eommitment to this long-term objective stands the best chance of!
overcoming the short-term imp~cTiments to continuing genuine pro~
gress in liberalizing world trade.
Pointing the way to this long~i~nge ~Oa1 in this vital area of both
foreign and domestk. polky is of great importance to all sectors of our
highly prothi~t~ economy, and not just in terms of their stake in
~xport ~- tthsion. As entrepreneurs in manufacturing, mining, and
agric~t1ture make decisions that. must continually be made with respect
to investments, pricing, sales promotion, and design, and all the other
decisions so essential to effective business planning, it is important
for those who make these decisions to take appropriate account of
their government's long-term policy with respect to our trade with
the rest of the world. A policy tending towa.rd trade restriction, or
indicating a. posture of even temporary i.mcertainty regarding future
policy, will tend to encourage efforts to impose restrictions on trade
and to rely on such restrictions, present or hoped for, instead of pur-
suing efforts t.o generate t.he best. kinds of job opportunities and the
highest levels of economic performance of which a. free enterprise
economy is capable.
Pointing t.he way to these new goals of freer world trade is aiso
essential at this time to the scores of countries with which we trade,
and whose economic strength and cooperation a-re essential to theY
achievement of our highest international objectives in the world at
large. The message from America. to nations at all levels of economic
development should not reflect uncertainty regarding the future course
of American policy, and it should certainly not. indicate any possibility
of this country returning to points of no return we wisely decided to
pass so long ago.
The economically advanced countries should know where we stand
and the direction we intend to take, as they proceed with their own
policy planning, in some cases as part of regional free trade comniuni--
ties. The clear determination of the United States to continue to pro-
gress toward freer trade, and even to accelerate progress in t.his
direction, will tend to influence private and governmental deci-
sions in those areas in ways that accelerate sound~ economic growth,.
raise living standards, and expa-nd markets for producers everywhere,
including our own. Convincing evidence of our own determination to*
cooperate in reducing artificial barriers to world: trade is the policy
declaration best calculated to stimulate other- economically advanced
nations and regional instrumentalities to liberal~e foreign access to~
their own internal markets. And, working together in thin way, the
PAGENO="0191"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 18T
economically advanced economies can proceed most effectively to carry'
their full share of the needed efforts to speed the development of the.
less-developed countries-both through foreign aid programs and.
through expanding the access of goods of all kinds from the less-dc-
veloped countries to the world's best markets.
In declaring our readiness to pursue such a policy without delay
in the years to come, we shall be reaffirming, in convincing action,
to the world's less-developed countries and the millions of people w'~o
live there that there is a meaningful place for them in the wq~d
economy dominated by advanced nations of the northern hemisph~re~
By doing so, we shall also be serving our own enlightened sel~4nterest.~
I think it should be emphasized that trade policy `initiativ~s are not:
the sole responsibility of the United States. `We should, qf ~urse~
seek the cooperation of other governments in implementing initiatives
in which we have played a leadership role. We shpuld also invite
other governments to step forward with their own trade policy initm-,
tives and to seek the cooperation of the United States In exploring, new.
frontiers of freer world trade. We should invite other go.ve.rniñents.
to assert themselves in this way, and promise them the earnest partici-.
pation of the U.S. Government in exploring ways and means for.
successful international cooperation in this vital field.
The Federal Government itself should, it seems to me, pledge to,
the country its earnest efforts to help in the most constructive way to~
prepare the American economy both to adjust successfully to the
higher degrees of international competition that lie just ahead and to
capitalize fully on the higher degrees of export opportunity which are
the other side of the same coin. The Federal Government should work:
closely with State and local governments to `insure a domestic policy.
framework within which the American economy may achieve the pace,
of economic growth and adjustment-to-change that are so necessary.
to backstop the new efforts that will be made `to remove artificial
restraints on world commerce.
The `private sectors of the American economy should reassess their,
operations across the board to make sure that everything, possible,
is being done to secure for themselves a durable and highly. productive.
place in an increasingly interdependent world economy-one that is
moving resolutely toward freedom of international trade. All State.
and local governments should `also undertake a fresh look at their
own policies and practices affecting the prospects for durable com-
petitive strength in this kind of world. The Federal Government,
should reassess its own policies with this objective in mind, and this.
includes devising ways in which the Federal Government can be help-
ful to State and local governments, and `to the private sectors of the.
economy, `as they prepare for the part they must play in building a.
brighter future for the American people, and in insuring the success-..
ful participation of their country in `helping to build a brighter future
for peoples throughout the world.
It seems to me clear that history tells us that world attitudes toward'
trade restrictions are never static. They are always in a state of flux.
We led the world once down the path of trade restrictions via the
Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. By that action we triggered off a,
wave of severe trade restrictions which in a short period brought
PAGENO="0192"
188 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
wOrld trade to a virtual standstill and contributed in a major way
toward converting a serious recession into the great depression from
which we only emerged during the aftermath of World War II. We
can't turn the clock back and retreat into a sort of fortress America
in economic terms. The momentum toward freer trade must be main-
tamed if this complicated world we live in is to continue to produce
a constantly higher and higher standard of living for more and more
of its population. In attaining this aim lies an exciting and satisfying
future for our country. God alone knows what the result would be if
we should fail.
Chairman BoeGs. Thank you very much, Mr. Gilbert.
We will now hear from Mr. Balgooyen.
STATEMENT OF HENRY W. BALG-OOYEN, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN
& FOREIGN POWER CO., NEW YORK, N.Y.
Mr. BALGOOYEX. My name is Henry W. Balgooyen. I am president
of American & Foreign Power Co. and I recently completed a 3-year
term as president of the Pa.n American Society of the United States.
My interest in -foreign trade policy derives from more than 30 years
of activity in the foreign investment field in Latin America with an
American company having extensive investments in Latin American
utilities, and, recently, in diversified industrial investments. My re-
marks, therefore, are directed toward those elements of foreign eco-
nomic policy which have a direct bearing on inter-American trade
and investment.
The interrelation of foreign trade a.nd foreign investment is appar-
rent to any participant in either activity. The foreign investments of
American corporations are principally in the form of exports of capi-
tal goods and equipment of U.S. manufacture. The new industries
which are created and fostered by American investors increase the
productivity of the recipient or host countries, create new sources of
employment and income, and stimulate new wants and desires which
are rapidly translated into demand for imported products as well as
goods of local origin. *This is particularly true of our direct private
investments in the developing countries; and among the developing
coimtries, those of Latin America provide the largest and most pro-
ductive market for American goods.
Foreign trade is vital to the success of the ventures of the millions
of American citizens who invest in the securities of companies with
foreign operations. It is largely by foreign trade that the host coun-
tries acquire the dollars to service these investments and pay for the
imports of capital goods required for their industrial development.
Dollars are provided, also, by the foreign expenditures of American
tourist-s and other service transactions; by new dollar investments; or
by loans and gifts from the U.S. Government and various lendino
agencies and institutions. Speaking from many years of experience in
dealing wit-h Latin Americans and their govermnents, I can assure
you that they would rather earn these dollars than to be dependent
upon loans which have to be repaid with interest, or upon largesse
which deprives them of their pride and self-respect. I can assure you,
also, that however important and necessary these government loans
PAGENO="0193"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 189
and gifts may be to the recipients, their needs for the capital, tech-
nology, skills, and administrative experience they obtain with private
U.S. investments are even more vital to their economic development.
Now, how do we stand in our trade with Latin America? Do we
buy sufficient Latin American products to enable our trading partners
to import the capital goods required for industrial development to
meet the growing demands for consumer products created by rising
living standards, and to service the estimated 9 billion of the dollar
debt of their governments and the $~½ billion our private investors
have ventured in Latin America?
The answer, of course, is that we do not. In fact, we don't even
come close. Last year, we spent $3,970 million on imports from Latin
America and sold them goods in the amount of $4,235 million, leaving
them with a deficit of $265 million in their trade with us. At the same
time, our private investors earned and remitted $888 million, while
the interest and amortization charges on their foreign debt-perhaps
three-fourths of it in dollars-cost them well over $2 billion.
Latin America's foreign debt has been increasing so rapidly that its
servicing now consumes one-sixth of its earnings from exports. it
becomes pertinent, therefore, to ask how much more debt these coun-
tries can stand and remain reasonably solvent. Clearly, if our Latin
American friends are to make any economic progress without becom-
ing increasingly dependent upon U.S. aid, ways must be found to
enable them to increase their export earnings-to replace their trade
deficit with the United States, their principal trading partner, with
a surplus. The unfortunate fact is that Latin American exports have
been losing ground, not only as compared with exports from the indus-
trial countries, but even when compared with exports from other less
developed areas.
What avenues are open to us, in the area of foreign trade policy, by
which we can assist the Latin American nations to increase their
export earnings? The first and most obvious is by the removal of any
remaining barriers, not absolutely essential to our national interest,
which impede the entry of Latin American products to the United
States.
One of the complaints most frequently heard in Latin America is
tl1at we exhibit great interest in our Latin American neighbors in
time of national emergency but quickly forget them when the crisis is
over and proceed to reimpose trade barriers of various kinds to keep
out their exports. In an address delivered some years ago, Henry
Holland, then Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs,
called attention to the fact that, except for coffee and bananas, which
we don't produce, every one `of the 10 principal export products of
Latin America had been subjected to trade barriers of one kind or
another. The situation has improved in the intervening years, but we
still have restrictions of various kinds on such Latin American products
as petroleum, sugar, cocoa, wool, beef, cotton, lead, and zinc.
European barriers to Latin American products are much more
extensive than ours, and their discriminatory preferences in favor
of other producing areas are a further handicap to Latin American
exporters. Efforts were made by our negotiators during the Kennedy
Round to have some of these barriers and preferences removed. It is
82-181-67-vol. I-13
PAGENO="0194"
190 THE FUTTJRE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
generally conceded, however, that for the less developed countries,
the results of the Kennedy Round were far from encouraging. Never-
theless, we should continue these efforts, along with a constant review
and study of our own restrictive trade policies relating to products
which, otherwise, could be imported advantageously from Latin
America.
Looking to the future, we should be prepared for the emergence of
the Latin American countries as exporters of semimanufactured and
finished goods; and we should do all we can to encourage this develop-
ment. Unhappily for Latin America, the incidence of tariff duties on
products which they are in a most favorable position to process and
manufacture increases with the degree of fabrication, thus creating
a disincentive for industrialization. This is true of wool, cotton, rub-
ber, wood, cocoa, leather, copper, and many other products.
I am not suggesting that the obstacles to Latin American indus-
trialization and exports are all of our making or that they all are
external in origin. The most difficult problems are the internal ones;
the emphasis on import substitution behind tariff barriers rather than
on efficient production for export; the formidable geographical bar-
iiers to internal trade and commerce; the limitations on economies
of scale imposed by their small domestic markets; the prevalence of
inflation, often self-inflicted as a result of overspending by govern-
ments on high-cost and inefficient industrial projects which might
better be left to private enterprise; inexperience in producing for, and
in cultivating foreign markets; and low productivity resulting from
lack of education and industrial skills, and other factors. Nevertheless,
despite these obstacles, such countries as Mexico, Brazil, and Argen-
tina are developing significant export capacity in manufactured goods,
and there are numerous opportunities in these and other countries for
industrialization and exportation of indigenous raw materials, if the
United States and other industrial countries are willing to open their
doors just a little way so that some of these products can enter.
The Latin American nations, together with other less developed
countries, have been urging for some time that the industrial coun-
tries should be willing to grant tariff and other trade concessions to
them, without expecting reciprocity as a contribution to their economic
growth and development. This was the dominant theme at the
LTNCTAD Conference in Geneva, and it was taken up by the Latin
American nations at the recent Summit Conference at Punta del Este.
President Johnson promised, at Punta del Este, to consider what
might be done by the industrial countries in the way of providing such
preferential treatment. Beyond this, there have been recurring sugges-
tions by Latin Americans and t.heir friends in the United States that
our Government should extend such concessions or preferences on a
Western Hemisphere basis, regardless of what other nations may do.
The principal argument against the granting of such preferential
concessions is that this would violate the most-favored-nation principle
and the commitments that the United States has undertaken as a
leader in world trade, under the GATT agreements. As a matter of
fact, however, the most-favored-nation principle is being violated
every day by the entry of duty-free African products into the EEC
countries, and by the longstanding system of British Commonwealth
PAGENO="0195"
THE FUTTJRE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 191
preferences. While it is understandable that the United States should
take the position that preferences, if granted, should be extended to all
the less developed nations on an equal basis, I suggest that, if this
principle continues to be violated by the other industrial nations, we
should be prepared to set up our own system of Western Hemisphere
preferences and to seriously study the practicality of setting up a
common market of the `Western Hemisphere.
If Great Britain and the EEC countries have special interest in, and
special responsibilities toward, the British Commonwealth and cer-
tain African countries, I submit that we have equal responsibilities
toward, and greater interests where Latin America is concerned.
I would caution, however, that any trade preferences extended by
the United States to the less developed countries in general, or to
Latin America in particular, should not be unqualified or unlimited
in duration. Rather, they should be granted in the form of incentives
for adherence to specified standards of performance, and should be
subject to continuing review. Performance in such matters as fiscal
and monetary policy, treatment of domestic and foreign private in-
vestments, and removal of export taxes and other self-created impedi-
ments to export, and adherence to reasonable standards of efficient
production and quality control should be considered in this connection.
In the case of Latin America, specifically, the granting of trade
preferences or other export incentives should be related to Latin Amer-
ican efforts and progress toward the elimination of excessively nation-
alistic restrictions and the creation of a larger intra-American market
through development of LAFTA, CACM and, ultimately, the pro-
posed Latin American Common Market. The advantages to `be gained
through the creation of a free-trade area, or a common market, are
well known to our Latin American friends, but a major effort, over
an extended period of years, will be required to remove the economic,
financial, psychological, and nationalistic obstacles that stand in the
way of its accomplishment.
Another positive contribution that we might make to Latin Amer-
ican export expansion and economic development lies in the politically
sensitive field of agricultural policy. Our protectionist policies in the
form of domestic price supports, export subsidies, and disposition
of farm surpluses abroad on noncommercial terms, are frequently in
conflict with our proclaimed objective in the .area of foreign eco-
nomic policy, and in the Alliance for Progress. If we are sincere in
our stated purpose of assisting our Latin American neighbors to be
self-supporting and prosperous, we should subject our own policies,
both domestic and foreign, to continuous review to be sure that they
are consistent with these objectives.
One of the most serious of Latin America's economic problems is
the failure of its agricultural production to expand in line with
population growth and the increase in industrial production. Latin
America needs financial and technical help to remedy this deficiency,
but it makes little economic sense for us to extend this assistance and,
at the same time, provide unfair competition -for their producers by
subsidizing our agriculture and underctitting their export markets. I
am not suggesting that intelligent self-interest should bow to the
dictates of foreign economic policy or good neighborliness, but we
PAGENO="0196"
192 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
might be able to save some money, and do our own consumers a good
turn, by providing incentives for our farmers to stop producing com-
modities which can be imported more economically from other coun-
tries.
At this point, I would like to make a brief comment on a related
matter on which hearings were recently held by the Committee on
Banking and Currency: whether we should condition our contribu-
tion to a~ projected increase in the capital of the Inter-American De-
velopment Bank-which has been called the bank of the Alliance for
Progress-to an agreement that the dollars loaned by the Bank must
be spent in the United States. It seems to me that, as a practical mat-
ter, the borrowers should be free to spend these funds in the most
economic manner-to purchase at the lowest price consistent with
quality and performance. Certainly, a: Brazilian borrower should not
be precluded from purchasing in Argentina, or vice versa, if we
mean what we say about encouraging Latin American integration
and industrial development.
I will readily concede that some of the suggestions I have made may
seem to conflict with efforts to bring our international payments into
better balance; but I don't think it behooves us, on the one hand,
to try to improve our balance of payments at the expense of Latin
American countries while, with the other hand, we are loaning them
money to improve their payments position. I feel very strongly that,
despite our global commitments as a world power, Latin America
is our primary field of interest, and anything we can do to assist our
good neighbors and trading partners to speed their economnic develop-
ment and social progress by helping them to help themselves not only
will be a sound investment in inter-American relations but will be a
real contribution to our own national welfare and security.
I thank you for giving me this opportunity to express my views
on some of the elements of our foreign trade policy that have a bear-
ing on our inter-American relations.
Representative BOGGS. Thank you very much, Mr. Balgooyen.
Senator Symington, do you have any questions?
Senator SYMINGTOX. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First, let me com-
pliment the Chair for having these most constructive hearings.
Mr. Gilbert, I notice you represent one of the great corporations
in this country, which excels in automation and has a strong position
in foreign trade. I come from a State which is first in the shoe in-
dustry. It is difficult for my people to compete because of the tre-
mendous difference in the standard of living, specifically, wages. The
shoe business here is being steadily eroded due to foreign competi-
tion, primarily from Japan, secondarily from Italy. I am wondering
how you feel about that, from the standpoint of the future of U.S.
business?
Mr. GILBERT. I am not qualified, Senator, to talk about the shoe in-
dustry specifically. I think basically I have come to believe over the
years that our country would be better off if we do the things we
can do best and take advantage of corresponding skills in other parts
of the world, and by this route our people will end up leading the
best possible life. And if it requires a future negotiation, or future
legislation, the problem comes up as to a. specific industry. And I
PAGENO="0197"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 193
tried to point out in my short remarks the timing and phasing-
how one arrives at a free trade goal depends upon problems in par-
ticular industries in particular countries.
I would like to differ with you just a second on the use of the
term "automation." I don't know what it means. And in that sense
I don't believe Gillette is characterized by automation in the sense
that you put an IBM tape in a machine and it runs the machine
alone. And what we have done, I think, is typical of industry in gen-
eral since the beginning of the industrial revolution. We have tried
to improve the productivity of men by intelligent application of
proper tools for them. I am sure this has been done in shoes as well
as in other things. Whether it has been done to the limit I have no
opinion. And whether it has been done as much as it could be done
if they were pressured by foreign competition, I don't know either.
But I think these are good questions. I think that our country will
move toward a more efficient production the more competition they
have, whether it be internal or external.
Senator SYMINGTON. I appreciate that. Much of foreign automa-
tion-the word was applied after World War TI-we gave abroad
many billions of dollars of our best equipment. As a result, foreign
competition has the same machinery, the best in this country. It has
I)een given or loaned.
Do you have a patent position in, say, Japan?
Mr. GILBERT. Not of any basic consequence.
Senator SYMINGTON. An interesting answer.
Mr. GILBERT. I would like to make a point, if I may, Senator. Look-
ing at the growth and the development of our company-as you know,
we are in many places ~broad-I would have no qualification for my
opinion that our company's strength comes from the fact that we are
able to attract the best technology from everywhere in the world. There
was a time at the end of the 1930's when, if it hadn't been for the fact
that our British subsidiary was doing a better job of making blades
than we were in this country, the company would have probably gone
out of business. As you look around the company, ~n all of our machine
shops you will find Cincinnati milling machines, Genevaire drill
presses-we look to the best there ~;5 in the world, and get it, and com-
bine them, and make them go to work for us. And I `think this is where
strength comes -from industrially.
Senator SYMINGTON. Thank you, Mr. Gilbert.
Mr. Balgooyen, you say "we exhibit great interest in our Latin
American neighbors in time of national emergency but quickly forget
them when the crisis is over." To what are you referring?
Mr. BAL000YEN. In am referring specifically to World War I,
World War TI, and even now when we are engaged in Vietnam, when
we need to have the strategic materials that Latin America produces,
materials such as copper, for example, and we remove the impediments
to their exports. But after the emergency is over, then we hear from our
own producers. The tendency has been in the past to reimpose these
restrictions after the emergency is over. That was particularly apparent
after World War TI. I am not indicating that we forget `them com-
pletely; but, in the matter of helping them to promote their export
trade to this country, we do have a tendency to forget them.
Senator SYMINGTON. Thank you.
PAGENO="0198"
194 THE FLTTIJRE OF u.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
You mentioned that "the entry of duty-free African products into
the EEC countries by the longstanding system of British Common-
wealth preferences." But it is true, is it not, that the French have said
to the Germans, you scratch our agricultural back, and we will scratch
your industrial back, and together we will keep out as much Anglo
Saxon trade as we can. If you take that as a. premise, would you say it
was more important for us to work with the countries of Central and
South America, or with the countries in EFTA, including Great
Britain and the Commonwealth countries outside of EFTA, in order
to attempt to establish our own bloc as against the European bloc.
Which do you think the more important'?
Mr. BALGOOTEN. That is a very good question, and I wish I were
qualified to give you an unqualified answer. But I am not.
Certainly, we have to maintain the very close relations that we have
had traditionally with the Western European countries, Great Britain,
France, and the other countries. But I feel very strongly that so far as
the less-developed world is concerned our primary interest is in Latin
America.. In time of great national emergency we have always found
that we can count upon the Latin American nations to supply us with
the essential strategic raw materials and foodstuffs we need. And I
think we have to protect our position in this hemisphere.
Right now the Latin Americaii countries, as we know, are not making
the progress t.hat we hoped that they would make under the Alliance
for Progress. The gap between their standard of living and ours is
not narrowing. We are reaching a situation, as I indicated in my testi-
inony, where it seems to be economically impossible for the Latin
Americans to import the machinery~ and equipment that they need to
speed their industrial development, and to service the investments and
the loans that our Government and our citizens have extended to
Latin America, unless they can export more of their products.
So, the matter of assist.ing Latin Americans to increase their exports,
particularly in this market in the United States, which is their most
important market., becomes a matter of prime importance. Latin
America is a field of strategic interests a.s well as political interest, as is
evidenced by the great efforts that the Communist world has made in
getting a base in Cuba and exploiting it, which they are doing now by
means of guerilla movements all over Latin America. By the end of
this month an international meeting will be underway in Havana, a
gathering of guerilla chieftains from Latin American countries,
suPPorted by the Russians, and of course promoted by the Russians,
and their Castro Communist allies. And I am quite concerned with
what may happen over the remainder of the year and next year in
Latin America as a result of this confe.rence.
This is a. rather lengthy explanation, but my concern for Latin
America. is colored by the direction that I see that some of these politi-
cal development as well as economic developments are taking in that
part of the world.
Senator SYMINGTON. Thank you.
I have one more question, Mr. Chairman.
In your statement. where you discuss the question of contributions
to increase the capital of the Inter-American Development Bank, are
PAGENO="0199"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 195
you talking there about hard loans or soft loans? Specifically, are you
talking about loans of from 30 to 40 years, with no interest, and just
a. carrying charge, with a period of grace for the repayment of capital,
or are you talking about a straight business transaction?
Mr. BAL000YEN. During the hearings it developed that some of the
Congressmen were considering proposals for tying the loans of the
Inter-American Development Bank-and I am not sure whether they
were only hard loans, or both hard loans and soft loans-to the pur-
chase of materials and equipment in the United States with the pro-
ceeds of these loans. And during the course of the hearings an example
was cited, I believe, of a Chilean borrower who might be able to buy
his requirements in Peru cheaper than he could in the United States,
and what did I think about that.
My answer was that, No. 1, I thought that in view of the limited
borrowing capacity of all the Latin American countries, they should
be able to use the funds they borrowed as economically as possible, and
get as much for their money as they could. And No. 2, certainly if
Chile can buy something in Peru, it assists the attempts that these
countries are making toward economic integration. And since we have
said that we are in favor of economic integration and industrializa-
tion, we certainly shouldn't try to preclude that kind of a transaction.
Senator SYMINGTON. If you. make a hard loan, I couldn't agree
more. But a soft loan, you might as well give them their money and
forget it, don't you think, a 50-year loan, no interest, no repayment of
principal, say, for 10 years? We have put a lot of money in that kind
of a loan. If you don't specify the money has to be used in the United
States, why not get rid of all the bureaucratic costs incident to follow-
ing the loan, and just give it to them? You would be better off from
the standpoint of overhead.
Mr. BALGOOYEN. I am psychologically opposed to soft loans. But
you have a situation in Latin America of course, as I have indicated,
where they are so far in debt, particularly in dollars, that it is a ques-
tion of whether they can stand it. And so it becomes a matter of ne-
cessity, I am sure, in some cases, to grant this assistance on a soft loan
basis. And I fully appreciate the arguments for spending the pro-
ceeds of these loans in the United States. Otherwise, as you say, they
become gifts. And they are pretty close to gifts anyway and for all
we know they may ultimately be gifts.
But at the same time, whether it is a soft loan or a hard loan, if
$10 million is loaned to Chile, I would think that we would want the
Chileans to buy as much of their necessities with that $10 million as
they possibly could, even if they had to buy it in some other country.
Senator SmIINGT0N. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman BOGGS. Senator Miller, do you have any questions?
Senator.MILI~n. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. . .
Mr. MeAshan, in your statement you say, "many of the less-de-
veloped countries cannot be expected to become fully self-sufficient in
foods and fibers." Would you include India in that category?
Mr. MOASHAN. Yes, certainly, I certainly would. India is probably
less self-sufficient than many of the other countries.
PAGENO="0200"
196 ~ FUTURE OF uS. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Senator MILLER. I am not. talking about what it. is now, I am talk-
ing about what it. can be. And your~tatement is that many of the less-
developed countries cannot be expected to become fully self-sufficient.
Mr. MCASHAN. Well, I should possibly have said, for many, many
years, until they change. their systems in India. and until they are will-
ing to get rid of some of their prejudices that we are all familiar with.
For example, India. is one of the greatest producers of peanuts in the
world. They extract the oil from those peanuts and use the oil for
cooking purposes, but they will not allow the meal to be used for
human food, although peanut meal is ver high in protein, and is just
exactly what their children ought to be fed. They have got to get rid
of those kinds of prejudices first.
Senator MILLER. In our food aid program to India, as you probably
know-
Chairman B0GG5. I am quite curious: why won't they?
Mr. MGASHAN. As I understand it, it is a matter of their religion.
Chairman BOGGS. The meal for peanuts.
Mr. MGASHAX. Yes, I don't know why. It is used for fertilizer only.
Senator MILLER. In our food aid program for India, as you probably
know, we concentrate on wheat and other food grains. And under their
new 5-year program they have, I think, a. reasonable basis for hoping
that by 1971 or 1972, with a reasonable amount of rainfall, and by
breaking the fertilizer bottleneck, which they hope to do, that they. can
be self-sufficient in food grains. Now, this peanut matter may have
some impact. But I would say that it would be very small compared to
the food grains problem. And I was wondering whether or not you
would accept that 5-year target. Or do you think that that is just a
gesture of futility?
Mr. MCASHAX. No, I wouldn't call it futile in any respect. I hope
they do, but I don't know that they can.
Senator MILLER. We all hope that they do. But when you were talk-
ing about the fact that you expect many of these countries will not he
able to become self-sufficient for many, many years, you included India
in that category?
Mr. MOASHAN. Yes. And the rate of their population increase will
require a terrific improvement in their agriculture to keep pace with it.
Senator MILLER. There is no question but what it will require im-
provement. But with the hybrid seeds and with fertilizer, and with
the tremendous amount of national effort with respect to irrigation
and water wells, and with a. reasonable degree of rainfall, why. would
you think it would be many, many years before India could become
reasonably self-sufficient, certainly in food grains?
Mr. MCASHAN. As much as a.nything from their past record.
But I certainly hope that they do, sir. It would be great if they do.
The only point that I was making was that they could buy our wheat
from our farmers with some of the other materials that they might do
better with, that they might be better equipped to produce and export
and pay for their wheat. That would be my only point.
Senator MILLER. Well, if they have the hybrid seeds and the fertil-
PAGENO="0201"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 197
izer and the land and the water, why should we not expect them to
grow their own food grain instead of looking to us to supply it?
Mr. MCASHAN. I certainly hope they will. But their record is not
good in that respect, Senator.
Senator MILLER. Well, their record in some areas where they have
had rain, and where they have been adopting the hybrid seeds and
fertilizers, has indicated a dramatic progress, and Ford Foundation
people who have been over there for 10 years are very much encouraged
by the progress in just the last 2 or 3 years with hybrid seeds.
Mr. MGAsHAN. Yes. And they are using these hybrid seeds from
Mexico that the Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation helped
develop down there. And certainly that is good. I am all in favor of it.
Senator MILLER. So is everybody else. But I am trying to find out
what you mean by saying that you can't expect-I assume that you
meant you can't expect India, for example, to become self-sufficient in
foods and fiber for many, many years. I am wondering if you take a
dim view of that 5-year target. I personally do not, unless there is a
shortage of rainfall. But I like to think that India if it implements
its programs and makes progress, particularly as dramatically as it
has in the last year and a half, would not be one of those less-developed
that you refer to.
Mr. MCASHAN. I agree with you 100 percent, Senator, that we
should do everything that we can in helping them implement their
programs, and to even require it in return for our giving them this
wheat in the meantime.
Senator MILLER. We are doing that. But I may say, I don't share
your pessimism, that India is one of those less-developed countries that
cannot be expected to become self-supporting for many, many years.
By many, many years you are talking about 10, 15, 20, 30, or 40 years?
Mr. MCA5HAN. Well, I hope you are right.
Senator MILLER. I hope so, too.
You say if India can get more wheat by exporting textiles and buy-
ing wheat, then by attempting to raise wheat is India not reducing
its efficiency in world markets? Assuming certain things, I suppose
the answer would be obvious. Are you implying that India can get
more wheat by exporting textiles such as jute or cotton instead of
growing wheat? Are you implying that?
Mr. MOASHAN. I believe that, yes, sir. And they do a fine job of
exporting heavy cotton goods all over the Orient.
Senator MILLER. I know that. But are you implying that they should
accentuate that and let the growing of additional rice and wheat go
by the board?
Mr. MCASHAN. I was really using that as an example only of the
benefits of trade, Senator Miller. But it is true that India is a very
fine producer and exporter of cotton textiles.
Senator MILLER. That is so. But as you probably know, Congress-
man Pogue was quite insistent last fall that India stop using some
of its very fertile land for growing cotton and replace it with wheat or
food grains so that they could more adequately supply their food
needs, and if they needed cotton they could buy from us, buy cotton
PAGENO="0202"
198 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
from us. Now, that seems to me to be directly opposite to what you are
advancing here.
Mr. MOASHAN. No, sir, that is the same principle I am talking
about. If we can do it better and they can do it better, then we ought
to trade.
Senator MILLER. But your example is directly opposite to that.
Mr. McASHAN. My example was just used for illustration.
Senator MILLER. You sa.id in your statement that you did not know
what President Johnson meant by "temporary preferential tariff ad-
vantages for the developing countries" in his Pi~mt.a del Este talks.
It seems to me that he went further than that. He was talking about
temporary preferential tariff advantages for the developing countries
and extended not only by the United States, but by other developed
countries. And now, do you recognize that that was a sine qua non
in his discussion, that it wouldn't be the United States alone, but it
would be the United States in consonance with other developed na-
tions which would extend these advantages?
Mr. MOASHAN. Yes, indeed. And I am sure that there is deep
feeling in South America against the so-called Associated Trade Area
countries that the European Economic Community favors in Africa
at the expense of, sa.y, the Latin American countries who are also
producers of tropical products and are trying to get in that same
market. It would certainly be in order to require that Latin America
receive the same kind of treatment in Europe, if we are able to do so,
as those associated African nations.
Senator MILLER. You are suggesting, then, that the United States
unilaterally get into this preferential tariff advantage, are you?
Mr. MCASHAN. While we were limited to a Western Hemisphere
Common Market of which we were a party, yes, sir. If we are talking
now about a long-range trade policy throughout the world I agree
with you 100 percent that we ought to bring in the EEC and the
EFTA as well if we can.
Senator MILLER. Thank you.
Chairman BOGGS. I have a few questions, but first I would like to
hear from Dr. Danielian.
Would you give us your statement, Doctor?
STATEMENT OP N. R. DANIELIAN, PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL
ECONOMIC POLICY ASSOCIATION
Mr. DANILLIAN. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the opportunity to
appear before this committee which has taken on the important task
of reviewing U.S. trade policy, particularly because I have just re-
turned from an 8-week trip to major European centers investigating
this very subject. The suggestions contained in this brief paper are
based on extensive studies of postwar trends in international trade and
payments, backed by the experience of our member companies which
comprise a representative segment of the American economy, produc-
tion, and employment. These companies are vitally concerned with
the success of our foreign economic policy and the interest of free
PAGENO="0203"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 199
world security and prosperity. At `the outset I think it important
to state that they are "outward looking" international business cor-
pórations with worldwide operations; therefore, they have a stake
not only in the growth and vitality of our own country but in that of
other free world countries as well.
NEW FACTORS INFLUENCING THE INTERNATIONAL ECONOMY
New forces and conditions. have emerged in the world since the
reciprocal trade agreements program was adopted, particularly since
World War II, which require a review of U.S. foreign economic policy.
The most important of these factors are:
1. The grouping of important trading partners of the United States
into blocs; for example, the European Economic Community (EEC),
the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), and the Latin Amer-
ican Free Trade Area (LAFTA) which is to be merged into a Latin
American common market, and other similar plans stirring in the
Pacific, even in Africa, requires a reassessment of the basic premises
of U.S. foreign economic policy.
2. Communist countries have ambitions to become major factors
in world trade and investment under the principle of competitive co-
existence, and they have asked for unconditional most-favored-nation
treatment.
3. There is a rise of economic nationalism in the world which has
hampered efforts to liberalize trade.
4. The important role that international corporations have come
to play in world trade and investment is a new phenomenon, not yet
clearly understood.
5. The importance of advanced technology and the conditions for
its transfer in the course of world trade and investment are receiving
worldwide attention and must be considered in any future trade
policy.
6. The character of U.S. trade, both imports and exports, has
changed radically since World War II, and the significance of this
change for future trade policy needs serious study.
7. The demand's of less developed countries for trade concessions
from the developed countries pose new problems.
8. U.S. balance-of-payments deficits and their relation to trade
policy have not received adequate attention.
SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS
Our `analysis of `the meaning of these changed condi'tions and emerg-
ing trends leads us to the suggestion that the United States should:
1. Adopt a conditional most-favored-nation policy in relation to
developed countries and trading blocs, East and West alike.
2. Seek review and amendment of some of the basic postwar agree-
ments, such as GATT, to conform with current realities.
3. Proceed with the organization of a North Atlantic Free Trade
Association, starting with Canada, and later extending it to the United
PAGENO="0204"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Kingdom and other EFTA countries, when-as seems probable-their
bid for membership in the EEC fails. Provision should be made for
associate membership for the Latin American common market, Aus-
tralia, New Zealand, Japan, and others under clearly defined condi-
tions. Within the framework of this North Atlantic Free Trade
Association, we should be prepared to offer less-developed countries
unconditional most-favored-nation treatment.
4. Codify the rules and regulations under which government-gener-
ated technology is made available abroad. This may require legislation
to define and limit the conditions under which the results of govern-
ment-financed research and development can be transferred.
5. Revise our antitrust laws and our tax laws and regulations so as
to permit American business to compete more effectively abroad.
6. Avoid the cumbersome and rigid commodity agreements proposed
by the less developed countries, because they will result in uneconomic
allocation of resources. Instead, we should encourage them to direct
their resources into more productive employment.
Let us now consider the reasons for these recommendations.
TRADING BLocs
In the negotiation of GATT, the United States accepted the prin-
ciple of unconditional most-favored-nation treatment. But in article
24, we agreed t.o a. provision which made possible trade blocs, per-
mitting trade concessions to their members but not to outsiders, a
patent violation of the principle of unconditional most-favored-nation
treatment. GATT has really blurred the definition of a nation as
understood under trade. treaties. There are now some nations more
favored than others. We must either redefine the meaning of the word
"nation," or develop a set of new principles which apply to trading
blocs.
In t.he recently concluded Kennedy Round of trade negotiations, the
EEC demonstrated how difficult trade blocs can be in multinational
negotiations based on the unconditional most-favored-nation principle.
They held up the negotiations for years while they put their own affairs
in order. When they finally came to the negotiating table they made it
clear that the internal agricultural policy, a highly protectionist one,
which they had agreed on while making everybody else wait, was more
important. than tile general liberalization of world trade and was not
negotiable.
The importance of the discrimination inherent in trade blocs to the
growth and distribution of world t.rade can be see.n in tables 1 and 2.
Since the EEC was formed under the Treaty of Rome in 1958 to 1966,
world exports by value have just about doubled. The United States
increased its exports by ai)Out 70 percent. However, the. EEC saw its
exports, including intra-EEC trade., go up by 130 percent. But, its
exports to the rest of the world kept pace at about the world a.verage,
doubling during this period. while exports among member countries
w~t.hin the. EEC trebled.
PAGENO="0205"
201
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PAGENO="0207"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 203
Over the same period, imports of the United States doubled. Those
of the EEC increased by 2.3 times. Here again, however, EEC's im-
ports from the rest of the world grew at about the world rate, while
imports from member countries trebled.
It is clear that the discriminatory arrangements possible in such a
trade grouping make it possible to increase trade among the members
while restricting the ability of those outside to compete.
We will not be able to deal effectively with such trading blocs as the
EEC under the unconditional most-favored-nation principle. Letting
them have the advantage of every concession we make to any other
member of GATT leaves us with no basis for bargaining hard on im-
portant items of discrimination. We will have to come to bilateral
negotiations with such groups on a conditional most-favored-nation
basis if we are to hold our own.
EAST-WEST TRADE
The growth of trade between the Communist countries of Eastern
Europe and Western Europe and Japan, and the clearly demonstrated
interest of all the parties to see it increase further, make it obvious that
we must anticipate the time when Communist countries become im-
portant factors in world trade and, perhaps, on a one-way basis, in-
vestment as well. They have expressed an interest in normalizing trade
relations with the United States: they ask access to our markets on an
unconditional most-favored-nation basis; they want to buy up-to-date
U.S. technology; they want access to U.S. credit sources. Our Gov-
ernment has responded favorably on many occasions.
It is to be hoped that conditions may so develop that these goals can
be realized. In its proper context we shall have some suggestions along
these lines. But here we must consider the implications for U.S. trade
policy of such developments.
I am aware of the fact that the administration is recommending
"conditional" most-favored-nation treatment for these countries, sub-
ject to bilateral trade agreements for short durations, renewable and
cancellable for cause. But this does not meet their real desire for non-
discriminatory treatment.
Ultimately we must universalize our trade policy. But it is not feas-
ible to extend unconditional most-favored-nation treatment to State-
controlled economies.
They need not resort to tariffs or other indirect devices to control im-
ports nor worry about cost of production in exports. It is difficult to
envisage how, in such States, industrial property rights or investments,
should they be allowed, could be protected, since the citizens of these
countries have such limited rights in these matters. The only effective
means of protection will lie in our ability to bargain hard, and if need
be, to withdraw concessions. This could not be readily done under the
unconditional most-favored-nation principle. Here again, we must re-
stort to bilateral negotiations under the conditional most-favored-
nation principle, with emphasis on reciprocity.
PAGENO="0208"
204 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
NATIONALISM
Nationalism, particularly in economic matters, is rising all over
the world, in developed and developing countries alike. This can be
seen in the efforts of the EEC, under French pressure, to attain agri-
cultural self-sufficiency; local content requirements in most South
American countries; and preferential treatment of indigenous trading
companies in Japan. These are only a few examples. Continued~ ad-
herence to the unconditional most-favored-nation principle leaves us
without any adequate means of dealing with these increasingly im-
portant nontariff barriers to the growth of our trade. in response to
such actions, emphasis must be placed on nondiscriminatory national-
ity treatment and reciprocity. To enforce this, the United States must
make trade concessions conditional on some of these impediments being
removed.
INTERNATIONAL CORPORATIONS
The rise of international corporations and their importance to world
production and trade is inadequately understood. They are responsi-
ble for a substantial portion of our exports, and they have proved an
effective means of spreading teclmic.al competence and economic
progress.
International trade and investment are inextricably related. They
are risky and expensive, requiring commitment of time, money and
personnel, as well as experience in dealing with other peoples and gov-
ernments. Traditional attitudes about small- verus large-scale busi-
ness, however applicable at home, do not necessarily apply in world
trade. lYe must help small businesses to pool their resources in foreign
trade, and help the larger ones to do a more effective job. This may
require a good hard look at our antitrust laws as they apply to foreign
operations, and to tax laws and regulations as they apply to export
business.
TECHNOLOGY
All the world, East and West, is aware of the advantag~s of tech-
nological progress as applied to large-scale business. In fact, most
of the world envies U.S. industry, not only for its inventiveness, but
also for its daring to take risks and apply up-to-date methods in pro-
duction a.nd marketing. This is the greatest comparative advantage
the United States possesses in economic competition. But we cannot
be complacent. There are all kinds of suggestions under discussion for
the transfer of this technology to other countries. Western Europe,
Eastern Europe, and the less-developed countries all want access to
this technology and know-how. This is now a major preoccupation
in Europe, and engages the interest of NATO and OECD, as well as
the COMECON and UNCTAD countries. And, of course, once they
get it they expect to compete with us.
Much of this technology is in private hands, with proprietary
rights which cannot be divested. In certain fields, however, such as
atomic power, electronics, communications, space, computers. defense
production, health and agriculture, the U.S. Government is in posses-
PAGENO="0209"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 205
sion of valuable rights. It is in these areas where suggestions have
been made for intergovernmental negotiations. What we do with
these rights and how we dispose of them will have a profound effect
on the competitive position of the United States. Here again, there
is a whole range of economic and legal problems that remain unex-
plored. A codification of U.S. Government practice and legislative
criteria as to when, where and under what conditions the U.S. Gov-
ernment can dispose of such rights abroad is urgently needed.
CHANGING PATTERNS OF U.S. TRADE
A review of recent trade statistics of the United States shows that
we have become primarily suppliers of agricultural raw materials,
chemicals, raw and semifinished products, and machinery. We have
become importers of end-use consumer products. These are shown in
tables 3, 4, 5, 6, and7.
This results from two factors. First, other countries exclude, by
tariffs, quotas, variable levies, internal taxes and other devices, many
of those products which we can produce economically; and, second,
other countries are, in many products, simply lower-cost producers
than we are. We cannot accept this challenge indefinitely unless we
are given a fair chance to compete where we have some advantages.
Here again, a policy of reciprocity based on conditional most-favored-
nation treatment is necessary.
TABLE 3
In millions of dollars]
U.S. trade in food and related products,
beverages, tobacco, and live animals,
1946-66 1
U.S. trade in chemicals, 1946-66 1
Exports
Imports
Balance
Exports
Imports
Balance
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
2,553
3,423
2,871
2,587
1,757
2,793
2,482
2,216
2,057
2,502
3,189
3,165
2,952
3,172
3,458
3,716
3,992
4,421
4,971
4,521
5,191
1,406
1,740
2,003
2,087
2,642
3,007
3,000
3,186
3,278
3,101
3,176
3,467
3,646
3,649
3,491
3,521
3,766
3,942
4,097
4,013
4,590
1,147
1,683
-868
500
-885
-214
-518
-970
-1,221
-599
13
-302
-694
-477
-33
195
226
479
874
508
601
471
819
760
755
711
972
802
799
986
1,073
1,229
1,457
1,405
1,543
1,763
1,787
1,843
1,922
2,358
2,402
2,676
85
94
98
106
152
175
208
252
260
270
276
668
800
874
818
732
765
705
707
781
957
386
725
662
649
559
797
594
547
726
803
953
789
605
669
945
1,055
1,078
1,217
1,651
1,621
1,719
11946-56 data not fully consistent with 1957-66 data due to use of different series.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Balance of Payments Statistical Supplement (revised edition) and Overseas
Business Reports.
82-181-67-vol. I-14
PAGENO="0210"
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PAGENO="0211"
207
TIlE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
TABLE 6.-U.S. TRADE IN OTHER MANUFACTURED GOODS AND OTHER TRANSACTIONS,' 1946-662
[In millions of dollars]
Exports
Imports Balance
Exports Imports
Balance
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
2,381
3,858
2,757
2,644
2,020
2,854
2,956
2,822
2,988
3,448
3,873
1,501
1;728
2,265
2,214
2,710
3,216
3,717
4,101
3,641
4,236
4,908
880
2,130
492
430
-690
-362
-761
-279
-653
-788
-1,035
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
4,095
3,391
3,183
3,885
3,741
3,832
4,170
4,825
4,815
5,256
3,904
3,561
4,776
4,792
4,805
5,572
6,024
6,753
7,522
8,636
-191
-170
-1,593
-907
-1,064
-1,740
-1,854
-1,928
-2,707
-3,380
`The combined total is calculated as a residual prior to 1957.
2 1946-56 data not fully consistent with 1957-66 data due to use of different series.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Balance of Payments Statistical Supplement (revised edition) and Overseas
Business Reports.
TABLE 7.-U.S. TRADE IN NONF000 CONSUMER GOODS 1946-66'
[In millions of dollars]
Exports
Imports
Balance
Exports
Imports
Balance
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1,075
1,527
1,131
913
808
1,155
1,019
1,130
1,144
1,276
1,314
489
374
461
410
556
693
715
802
830
1,064
1,260
586
1,153
670
503
252
462
304
328
314
212
54
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1,333
1,271
1,274
1,328
1,357
1,400
1,513
1,715
2,402
2,860
1,524
1,710
2,424
2,458
2,200
2,707
2,889
3,388
4,111
5,808
-191
-439
-1,150
-1,130
-843
-1,307
-1,376
-1,673
-1,709
-2,948
`1946-56 data not fully consistent with 1957-66 data due to use of different series.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Balance of Payments Statistical Supplement (revised edition) and Overseas
Business Reports.
AMBITIONS OF LESS-DEVELOPED COUNTRIES IN TRADE POLICY
The ambitions of the less-developed countries, as expressed in var-
ious forums, require sympathetic consideration. But what we under-
take to do must be consistent with our own long-range economic
strength and stability and must promise results in a foreseeable
future. Commodity agreements are a rigid and uneconomic way of
giving foreign aid and unjustifiably impose the cost on a selected
group of consumers. They retard the reallocation of resources to more
productive and useful enterprises and industries. We have learned
from sad experience that more money is not the answer if it gets into
the wrong hands or is used the wrong way and for the wrong ob-
jectives. Foreign aid with strict application of conditions for self-
help, and under conditions which protect our balance-of-payment
position, is more sensible, provided the money is spent on worthwhile
projects, than commodity agreements or automatic compensatory
financing.
Less-developed countries also seek preferential treatment for their
exports of raw materials and manufactured goods. This request might
best be met by offering them unconditional most-favored-nation
treatment under the North Atlantic Free Trade Association proposal.
PAGENO="0212"
208 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
U.S. BALANCE OF PAYMENTS DEFICITS
The persistent U.S. balance-of-payments deficits require that we
consider all these factors. Clearly we are not earning enough abroad
to do all the things we, as a nation, want to do. Unless the factors men-
tioned above are taken into account~ we will not be able to earn the
required sums t.o carry out our national objectives abroad.
The stark fact is that U.S. commercial exports are hardly enough
to pay for our commodity imports. If you deduct the foreign aid
induced exports and the military hardware sales from export figures,
it is doubtful that purely civilian commercial imports and exports
are in balance. It is the income on investments and services that is
paying for a substantial portion of our Government expenditures
abroad. Unfortunately, this is not enough. The re-st is financed by
gold exports and borrowings.
What we need, therefore, is an international incomes policy and a
foreign incomes and expense budget. All the factors mentioned above
must be considered in this scheme. What trade policy will increase our
income? What policies toward international corporations, their ex-
ports and investments abroad, will increase their contribution to
international income? What policies in the transfer of technology
will enhance our earnings and competitive position? What policies
toward East-em countries and less-developed countries will improve
economic and political conditious without undermining our economic
strength a-nd stability?
I hope this committee will consider our suggestions and also add its
prestige to the proposal that the Administration prepare annually, a
foreign incomes estimate, a-nd a foreign incomes and expense budget,
and adopt construct-lye policies to enhance the income and ba-lance the
international budget.
Mr. DANIELIAN. In completing, Mr. Chairman, I hope it is under-
stood that this paper, which was prepared in Vienna and over the
Atlantic this weekend a-s I was flying back to this hearing, is a persona-l
statement. It has, I believe, the general sympathetic agreement of most
of our member companies. But these suggestions should really sta-nd
on their own. And I hope -that t-he commit-tee will give careful consider-
ation particularly to this last. suggestion, which, I think, is long over-
due in the management of our international economic affairs.
Thank you very much.
Chairman BOGGS. Tha-nk you very much, Doctor.
Mr. Gilbert, last week we ha-d Mr. Younger here, formerly British
Minister of State, and now Director of the Royal Institute of Inter-
national Affairs. In his testimony lie discussed the so-called technologi-
cal ga-p in Europe, and he felt that we should pay more attention to
this problem. What is your feeling about that-? - -
Mr. GILBERT. I think this is a. so-called problem tha-t has received
a tremendous amount of attention. But I haven't noticed that much
of the attention really goes to the problem. It seems to me that the
technological gap, t-he extent tha-t it does exist, is a gap in management.
R-esearch and science are international, and they flow across the world
without being hampered by boundaries. I think what American indus-
try has which is envied by the European is the capacity, fairly quickly,
PAGENO="0213"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 209
to take a scientific development and through management and engi-
neering move it into production. We are ready to throw away old
processes where the equipment is still capable of producing if we can
see a way to do it better. And this, I think, has not been the charac-
teristic of European industry. They have tended to want to hold on
to everything that still works, repair it and repair it and repair it
And the management is not directly oriented toward the techniques,
if you like, of moving from invention to product with dispatch.
I don't know how this can be taught. There is a great deal of effort,
as you know, over the years. Our graduate schools of business admin-
istration have staffed European colleges working in the same area.
And there is practically a branch of the Harvard Business School at
the Graduate School of Business Administration in Australia. And I
think our educational institutions have made a tremendous effort to
move out insofar as techniques can be taught. But I believe myself that
it is a question of management's point of view, some bonus, some
capacity that somehow or other I think American industry by and
large has developed.
Chairman B0GG5. Last week we had Ambassador Roth here. And
he said that he is beginning a study at the request of the administration
on whether or not U.S. exporters need additional incentives, and also
the relationship which exists between foreign investment in exports by
American manufacturers. In connection with the last problem, do you
mind commenting on the widespread view held by American industry
that continued restrictions on U.S. foreign investment abroad will over
the long run harm the growth of U.S. exports?
Mr. GILBERT. I would expect that this would be probably correct.
I am not certain at this point how much real restriction on foreign
investment has resulted from the voluntary payments program. I
think that it has been a great stimulus to use the European capital
market and avoided an excessive movement of funds from this country
particularly to the European area.
I haven't seen any evidence of any real productive, proposed produc-
tive investment by an American company which has, in fact, been
stopped by the so-called voluntary program. I think it has made many
more people conscious of the fact that a private decision can have an
effect on national problems. And to that extent I would say that the
results of the so-called voluntary program have been good.
Continued for too long, and if allowed to trend over into a controlled
situation rather than a voluntary restraint, then I think it holds real
dangers, not only for international business, but for the national
economy. And, of course, there is always a minority of people who get
into government who think the government can run things better
than the people who run them. If they ever came into ascendancy, I
think we would have some very serious national problems resulting
from controls of foreign investment.
I think it is clear that, maybe just by coincidence, or maybe it is
just a sign that people are energetic and competent in the area, I
think it is clear that a surprisingly large portion of American ex-
ports are conducted by the international companies which also invest
abroad. And certainly to do an effective job. In a world market one
cannnt be solely an exporter. One does have to have local installations.
PAGENO="0214"
210 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
For some companies, perhaps, oniy a well-fii~anced sales company is
necessary, and for others, some local manufacturing and some ex-
ports are essential. I don't think there is any magic answer to it. And
I think business can come up with a better answer on its own peculiar
problems than anybody could by a formula.
Chairman BOGGS. Mr. McAshan, would you be good enough to com-
ment on the question of East-West trade which has been discussed
here by a number of witnesses?
Mr. MCASHAN. Really, I can do no more than to endorse the report
which was brought back by Mr. Blackey last year when he was a
member of that committee which visited in Central Europe and East-
ern Europe and Russia.
Senator SYMINGT0N. Who is Mr. Blackey?
Mr. MCASHAN. Mr. Blackey is the chairman of the Caterpillar
Tractor, I believe it is, Senator Symington, but he acted as reporter
for that group.
Senator S~rINGToN. Thank you.
Mr. MOAS~AN. They came back very strongly in favor of opening
up a trade particularly with the Eastern European countries, Czecho-
slovakia, Poland, Hungary and those countries, not only for trade
itself, `but so that those countries could learn more about us and could
see the way we lived and could learn what a difference there was
between communism and democracy. And at the same time he felt
that that would offer a good market, added market for our manufac-
tured articles that we are now exporting today.
Chairman Bocos. Would any other members of the panel care to
comment on it?
Mr. BALGOOTEN. I would like to comment, if I may.
I agree pretty much with Mr. McAshan's statement with regard to
the East-West trade. He made the first point that what the East is
interested in, many of the Communist States, is in buying U.S. tech-
nology. I think we all know that as a matter of principle ~ommunists
do not believe in world trade as such, they believe in self-sufficiency.
The only reason that they are interested in world trade is that they
might be able to get something that they couldn't produce themselves,
particularly in the way of technology and new processes. And that is
what their chief interest is. And I think it is particularly unjustifiable
to extend credit terms to Communist countries, because that comes a
little bit too close to providing aid to the countries that are doing
everything that they can to bring down our private enterprise system,
and to cause us difficulties in Vietnam, Latin America, Africa, the
Near East, and every place else.
I know that it is a cliche, but it is a very popular one, to say that
trade brings peace. I don't think that there is anything in the history
of the world that proves that trade necessarily brings peace. I think
you could demonstrate just as easily that trade is frequently a cause
of conflict and war.
I certainly don't think that we should extend unconditional most
-favored treatment to state-controlled economies. I don't think that
there is any way in which we can be at all sure that we can protect
any investment that we may make in state-controlled economies or in
Communist countries. And t-here I agree with Mr. Danielian. And I
PAGENO="0215"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 211
am very cool toward any effort to increase trade with Communist
countries. I think that the Russians have demonstrated in the Vietnam
war that they haven't changed their attitude at all toward us. They
demonstrated this a year ago-at the Tn-Continental Communist
Conference in Havana, where Rashidov, the chief Soviet delegate, was
more virulent in his expressions against~ the United States than were
the Red Chinese or Fidel Castro.
So, I think that we are just kidding ourselves to think that; the
Russians are going to become more friendly and amenable to us by
increasing our trade with them.
Chairman B0GG5. Mr. Gilbert?
Mr. GILBERT. I have only one comment, which I think is a very
practical one.
We talk of extending the most-favored-nation position to the Rus-
sians as though the Russians were in a position to be a part of those
normal world trading situations. As a practical matter, it is my under-
standing that the Russians now have agreements with various Euro-
pean countries. Each one of them is a negotiated trade agreement
providing balance of trade within the terms of the trade agreement,
with specific areas of exports and imports agreed on in advance
between England and Russia, for example, and between France and
Russia, and between West Germany and Russia. None of these agree-
ments contemplate an excess of foreign exchange being in Russian
hands. They are all self-balancing. So, that as a practical matter the
only trading that could be done on a realistic basis with a state-
controlled economy is that our country can negotiate the import of
"X" dollars worth of ABC products into Russia in return for an
agreement to import a corresponding dollar amount of Russian prod-
ucts that we wanted.
So, I think that talking loosely in terms of extending the most
favored nation tends to raise specters which are quite inconsistent
with the practicalities. I think if we are to negotiate an agreement
that the Russians would buy $100 million worth of earth-moving
equipment, and in return take $100 million of caviar, I don't think
this raises the specters that we are talking about.
Chairman BOGGS. Dr. Danielian?
Mr. DANIELIAN. I appreciate the support Mr. Balgooyen has given
to my statement, but I would like to restate my position as precise'y
as possible.
I made an inquiry in most of the European countries this summer
about their experience in trade with Eastern Europe, speaking with
bankers and businessmen and ministers of government. Their reac-
tion was that they preferred to do business, for instance, with the
Eastern European countries rather than the undeveloped countries
because of their good credit, they performed precisely on the
contracts. This is the view of the Swedes and the Danes and the others
that I have spoken with, and the Italians, who do a very considerable
amount of business with the Eastern European countries.
So, on the basis of economic behavior and international behavior,
the business seems to be A 1.
And secondly, there is a definite quantitative limit to the amount
of business you can do with these people because of their lack of
PAGENO="0216"
212 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
capacity to export products that we need. In most of the West Euro-
pean countries, as a matter of fact. there is a specific quota arrange-
ment on Imports from Eastern European countries, so that the
quantities are limited. And this is supported by other studies we have
made. I am not really afraid of their ability to compete in our market
and to subvert our market, certainly at present. The amount of trade
that we might. anticipate in the foreseeable future will probably, even
granting the trade concessions that they want, be in the range of
possibly $2.00 million a year, in each direction, which is not very much.
In the long run the dimensions may be different. So, I think the most-
favored-nation principle is not the important t.hing. The question that
we must confront essentialli- is, what kind of technology are we will-
ing to give to them, and are we willing to extend credit to them to
buy this. This is where really the important decision is going to be.
not in the area of trade policy, whether it is going to be conditional
or unconditional treatment in our markets.
Chairman BOGGS. Thank you very much.
Senator Svmington ?
Senator S~MIX~TON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Ba.lgooyen, I was astonished at your observations about trade.
The Germans were over here several years ago and said that ever since
the end of World War II they have been doing t.heir best to trade as
much as they can behind t.he Iron Curtain. As a result, they sell more
behind the Iron Curtain and buy more from behind the curtain, than
any other country.
We asked how their credit was. They said excellent. We asked how
about Yugoslavia? They said Yugoslavia. they no longer considered
a Communist country economically.
Then before the Secretary of the Treasury, at that time Mr. Dillon.
and the Secretary of Commerce, at that time Mr. Hodges, I asked if
there was any other country in the world that was not doing its best
to sell everything it could behind the Iron Curtain except the United
States.
They both said no. that we were the only developed country in the
world~which wasn't `trying to promote its~ trade b"ehincl the curtain.
I asked if the reason that De Gaulle recognized Red China., follow-
ing the British example. was because that country was not developing
its trade as were the British and others.
They both said that was one of the reasons. This is all on t.he record.
As I understand it, what you want to do in Centra.l and South
America. is for us t.o become nationalistic politically. On the other
hand, it. seems to me that while. we as a nation are ge.tting more
inte.rnat.ionalist.ic politically, defending everybody all over the world,
we are becoming more nationalistic economically. while other coun-
tries are doing exactly the opposite.. They in t.urn are becoming more
nationalistic politically, furthering their trade. in a.n effort. to be-
come more internatic.nalist.ic economically.
With that premise, I would ask this question. How long do you
think we can operate a. war in Vietnam that is costing $70 million
a day and keep several hundred thousand troops in Germany? This
morning the British announced a broad reduction in their troops in
the Middle East. We have, a good many more Americans it. South
PAGENO="0217"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 213
Korea than the South Koreans have troops in Vietnam. How long
can we continue to finance and defend the so-called free world if
we don't try to increase our trade and thereby increase our volume
and thereby obtain costs which in turn will increase profits? What
is the objection to following all these other countries we think so
important that we are giving our lungs you might say, to defend?
Mr. BALGOOYEN. Maybe I wasn't too clear in expressing my views.
I will try to restate them first.
As to the Vietnam war, I make no pretense of being a military
expert. I don't know how long it is going to continue or how much
it is going to cost. So, I am in no position to comment on that.
Senator SYMINGTON. I mentioned this because, in our way of life
our taxes can only come from one source, income including profits.
It is very clear what country is paying nearly all the gigantic cost
of the Vietnamese war.
Mr. BAL000YEN. Except to say that I don't think that any trade
concessions we may make to Russia, or any changes we may make
in our policies toward trading with Russia are going to change their
attitude toward the Vietnam war. I just don't believe that anything
we might do in expanding trade with Russia is going to influence
them so far as their overall plan to subvert the private enterprise
system and to cause difficulties for the United States throughout
the world are concerned.
I would not dispute the statement that ha.s been made that the West-
ern European countries are increasing their trade with the Soviet
Union and with the Communist countries in general, and yet their
credit experience has been good. That wasn't the point that I was
making. The point that I was making, really, is that the Soviet
Union, for example, has a great deal to gain by trading with the
United States and it isn't necessarily true that both sides benefit
equally in a foreign trade transaction. They need our technology
very badly and the products of this technology. But as I look over
the list of things that the Russians are able to export to us, I don't
see anything that we need very much unless you consider gold some-
thing that we need, and perhaps we do. I don't know what the future
of gold is. But I think that it is an unequal trade at best. And I agree
with Mr. Danielian, that there isn't a great deal of volume to it
anyway you look at it.
And I want to make it clear, too, that when I supported Mr. Dan-
~ehan's statement I realized that I was going further than he did,
and I don't want to be unfair to him, because 1 am sure he wouldn't
take the rigid position on East-West trade that I am taking.
Senator SYMINGTON. Following your reasoning in specifics, every
country in the world has heavily increased its resources in the last
15 years, except the United States, the free world countries; some
as high as over 500 percent. The only country that has lost has been
the United States-nearly 50 percent. Another country-Canada--
would have lost if it hadn't made sales which ran into billions-
wheat for gold to Russia and China. Do you think it wrong for the
United States to sell wheat or cotton for gold to China or Russia
if it has heavy stocks on hand? Do you think the debits overbalance
the assets in any such transaction?
PAGENO="0218"
214 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Mr. BALGoo~x. First, I am not quite sure as to what you mean
when you say every other industrial country has increased its re-
sources while we have decreased our resources by 50 percent. If you
are speaking about resources in general, I don't think that that state-
ment could be supported. But if you are talking about foreign ex-
change receipts or international balance of payments then it is true
that our international balance of payments has suffered in recent
years, but not because of trade, since we have had a very favorable
export balance during all these years. It is because of loans and
foreign aid and investment and by short-term international capital
movements which have tended to favor the Western European coun-
tries, mainly because their interest rates have been higher.
Senator SYMINOTOX. I am talking about gold, current assets, n~ot
about the gross national product, which, as you know, is a very
deceptive figure against which to justify your fiscal and monetary
position.
Mr. BALGOOYEN. As far as gold is concerned I certainly couldn't
dispute the fact tha.t we have lost gold to the rest of the world. But
as I say, it has not been because of foreign trade, because we have a
very favorable fore.ign trade balance, it is because of our policies
toward the rest of the world economically and militarily.
You mentioned Vietnam. And that is one drain on our resources.
And our aid programs throughout the world are obviously another.
And then we have these international capital movements that we
are all familiar with.
So, it certainly isn't a question of trade, because we have been main-
taining a very favorable trade balance in every recent year.
Chairman BOGGS. Mr. Balgooyen, just one question.
You have very heavy investments in Latin Ameica. What is your
feeling about the area generally ? Do you feel that we have been
successful there?
Mr. BALGOOYEN. As is somewhat apparent from my testimony, I
feel that we haven't been as successful as I would like to see us be
in our policies toward Latin America. I think, however, that as our
policy is evolving, the trend is good. I think that, in general, the
objectives of the Punta dcl Este Conference were excellent. And I
think, also, that some of our expectations were too great. I was at
the Punta del Este meeting, and I was quite disturbed by some of the
statments that were made by our people that indicated, for example,
that by means of the Alliance for Progress illiteracy could be elimi-
nated in Latin America. in 10 years, which, of course, is utterly
ridiculous.
But I think that we are giving increasing attention to Latin Amer-
ica. And I think we realize more certainly than we did a generation
ago that our national interests are intimately tied in with inter-Amer-
ican affairs, and with the development of Latin America.
Unfortunately, the gap that separates the Latin American coun-
tries from the industrialized countries is not being narrowed as we
hoped that it would be. And one of the reasons, as I have indicated,
is that Latin America can hardly expect to industrialize unless it is
able to buy imported machinery and equipment from the industrialized
countries. And their foreign exchange receipts from exports just don't
PAGENO="0219"
TUE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 215
allow them a margin-in fact, there is no margin, so far as their
trade with the United States is concerned, where they have a deficit.
They can't import; the equipment that they need, nor the technology
that they need. And that is a matter of serious concern.
I think that in the last few years Latin America in general has
made quite a bit of progress, in that some of the principal countries
are doing things now in the field of economic policy that have long
been overdue. And I can see improvement in a number of countries.
I think it is particularly marked in the Central America area where
they have a Central American Common Market. And the statistics
certainly bear that out. Mexico, of course, is an outstanding example
of a Latin American country which has made tremendous progress,
much faster than the industrialized countries in recent years.
So that there ismi't any question that the Latin American countries,
if given a certain amount of political and economic stability, can
make progress. And I certainly am in favor of the United States
doing whatever it can to assist them toward that end.
Chairiñan BOGGS. Senator Miller, do you have any further ques-
tions?
Senator MILLER. Yes; thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Danielian, it is good to see you before the committee. And I
appreciate your very fine statement.
In it you say "we will* have to come to bilateral negotiations with
such groups on a conditional most-favored-nation basis if we are
to hold our own."
Is there any implication in that statement that we need to pass
certain legi~lation here in Congress?
Mr. DANIELIAN. Yes. I think when the time comes, when the ad-
ministration has prepared recommendations, there will have to be
very serious consideration given to such modification of policy and
legislative provision to give effect to the conditional most-favored-
nation approach to the trade negotiations with other trading blocs.
Senator MILLER. There have been recommendations for foreign
trade legislation to continue the authority, or at least some of it, of
the Trade Expansion Act. Would that be the appropriate place to
make these legislative changes or provisions which you are recom-
mending?
Mr. DANIELIAN. I have been away for 2 months, and I only came
back Sunday. And I do not know the nature of these recommenda-
tions. And some of the time I was on the other side of the so-called
curtain. All last week, for instance, I was in Rumania, in Bucharest.
And so I am not aware of the nature of these recommendations. I
would have to look at the legislation proposed to see if there is a
place for an opportunity to include this policy in a specific form.
I think that the sooner we get around to this concept the better for
us, because I don't see how we are going to negotiate, for instance,
a reduction of nontariff barriers, which seems to be one of the current
interests, On a multilateral, 60 or 100 nation, basis. We just simply
have got to have negotiating authority which makes it possible for
us to talk to the Common Market, for instance.
Senator MILLER. I think you have made a very strong case for it.
PAGENO="0220"
216 T~ FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
And if there are any legislative recommendations which you might
have, I think that some of us would be very happy to receive them.
Mr. DANIELIAN. I would be glad to come back at the proper time
when the legislation is before the Congress.
Senator MILLER. When you talk about the conditional most-fa-
vored-nation principle, what do you mean by that? You give a hint
on what you mean when you talk about "conditional" on some of
these impediments being removed, such as internal t.a.x matters and
other barriers. Is that what you are get.ting at, when you say "con-
ditional most-favored-nation principle" you mean conditional from
the particular country removing or eliminating or modifying some
of these internal impedimei~ts?
Mr. DANIELIAN. Yes; with the world really being regrouped into
larger bargaining units, what this would mean is bilateral negotia-
tions between, say, the United States and EEC, and the United
States and EFTA, and the United States and the Latin American
Common Market. On the basis of consideration given and reciprocal
concessions made, we will grant them most-favored-nation entry to
our markets. In other words, the end results would still be free trade,
and a more generalized, more inclusive trading community. But. peo-
pie would get into the club only in consideration of having paid a
commensurate fee in the way of concessions that have been made
reciprocally. Under our present system if we give a tariff reduction
to Iceland, however valuable that may be to us and to them, that
tariff reduction s available to everybody in the world-the Common
Market, Japan and everybody else. That somehow doesn't seem to be
quite fair, particularly in view of our present balance-of-payments
condition, and the changing pattern of trade which doesn't suggest,
in this great Nation of ours, with its technological advance, that the
competitive strength that we would like to believe is there exists.
Senator MILLER. You are familiar with the fact that there are recom-
mendations pending for extending the most-favored-nation principle
to Eastern bloc countries?
Mr. DANIELIAN. Yes.
Senator MILLER. I take it that you would not be in favor of that,
although you might be in favor of extending a conditional most-
favored-nation principle to these countries.
Mr. DANIELIAN. Yes, I thmk it would he conditional on a specific
agreement being drawn up where the advantages on both sides will,
I hope, be balanced.
Senator MILLER. And then I take it that you would not be in favor
of a blanket extension of such authority, but tha.t you would envision
that would be on a country-by-country basis for negotiation?
Mr. DANIELIAN. Right.
Senator MILLER. So that the reciprocity that makes this conditional
would be forthcoming.
Mr. DANIELIAN. I would go a step further. I will recommend this
approach a.lso to the other trading blocs, and in that way we would
universalize our trade policy and eliminate the accusation of dis-
crimination.
Senator MILLER. I understand.
PAGENO="0221"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 217
Mr. Gilbert, do you think that we were wrong in our position in the
Kennedy Round negotiations in asking for a guaranteed access for
grains from the Common Market?
Mr. GILBERT. No, I think this was certainly indicated. I think the
chances of getting it, of course, were very limited, because the Common
Market was in the process of being formed while the negotiations were
going on.
Senator MILLER. Yes. But by the time the negotiations were finalized
it was well formed and had set its policy up. And as you know, we did
not receive the guaranteed access that we requested. Do you think
that we were proper in asking for that?
Mr. GILBERT. I think so. I also have the feeling that perhaps what
we did get was a sharing of free grain around the world, which perhaps
as a practical matter got us more than the access agreement would
have afforded us. But I am not an expert on the agricultural side.
Senator Miller. Well I would like to ask you how you justify that
statement you have just made.. Do you think perhaps that this gave
us something just as good?
Mr. GILBERT. I think I would probably have to justify it on the
basis of a very great confidence in Ambassador Roth and his staff.
And I know that that was his impression, that he would have got
more as a practical matter than he would have gotten any other way.
Senator MILLER. I don't recall Ambassador Roth so testifying be-
fore this committee. I believe that lie indicated some optimism that
it might be a suitable matter, but I don't believe `that he testified that
this was just as good.
Mr. GILBERT. I don't want to put words in his mouth, I think as a
negotiated matter he got the best he could for us under `the circum-
stances.
Senator MILLER. On tha't I agree with you. But I think Ambassador
Roth expressed his unhappiness over the fact that this was the best
he could do, and he implied that he would have much preferred to
have the guaranteed access.
Now, do you think that on our side that `we were wrong in taking
a position that certain types of imports such as dairy, meats, mink
pelts, and the like, should be limited to a certain base percentage of
our domesic consumption, with the understanding that as our con-
sumption increases the percentage will stay stable, but the volume
within the percentage will go up?
Mr. GILBERT. Can I make an indirect answer to that question and the
one before? It seems to me-and I again repeat that I don't try to
pass off as an expert on anything agricultural-but it seems to me
that what we did export to Europe is a system of agricultural support
and controls which they have copied pretty well from ourselves, and
that as a citizen I would certainly wish that we didn't and weren't
committed `to this general approach of price supports and controls.
Once we do those internally, we have certainly got to have something
which parallels on the inside, or we `would be supporting the price of
these commodities all over the world. We let them come in with free-
dorn. But I think in effect that that is about what the EEC was doing
with its agricultural products. I wish we both would learn not to do it.
PAGENO="0222"
218 T~ FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Senator MuLBR. Yes. Your wish is shared by many people. But
you have to deal with the realities. And there has been some criticism
that because some of us have sought by legislation to do what I have
said with respect to diary and wheat imports, therefore we are vio-
lating that basic premise of American foreign trade policy, and that
this is very bad. I just wondered if you shared that view.
Mr. `GILBERT. I don't take the position that I think it is bad. Every-
one of these gives me a real feeling of alarm, not only because of its
effect specifically at home, but it seems to me every foolish thing we
do in this country is copied abroad very quickly. And `before long we
end up in a very complicated world that is more complicated than
need be.
Senator MILLER. I agree. But you beg the question when you say
more foolish. The President just recently issued an order rolling back
diary imports considerably. When you realize that diary imports
went up from 600 million pounds in 1960-61 to 900 million pounds in
1965, and 2,700 million pounds in 1966, to a. rate of 4 billion pounds at
the time the President issued the order. I am sure you wouldn't call
that a foolish move, would you?
Mr. GILBERT. No, I was not intentionally characterizing a specific
move.
Senator MILLER. With that type of a situation, do you think that
we are wrong in our approach to try to establish a reasonable base
period percentage, a.nd let these other countries share in that prce.nta.ge,
and thus share in our domestic consumption?
Mr. GILBERT. I think I would like to leave it that it ought to be a
great matter of c.oncern to us, and we ought to feel that we were com-
pelled to move in these directions `because I feel that we should be
very reluctant to move in those directions.
Senator MILLER. Thank you very much.
Chairman Bo~s. Thank you very much, Senator.
Gentlemen, we are very grateful to all of you for your fine discus-
sions. If any of you would care to comment on t.he question of future
negotiating methods that may be needed by the United States, either
by way of legislation, or whatever you may suggest, we would be
very happy to have those comments.
This subcommittee will meet tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock in
the same place, at which time we will have five members of the panel
whose names will `be incorporated in the record.
We will now stand adjourned.
(Whereupon, at 12 noon, the subcommittee adjourned to reconvene
at 10 a.m., Wednesday, July 19, 1967.)
PAGENO="0223"
THE FIJTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 1967
CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES,
SUBCOMMITTEE ON FOREIGN ECONOMIC POLICY,
JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEES
1Vashingt~on, D.C.
The subcommittee met at 10 a.m., pursuant to notice, in room 1202,
New Senate Office Building, Hon. Hale Boggs (chairman of the sub-
committee) presiding.
Present: Representative Boggs; and Senators Javits and Miller.
Also present: John R. Stark, executive director; John B. I-lender-
son, staff economist; and Donald A. Webster, minority staff economist.
Chairman BOGGS. The subcommittee will come to order.
Our witnesses for today's panel are Mr. William Diebold, Jr., of
the Council on Foreign Relations; Prof. Robert E. Baldwin, Univer-
sity of Wisconsin; Prof. Richard N. Cooper, Yale University; Prof.
John Pincus, the RAND Corp.; and Prof. Lawrence W. Witt, Michi-
gan State University.
We appreciate all of you gentlemen taking the time to come and
help the subcommittee. Other members of the committee will be along
shortly. We will get started.
Mr. Diebold, may we hear from you first?
STATEMENT OF WILLIAM DIEBOLD, flt., COUNCIL ON FOREIGN
RELATIONS
Mr. DIEBOLD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Success seems to me to bring problems rather than a surcease of
effort. The Kennedy Round is the culmination of a generation of
progress under American leadership to remove barriers to world trade.
If it and its predecessors had accomplished less, I think we would be
talking here today, as we did at intervals of 3 or 4 years over 30-odd
years, about the wisdom of giving the President the power to reduce
tariffs, and under what conditions. I think that remains a problem.
But it is only a part of the larger problem that we have to deal with.
I think trade policy is no longer solely, perhaps not even mainly, a
matter of tariff policy. It has broadened.
There are two kinds of problems we face now: Those that were left
relatively untouched by the Kennedy Round and those that were
opened up in new ways by the Kennedy Round, so that they can only
be dealt with by bringing into play matters which have ordinarily
not been thought of as being in the forefront of trade policy.
219
PAGENO="0224"
220 TI~ FUTURE O~ U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
The remaining tariffs on trade in manufactured goods among in-
dustrial countries fall into three categories. First, those that have
been substantially cut and, for the most part, are lower than they have
been in this century. We must ask ourselves: How important are these?
Can we conceivably ignore some of them, or is there some way of
clearing the ground by perhaps some kind of formula or acceptance
of a principle or rule for reducing these tariffs other than by another
Kennedy Round, which hardly seems called for at this point?
A second category of tariffs includes those which have been left
relatively untouched by the Kennedy Round precisely because it has
been difficult for one country. or many of them, to make cuts. And
there I think we face some of our hardest problems, which will require
new kinds of initiative, perhaps along the lines suggested by Eric
Wyndham White, the Director General of GATT of negotiation indus-
try by industry, looking not just to tariffs, but at a range of trade
barriers.
In the third category are tariffs which would have been cut if the
pattern of bargaining had been somewhat different, that is to say, a
country was prepared to cut them if it got an adequate concession in
return. I think there is not much to say about them except that they
are among the chips for the next round in the card game.
It is now generally accepted that as the tariffs have fallen away,
nontariff~ barriers have become more important than ever. They are
nothing new. We spent a lot of time at the end of the war working
on problems of quotas and the direct controls associated with exchange
controls.
But with those largely out of the way, I think we are now facing a
highly variegated array of restrictions of new kinds that do not fall
into easily understood patterns.
Negotiating about these will raise several problems. They are too
varied, in my opinion, to be covered by any kind of simple rule or com-
prehensive agreement of the sort that we have over the years evolved
to deal with tariffs and quotas. It may be that they are susceptible of
an approach that seeks to set up some sort of complaint procedure.
Certain of the barriers, either types or individual barriers, can prob-
ably be dealt with by agreements, and by establishing something like a
code of behavior or rules about them. However, carriers are of differing
importance for different countries, so that the logic of approaching
them barrier by barrier does not stand up too well to the realities of
negotiation and the need to bargain with whatever one has to bargain
with. Nor is it likely that negotiation about nontariff barriers can be
separated from negotiation about remaining tariffs. The complex pull
between the logic of separate treatment and the requirements of more
collective treatment will, I think, influence our approach to these
things, and have some bearing on where and how we try to deal with
them. For the United States I think there are additional problems, in
that the nontariff barriers do not fall under any simple legislative
arrangement, and the problem of how to negotiate, what kinds of
powers the President will have to have, will remain, I think, a trouble-
some one.
Not the least of the problems in negotiating about nontariff barriers
is a lack of agreement as to what, in fact, are barriers. Some are more
or less covert trade barriers and have that as their main objective. But
PAGENO="0225"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 221
there are others in which the trade barrier effect is incidental to the
pursuit of some other objective perhaps. Such a matter as health or
safety. We are now seeing international discussions about the auto-
mobile safety arrangements which have to be adopted in this country,
because they cause problems for foreign producers.
Price rules, and domestic business practice arrangements, all begin
to come into the picture. And so all manner of things are drawn into
what used to be simple trade negotiations about tariffs and quotas. Not
the least of the problems are those surrounding border taxes which
raise very complex issues and which are now, I think, only beginning
to be properly analyzed.
All this need for getting into new, more complex fields has been the
result of success in removing the traditional barriers to trade. And
oddly, in a field where there has been much less success, perhaps even
retrogression, that is, in agriculture, I find that a somewhat similar
conclusion is indicated.
Far more clearly than before we are now made to see that a large
part of the structure of trade barriers in agriculture, ours as well as
those of the rest of the world, derive from domestic agricultural poli-
cies. And therefore, if we want to do something about these barriers,
I think we have to be willing to talk internationally about the policies
themselves, about such matters as prices, production controls, surplus
disposal. There was a start on that in the Kennedy Round, but it failed
to come to a successful conclusion, in my opinion, with the exception
of the partial success in the grains agreement on surplus disposal.
Now, I do not suggest that it is easy for us or for any other country
to undertake this kind of a negotiation, to talk internationally about
things which are already difficult domestically. We may not be willing
or able, or others may not be, to carry on the negotiations on that basis.
In that case it looks as if we must accept the fact that we are facing an
impasse of the sort that we have lived with for 20 years or more, but
with the important difference that our exports, American exports, will
be more seriously affected this time than in the past.
Once again, the problem I mentioned in regard to nontariff barriers
arises. For in spite of the logic of treating agriculture separately, that
may not work because it is not of equal importance as a trade matter to
every country.
With regard to trade with less-developed countries, I think I shall
leave the intricacies to others, with perhaps one comment. There is
something of a paradox here. It seems to me that more novel ideas are
being discussed with regard to LDC trade, in such matters as prefer-
ences and commodity agreements than in the other fields where I have
said we need new approaches. And yet, in my opinion, some of this
discussion of novelties conceals a very old-fashioned and simple prob-
lem. And that is' the willingness of the developed countries to accept
competition from the less-developed ones. If they are not willing to
do that, then I think that any of the array of devices that are being
talked about will turn out to be rather disappointing to all concerned.
However, I do not exclude the possibility that precisely through the
discussion of such matters a.s preferences-which in my opiniOn should
have been treated as the second question, not the first-we might ar-
rive at the basic issue. That is to say, preferences may prove to be the
road to providing freer access.
~2-181-67-vo1. I-15
PAGENO="0226"
222 TI~ FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
With regard to East-\Yest trade, it seems to me that we are present-
ly in a situation in which we have very little flexibility and that we
have gained very little from imposing that loss of flexibility on our-
selves. If we are to undertake some change in our policies about East-
West trade, the pot.ential gains we should seek are less in commercial
or economic matters than in the ability to add trade to the things we
can negotiate about with the Communist countries. And this is a quite
different matter if one is talking about trade with the Soviet Tjnion
than it is with regard to the trade of the Eastern European countries.
And yet I think in its different way it is true of both cases. When we
are talking about East-West trade we must recognize frankly that
there are no proven satisfactory arrangements for organizing trade be-
tween state trading countries and market economies. But there are
some possibilities. I think that therefore we have to maintain an ex-
perimental attitude. And that means as a practical matter, to be able
to alter agreements over relatively short periods. I think we should
understand that such approaches as bringing more of the Communist
countries into GATT are not solutions to problems, but provide ways
of discussing the problems perhaps in a better framework than what
we have had before.
Now, in these remarks I have tended to break up the trade prob-
lem into several different ones, to speak of East-West trade, L~DC
trade, and trade among the industrialized colmtries separately. This
is right, and at the same time it is wrong. It is right because I thmk
the problems are somewhat different, and require somewhat different
approaches. What is wrong about it, a slightly more subtle point, is
that there is always a risk of losing sight of the fact that we are talk-
ing about a world trading system, not simply a series of pieces. Al-
ways in the postwar period, it has been an important part of American
trade policy that we have had a picture in mind of what kind of
world trading system we were working toward. There have been
exceptions that did not fit the picture. East-West trade is one, but
it has been a relatively minor thing. But I think we are now at a
period when the exceptions are decreasing. Japan, which was always
a special problem, still poses certain issues that do not arise other-
wise, but is very far along the road toward being a full member of
the trading system. It is true that we shall probably work out some-
thing with regard to the special problems of the less-developed coun-
tries which will make them exceptions to many rules. But I think we
shall find that we can no longer deal with a blanket concept of "less-
developed countries." We are going to have to look at the more de-
veloped and among the less-developed because they have quite dif-
ferent trading interests and require quite different trading arrange-
ments. That will make it important to have some concept of a road
along which developing countries might move as they become better
able to make their way in the world trading system.
I think, finally, that the definition, or the depiction, of the world
trading system we want cannot probably, be very different from what
it has been. It is a system in which there is a means of reducing trade
barriers, and m which the basic objective is equal treatment in inter-
national trade. This may seem banal. I think it is not so when we
recall that conception of this objective has been somewhat blurred
PAGENO="0227"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 223.
or even absent from many discussions in recent years. Many argu-
ments are being made and forces are at work to reduce the scope
for equal treatment. Often, I think, people respond to these ideas and
pressures without adequate attention to what the alernatives are, or
the position this country would be in the kind of trading world we
would have if we abandoned equal treatment.
This may seem an old-fashioned sentiment. But I am glad to stand
on it, provided you remember, from what I said at the beginning,
that the content of trade policy is going to be quite different in the
next 10 years from what it has been in the last 30.
Thank you.
Chairman BOGGS. Thank you very much, Mr. Diebold.
Professor Baldwin?
STATEMENT OP ROBERT B. BALDWIN, PROPESSOR OP ECONOMICS,.
UNIVERSITY OP WISCONSIN
Mr. BALDWIN. The first section of my paper consists of a very brief
survey of previous trade negotiations. Since this is backgroundmate-
rial that you are already familiar with, I shall skip over this part
and summarize my main points concerning certain key problems that
I think must be handled more adequately in the future than has been
done in previous negotiations. .
We are now at the point in our tariff-cutting negotiations where
most of the tariff protection that was largely superfluous, has been
eliminated. Increasingly, we have moved into sectors where significant
resource-reallocation effects are produced by tariff cuts. If this remain-
ing hard core of protection is to be reduced significantly at least three
important problems should receive more attention than in the past:
(1) We must achieve a better balance of consumer and producer
interests in economically vulnerable industries.
(2) We must devote greater efforts to the reduction of nontariff
barriers.
(3) We must make the negotiating process more effective in achiev-
ing its goal of trade liberalization and expansion.
With regard to the first point-a better balancing of. cOnsumer and
producer interests-I would urge that the Congress liberalize the
adjustment assistance provisions of the Trade Expansion Act. There
is only one way whereby consumers can obtain the benefits of lower
prices that tariff cuts bring, and yet whereby workers in certain
economically vulnerable industries will not suffer a deep and long-
lasting reduction in their incomes. This is by a substantial adjustment
assistance program that really tries to retrain and relocate workers
and employers who have lost their jobs through no fault of their
own. The "escape clause" portion of the act, incidentally, should not
be changed, I think. This action should only be used in exceptional
cases. .
There is more and more interest here and abroad in trying to
harmonize and reduce the many nontariff barriers that restrict world
trade. These include such measures as (1) quantitative restrictions;
(2) Government procurement policies; (3) customs valuation prac-
tices; (4) border tax adjustments; (5) regulations covering such mat-
PAGENO="0228"
224 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
ters as safety and health conditions; (6) Government subsidies to
domestic industries; and (7) monopolistic practices in the private
sector.
There are great opportimities for U.S. export expansion if foreign
nontariff barriers can be reduced. The United States also has erected
~ertain restrictive nontariff barriers. However, most of our barriers
are represented by clear-cut laws and well-known public regulations.
In many foreign countries, on the other hand, informal adniinistra-
tive devices are used to thwart the attempts of U.S. businessmen to sell
abroad. It is important to bring these measures out into the open and
establish clear-cut rules that do not discriminate against foreigners
in cases where the national interest is not involved.
It will take many years to reduce these barriers, but we should start
soon to undertake the time-consuming, technical analysis that will be
necessary to achieve a significant reduction of these barriers.
My first point concerns improvements in the negotiating process.
First, we must greatly improve the level of economic analysis sup-
porting our negotiators. The steps outlined in the Trade Expansion
Act for assessing the economic effects of tariff cuts in various indus-
tries as well as the possibilities for export expansion look impressive
on paper. But the size and level of competency of the staffs of the
various departments and agencies involved in this work is quite in-
adequate for the job. I suggest that the Congress provide a small
amount of funds annually for the purpose of undertaking economic
studies designed to determine the ability of workers and employers in
various industries to adjust to increased import competition. These
studies should be undertaken by economists both within and outside
of the Government. We should immediately, for example, set up a
study that will trace the economic effects of the Kennedy Round cuts
as they take place. From this we can get a. much better idea of the
possible effects of future cuts than we have ever had.
With respect to the nature of the negotiations themselves, I would
suggest that the negotiators adopt a less rigid view of the concept of
"reciprocity" than is often used and that in the future we do not
tie ourselves to any one tariff-cutting technique. Flexibility is essen-
tial for tariff-cutting negotiations.
A number of highly competent observers interpret our recent tariff-
cutting experience as requiring radical changes in our approach to
worldwide trade liberalization. Some of them suggest the formation
of free trade blocs between the United States and various other indus-
trial nations. Others propose the abandonment of the most-favored-
nations principle in our tariff-cutting policies. While these various
proposals have points in their favor, the merits of proceeding along
the same general lines as in the last six GATT negotiations to inc seem
greater, especially if the goal is the economic one of lowering artificial
impediments to world trade. .
There is still much to be done in reducmg the trade-inhibiting
effects of nontariff barriers. This will be a very difficult task but there
is some evidence to suggest that at least the major industrial countries
are willing to proceed toward a harmonization and reduction of some
of these barriers. With an effective adjustment assistance program
together with an adequate background of economic analysis, a less
PAGENO="0229"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 225
rigid view of the reciprocity concept, and a more flexible negotiating
approach there is also still much that can be accomplished in the tariff
field. We will be hampered by the unwillingness of some countries to
reduce their barriers as far as we are prepared to do. But what can be
accomplished by a flexible approach to tariff-cutting seems signifi-
cantly preferable to the longrun economic and political risks involved
in regional.ization and tariff discrimination. Thus, it is not too early to
begin to plan for a seventh round of GATT negotiations aimed pri-
marily at the non-tariff-barrier problem and at expanding trade be-
tween developed and less-developed countries, but also designed to
achieve further moderate cuts in duties among industrial countries.
Chairman BOGGS. Thank you very much, Professor Baldwin.
Professor Cooper, may we hear from you?
STATEMENT OP RICHARD N. COOPER, PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS,
YALE UNIVERSITY
Mr. COOPER. Mr. Chairinan~, members of the subcommittee, I think
it is fair to say that most people are pleased with the outcome of the
Kennedy Round. There were some black moments when it looked as
though little or nothing might come of it, and that would have marked
a severe setback to all those who favor a liberal trading policy. I do
not like to tarnish the luster of success, but it is worth pointing out
that the actual results of the Kennedy Round do not in some respects
mark such a sharp departure from the past which we had been led to
expect. It is true that tariff cuts amounted to something like 30 percent
on $15 to $16 billion of U.S. trade (taking imports and exports to-
gether, and agricultural as well as industrial goods). But these tariff
cuts are to be spread over 4 years, and they stem from negotiations
which took nearly 5 years. If allowance is made for the very long time
over which these cuts should be averaged, the Kennedy Round was only
about 45 percent better than the Dillon Round, which was widely re-
garded as amounting to next to nothing. Moreover, some of the cuts in
the Kennedy Round do much less in the way of reducing protection
than they appear to, since at least in the textile and metals industries,
tariffs on raw materials were often reduced substantially more than
tariffs on fabricated products.
To focus on these blemishes, however, would be to do the Kennedy
Round an injustice The number of commodities covered was far
greater than in the Dillon Round. Moreover, the Kennedy Round pre-
served the forward momentum of trade liberalization. The proper
comparison is not with things as they were, but with things as they
otherwise would have been. That is a comparison which we can never
make with assurance, but I strongly suspect that "no change" is not
a stable situation, that without some movement toward trade liberal-
ization there would be some movement away from it. Protectionist
sentiment is always present in all countries, and without some counter-
force it is likely to have its sway.
Furthermore, the Kennedy Round did make a mOdest start-but it
is only a start-toward reducing nontariff barriers to trade, especially
if Congress eliminates the American selling price method of valua-
tion.
PAGENO="0230"
226 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
But where do we go from here? I see three possible directions.
First, another broad-coverage negotiation, like the Kennedy Round
but with more emphasis on nontariff barriers.
Second, a stalemate in trade liberalization among developed coun-
tries, but a cooperative move toward general tariff preferences given
by all developed countries to all less-developed countries.
Third, piecemeal trade liberalization involving discrimination both
among countries and among industry sectors. Examples of this piece-
meal liberalization are already at hand in the trade agreement,
between Nigeria and the EEC, in the United States-Canadian auto
agreement, and in the Long-Term Textile Agreement-the last also
having restrictive features.
Let~ne say a little about what each of these directions might look
like.
The Kennedy Round negotiations were long and wearing. I am sure
none of the participants welcome the thought of another Kennedy
Round at this time. However, the Kennedy Round faced two hurdles
which will not plague such a negotiation in the future. It was the first
attempt at an across-the-board negotiation, and new ground rules had
to be worked out with respect to what constituted a "bargain." Sec-
ond. the EEC was being tested for the first time as a negotiating unit,
and there were many problems of internal bargaining which had to
be worked out. This process was complicated by the insistence of the
United States on including agriculture in the Kennedy Round, an area
of sharp differences within the EEC and requiring delicate com-
promise there.
The formative stage on both of these difficulties is now past, and I
suspect another Kennedy Round beginning several years from now
would go much more smoothly. One tempting approach, in fact, would
to be to divide such a negotiation into two parts, the first being a
straightforward replication of the Kennedy Round tariff cuts. This
would use to good effect the great study and effort already invested
in the Kennedy Round just over. The hard negotiations could thus
concentrate on those items which escaped deep cuts in the Kennedy
Round, and on nontariff barriers.
Generalized trade preferences for less-developed countries is a pro-
posal arising out of complaints in UNCTAD concerning exporting
difficulties and problems of market access to the developed countries.
Several variants of this have been thoroughly discussed by a group
of experts in the OECD. There seems to be much more sympathy now
for this idea-and even for trade preferences given on a regional
basis-than there would have been in the United States 10 or even 5
years ago. In part this sympathy arises from increasing dispair about
the ability of foreign aid to accomplish the job of development; partly
because the linkages between aid and development seem to be far
looser than was once thought; and partly because national parliaments
are increasingly reluctant to appropriate the volume of aid funds
thought to be necessary. It is natural to think of growth through
exports.
The idea is given further force by recent analysis concerning "ef-
fective protection," which argues that fabricating and processing in-
dustries can be and often are fully protected by relatively low tariffs
combined with duty-free entry of raw materials. A tariff structure
PAGENO="0231"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 227
rising with the degree of fabrication tends to locate processing in-
dustries near markets rather than near sources of raw materials,
thereby depriving the raw material exporting countries of an im-
portant and natural entry into manufacturing.
Despite the appealing characteristics of generalized preferences, this
course has a number of weaknesses which should not be overlooked.
First, generalized preferences will be extremely diffuse in their ef-
fects. Few countries can expect a sudden surge in demand for their
exports as a result of them. No doubt they would provide a fillip to
development in some areas, both by providing demand and by gen-
erating foreign exchange, but there is no panacea for development
here.
Second, the advanced less-developed countries are likely to benefit
much more than the less advanced less-developed countries. The
former will be in a better position to take advantage of the oppor-
tunity provided by preferences.
Furthermore, this advantage will come partly and in some cases
largely at the expense of the less advanced developed countries who
do not get the preferences. But what rationale can there be for giving
Argentine goods preferences over Japanese goods, or Mexican goods
over Argentine goods, or Columbian goods over Mexican goods?
Third, the existence of large preferential areas would create a seri-
ous impediment to future, liberalization of trade, since those enjoying
the preferences would have a strong vested interest in retaining high
trade barriers among other countries. This phenomenon has already
been observed in the Kennedy round, where certain concessions were
made difficult by a desire to preserve existing degrees of preference
with the EEC.
*Fourth, as with foreign aid, there is no guarantee that development
will follow the opening of preferential markets or that it will be in
the right places. Some less-developed countries will benefit, and some
individuals within those less-developed countries will benefit; but they
may riot be the most important countries from the viewpoint of the
U.S. interest in economic development, and they may not be the right
individuals for fostering development.
What experience we have had to date does not give great encourage-
ment with respect to the development gains from preferential mar-
kets. I speak tentatively here, since more careful study needs to be
made of experience to date, but my impression is that the Common-
wealth preference system can provide illustrations of almost every case
possible-rapid growth with preferences in the British market, rapid
growth without important preferences in the British market, stagna-
tion with preferences in the British market. The former French terri-
tories have not "taken off" into economic growth despite years of
preferential access to the French market and more recently to the en-
tire EEC. I have described this process, and some current parallels
from the international scene, in an article in the Yale Law Review,
which I will be willing to submit for the record, Mr. Chairman, if you
wish.
Chairman Bocos. We would be happy to make it part of the record,
Mr. Cooper; without objection.
(The article submitted by Mr. Cooper appears on p. 231, following
his statement.)
PAGENO="0232"
228 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Mr. COOPER. Finally, the United States has given preferential access
to Philippine goods since the 1920's. The preferences were mutual in
the interwar period, so Philippine manufacturing was subject to stiff
U.S. competition in manufactured goods. Since the war, however, the
Philippines has imposed duties on American goods. Manufacturing
in that country has grown apace, but it has been import-substituting
manufacturing, protected by Philippine tariffs, not manufacturing for
export. Apparently preferential access to the large U.S. market was
not enough; other factors such as supply limitations, inadequate qual-
ity control, and marketing difficulties have been more important. It
is true, however, that the Philippines engages in some important
processing industries notably the production of coconut oil and other
coconut products.
The structure of tariffs in the developed countries undoubtedly does
impede industrialization in the less-developed countries. Preferential
tariff arrangements would help correct this, as the U.S. arrangement
does for the Philippines. But preferences are not necessary to do so.
Multilateral, nondiscriminatory tariff reductions would also correct
this, and could even be geared to reducing the tariffs on highly
fabricated products somewhat more than tariffs on semi-fabricated
products or raw materials.
I might add, parenthetically, that it is possible that the influence of
tariff structures on industrial location, which I do think is an~mportant
point, is becoming overemphasized, since the effects on location of the
tariff structure in advanced countries are in some instances offset by
the commercial policies of the less-developed countries, which often
levy export taxes on raw materials. Calculation of the net effect of all
commercial policies in developed and less-developed countries alike
still awaits careful research.
To sum up, preferential access to developed markets, while possibly
helpful in some cases, is neither necessary nor sufficient for economic
development. And it would have some positively harmful effects.
The third possible direction I mentioned is piecemeal trade liberal-
ization. That would be far less systematic than generalized preferences.
As an economist, I do not like this approach, because industrially and
geographically limited preference arrangements are likely to appear
here and there, helter-skelter, and the overall economic effect of these
arrangements will be unclear. There will be too much tendency to
focus on the narrow, "obvious" benefits from any such arrangement
and to neglect the overall consequences, including indirect effects. In
some cases there would be real benefit, and in others there would be
real harm, and it would be difficult to sort them out clearly.
I can perhaps give a hypothetical example to illustrate this. Take
the case of free trade in automobile parts between the United States
and Canada. Suppose the United States has a tariff on certain key
raw materials that go into automobile parts. whereas Canada does not.
The free trade arrangement between the United States and Canada,
limited to auto parts, may result in Canada producing the parts and
exporting them to the United States even though the United States
is really the lower cost source of supply at free trade prices.
This kind of outcome, I think, is much more likely than is usually
allowed for, and it makes analysis of the total effects of any limited
PAGENO="0233"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 229
trading arrangements very difficult. Moreover, effective geographical
discrimination is notoriously difficult to administer.
But the more powerful objection to piecemeal trade liberalization
rests on political grounds, not economic ones. It would reintroduce
into international politics a sharply divisive element-trading privi-
leges. Adherenece to the most-favored-nation principle has served to
a considerable extent to insulate international trade from other di-
mensions of international politics. Abandonment of MFN would open
up the possibility-indeed the likelihood-of exchanging trade favors
for other favors. In the end our economic objectives could be badly
maimed in the process.
It is worth recalling that the economic gain from a system of
bilateral and piecemeal preference arrangements is likely to be il-
lusory. In an international trading community in which preferences
are generally ruled out, one country may gain by negotiating preferred
access to major markets. Individual cases for preferential arrange-
ments can perhaps even be justified. But once all countries move in
this direction, the gains are eroded and all countries may end up being
worse off than without any preferences, for while each country finds
itself in a preferred position in certain markets, it is discriminated*
against in others; what it gains in one area it may lose in another. In
addition, the advanced countries limit unduly their sources of supply,
to their own detriment but without any necessary or corresponding
gain to the less developed countries.
To sum up, I have an undisguised preference for the first of the
three alternative courses of action which I see before us, a repetition
of the Kennedy Round type of negotiation. Generalized preferences
would be preferable to piecemeal trade liberalization. But as I noted,
generalized preferences are neither necessary nor sufficient for eco-
nomic development, nor indeed even to induce a healthy growth in
manufacturing output in the less-developed countries.
A general commitment to freer trade among developed countries
would also benefit less developed countries, especially by improving
tariff structures; and temporary preferences could be established by
giving tariff cuts at once to the less developed countries. This would
conform with the infant industry arguments used to justify protec-
tion in less-developed countries. Preferential access to markets would
be given, but it would automatically fade out over a period of, say 10
to 15 years, while the general tariff cuts come into effect. During this
time industries could be established. Even this arrangement, however,
would benefit most the most developed of those qualifying for the
preferences.
Before closing, I would like to touch on one further aspect of post-
Kennedy Round trade liberalization. Extensive liberalization would
have important consequences for the regulatory, tax, and balance-of-
payments policies of governments. Tariff reductions are not the only
factor having such consequences. Reductions in transportation costs
such as have been occurring over the past two decades and reductions
in nontariff barriers also contribute to a general "loosening" of trade,
making production less dependent on proximity to market. These de-
velopments allow business firms to locate more freely according to
their economic interests, without regard to tariffs and other trade
PAGENO="0234"
230 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
barriers. This is good. But location may also be influenced by a desire
to escape certain national regulations or tax provisions offensive to
the firm. Firms can more readily locate "abroad" and export to the
nations with the stiff taxes or regulations.
This process can be seen very clearly within the United States in
the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when State regulation of cor-
porate enterprise virtually collapsed because of the freedom of trade
and the constitutional obligation to honor contracts made in other
States. The ultimate solution, adopted in 1933, was to transfer regu-
latory responsibility to the Federal level; in a similar vein, further
trade liberalization will imply a need to cooperate increasingly closely
with other countries on such matters concerning business taxation and
regulation.
But I would like here to focus on the balance-of-payments issues.
There are two sides to this question. First, tariff changes have poten-
tial balance-of-payments effects, and the larger and more sweeping the
tariff change, the larger will be the likely balance-of-payments effect.
One role of "reciprocity" in tariff negotiations, for having a roughly
balanced package of tariff reductions between countries, is that it
provides a rough method for neutralizing these balance-of-payments
effects and thereby insulates moves to reduce protectionism from a
desire to protect the value of the national currency.
The other side of this coin is that tariffs or their equivalent could
be used as a measure to help eliminate imbalances in payments. At
present that G-ATT permits derogations from its rules for balance-of-
payments reasons, and in particular article XII permits the use of
trade restrictions by a country in balance-of-payments deficit. The
permitted restrictions cover only restrictions on the quantity or value
of trade; they apparently do not include special surcharges on im-
ports. Yet both from an economic point of view and from an admin-
istrative point of view there is good reason to prefer surcharges over
quantitative restrictions. Surcharges permit highly profitable trade
to continue; they permit new entry; they do not require favoring some
importers or foreign exporters over others; they yield revenue, and
thereby help to damp domestic demand, which in many instances of
balance-of-payments deficit is desirable. They can be imposed uni-
fornily over a wide range of goods, and thereby have a minimum im
pact on the structure of tariffs and hence on the degree of protection-
ism. By the same token, downward tariff adjustments could be made
by countries in surplus, also in the interests of better balance of pay-
ments equilibrium.
At present the conventions regarding reciprocity in trade negotia-
tions militate against the unilateral reduction of tariffs even when a
country acknowledges that would be in its best interests. Countries fear
that they would be weakening their "bargaining position" in future
tariff negotiations. Similarly, raising tarffs for balance-of-payments
reasons leaves trade partners feeling that they have been cheated. It
is ironic that measures taken to depress the domestic demand for bal-
ance-of-payments reasons-measures which may have much the same
effect on imports from trading partners-do not give rise to such com-
plaints, even though in economic terms they may be far more costly to
all the parties concerned.
PAGENO="0235"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
231
Despite the pressures against the use of tariffs for balance-of-pay-
ments reasons, there have been a few occasions on which they have
been used. Germany in 1957 reduced its tariffs very substantially in
order to help stabilize the domestic economy and reduce a payments
surplus; and France made modest reductions in tariffs in 1963 for simi-
lar reasons. On the other side, Canada imposed tariff surcharges in
1962, and Britain did so in 1964, although both moves came under ex-
treme criticism and the surcharges were short lived.
Restrictions on imports are obviously suitable only if the balance-
of -payments deficit is not expected to last. If it is, the currency should
be devalued. But if the deficit is expected to be temporary, it would
be preferable to finance it, and this is where the link comes between
trade policy and international monetary reform. In the absence, of
effective monetary reform, countries may not have adequate financing
at their disposal to cover temporary payments deficits, and there will
be occasions when temporary restrictions on imports are preferable
to alternative courses of action, including the quantitative restrictions
now permitted under the GATT.
Rules would have to be developed to prevent abuse of the privilege
to impose surcharges for balance-of-payments reasons. Widespread
coverage and uniform rates would be necessary to avoid charges of
protecting particular industries. It is the currency here which the sur~
charges are designed to protect and not particular industries.
One way to overcome the feared loss of bargaining power would be
to permit countries to time multilateral tariff reductions to corre-
spond to balance-of-payments requirements. Thus, countries in sur-
plus could be asked to reduce their tariffs more rapidly than countries
in deficit, although all countries would be committed to ultimate re-
duction. This is how trade liberalization proceeded in Europe during
the 1950's.
I raise these relationships between trade policy and balance-of -pay-
ments policy not with any firm view as to what is the best course of
action, but with the hope of generating some discussion of two issues
which, for the most part, have been kept quite separate.~
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman BOGGS. Thank you very much, Mr. Cooper.
(The article referred to by Mr. Cooper on p. 227, follows:)
NATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY IN AN INTERDEPENDENT WORLD
ECONOMY *
By RICHARD N. COOPER t
During the past decade there has been a strong trend toward economic inter-
dependence among the industrial countries. This growing interdependence makes
the successful pursuit of national economic objectives much more difficult.
Broadly speaking, increasing interdependence complicates the successful pur-
suit of national economic objectives in three ways. First, it increases the num-
ber and magnitude of the disturbances to which each country's balance of pay-
5Reprinted from Yale Law Journal, vol. 76, No. 7, June 1967.
f Professor of Economics, Yale University. A. B. 1956, Oberlin College, Ph. D. 1962 Har-
vard University.
A more complete exposition of the argument of this article is to be published in a book
tentatively titled "The Economics of Interdependence: National Economic Economic Policy
in the Atlantic Community," by McGraw-Hill Co. for the Council on Foreign Relations.
"Several paragraphs of this paper were included in a talk given at the Unlversity~ of
Michigan and subsequently published in The Economic Outlook for 1965. I am grateful for
permission to reprint them here."
I am grateful to Mr. Leonard Chazen for research assistance.
PAGENO="0236"
232 THE FIJTLTRE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
ments is subjected, and this in turn diverts policy attention and instruments of
policy to the restoration of external balance. Second, it slows down the process
by which national authorities, each acting on its own, are able to reach domestic
objectives. Third, the response to greater integration can involve the community
of nations in counter-acting motions which leave all countries worse off than
they need be. These difficulties are in turn complicated by the fact that the
objectives of greater economic integration involves international agreements
which reduce the number of policy instruments available to national authori-
ties for pursuit of their economic objectives. This article touches on all of these
facets of higher economic interdependence among industrial nations, both as
fact and as objective, but its principal focus is on the third complication-the
process of mutually damaging competition among national policies.
There can be little doubt about the great growth in international economic
interdependence over the last two decades. Import quotas in industrial countries
have been virtually abolished on trade in manufactured products, tariffs have
been reduced, and transportation costs have fallen relative to the value of goods.
At the same time, the accumulation of capital and the spread of technology
have made national economies more similar in their basic characteristics of
production; comparative cost differences have apparently narrowed, suggesting
that imports can be replaced by domestic production with less loss in national
income than heretofore. Whether a country imports a particular good or exports
it thus becomes less dependent on the basic characteristics of the economy, more
dependent on historical development and on relatively accidental and transistory
features of recent investment decisions at home and abroad. An invention in one
country may lead to production there for export, but the new product will
relatively quickly be produced abroad-or supplanted by a still newer product-
and possibly even exported to the original innovating country.
Monetary disturbances, too, are likely to be much more quickly translated into
changes in the volume of exports and imports than they were formerly. Under
fixed exchange rates, greater than average monetary inflation in one country
will invite a more rapid deterioration in the balance on goods and services than
was true in the past.
Enlargement of the decision-making domain of the world's great producing
firms results in the rapid movement of capital and technical knowledge across
national frontiers, thereby contributing to the narrowing of comparative cost
differences; but their activity will also quicken the speed with which trade ad-
justs to new sales opportunities because they have direct knowledge of foreign
markets and access to distribution channels.'
Finally, as financial markets become more closely integrated, relatively small
differences in yields on securities will induce large flows of funds between coun-
tries. Banks will increasingly number "foreign" firms among their prime cus-
tomers: the advantages of inexpensive credit to firms in countries with ample
savings and well-functioning financial markets, such as the United States, will
he shared increasingly with firms elsewhere.
All of these changes in the characteristics of the international economy dur-
ing the past decade-and it should he emphasized that economic interration is
still far from complete-are crucial to the functioning of the international pay-
ments system and the autonomy which it permits to national economic policy
formation. These changes mean that in normal periods prospective imbalances in
international payments-imbalances which would arise if countries did not re-
snond to reduce them or did not adjust policy measures to forestall them-are
likely to be more frequent and of larger amplitude than they have been in the
past. "Disturbances" arising from new innovations, from generous wage settle-
ments leading to price increases, amid from excess or deficient domestic demand
will affect the balance of payments more perceptibly. Whether or not imbalances
also last lonrer depends upon the relationship among the "disturbances ~" if
they are well distributed among countries and tend equally toward deficit or
surnius. the duration of prospective imbalances may well be less than in the
p~f: otherwise it maybe longer.
These chanres sugge~f that balance of payments difficulties are likely to be
mnre common in the future, and that they will worsen as the structural changes
continue in their recent trend. By the same token, however, correction of im-
1 A quick response assumes the absence of collusive agreements on price, market-sharing,
nrnl the like.
PAGENO="0237"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 233
balances in international payments shoiild be easier in the future. Trade flows
will respond more sharply to given small "disturbances ;" but they should also
respond more quickly to policy measures designed to influence them. If a small
relative increase in the price level will lead a national economy into greater bal-
ance of payments difficulties than heretofore, a relatively small decrease should
undo the difficulties. Similarly, international capital flows will respond more
rapidly to small differences in national credit conditions; but small differences
in national credit conditions directed to correcting tIme imbalance can induce
equilibrating flows of capital. Thus if the national authorities can recognize
disturbances early, are willing to use some of the tools at their disposal for cor-
recting imbalances in international payments, and act reasonably quickly in do-
ing so, then the increased sensitivity of international payments to various dis-
turbances need cause no undue difficulty-provided that policy instruments are
properly chosen and adequately coordinated among countries.
INTERDEPENDENCE BEFoRE 1914
There is a natural inclination to compare the international economy today,
especially under the claim that it is becoming more integrated, with the inter-
national economy before 1914, when, it is often said, the world was highly
"integrated" economically. In the four decades before World War I most of
the major countries were on the gold standard (implying fixed exchange rates)
most of the time, capital was free to move into or out of most countries, trade was
impeded only by comparatively moderate tariffs and quotas were generally
absent. Even labor was generally free to migrate from country to country with-
out visas, security checks, and immigration quotas.
In one important sense, however, the comparison is not at all apt. Today na-
tional governments are much more ambitious about the objectives of national
economic policy than they were in the 19th century. Governments have taken on
the responsibility for assuring high levels of employment and, increasingly, a
rapid rate of growth; and they attempt actively to influence the allocation of re-
sources and the distribution of income to a much greater degree. These new
tasks place greater burdens on the available instruments of policy. Before 1914,
by contrast, preoccupation with "defending the currency" was dominant, and the
(admittedly more limited) policy instruments at hand were more willingly de-
voted largely toward that end. Thus the intrusions of international economic
integration on national economic policy was more readily accepted because na-
tional economic policy was far less ambitious in its aims.
In addition to this important difference, economic relations among industrial
countries are probably potentially much closer today than they were even before
1914, despite the characteristics of the pre-1914 world noted above. True, British
and French capital moved overseas readily and British investors built railroads
around the world. The proportion of Britain's annual savings which went abroad
was staggering by modern standards.2 Nonetheless, communications were far
less perfect than they are today and foreign investors ran far greater com-
mercial risks arising from imperfect knowledge (except in the case of colonial
bonds which in effect bad the sponsorship of the home government).
Despite the freedom of capital to move, it did not in fact move in sufficient
volume to erase differences even in short-term interest rates. Over the period
1876-1914 short-term interest rates in New York averaged more than one per-
centage point higher than corresponding rates in London and there was only
a weak correspondence in movement between short-term rates in the two finan-
cial centers. Short-term interest rates in London and Paris were much closer
together and the correspondence in their movement was higher but still far
from perfect.3 Long-term rates showed similar divergence in their levels and
2 ALEXANDER CAIRNCROSS, Rolls AND FOREIGN INVESTMENT, 1870-1913, 104-06 (1953)
estimates that in 1907 no less than 40 percent of British national saving went to foreign
investment.
See 0. MORGENSTERN, INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS AND BUSINESS CYCLES
(1959) for an exhaustive study of Interest rate movements In the 19th century. The corre-
lation coefficient between monthly averages of the commercial paper rate in New York and
the open market discount rate in London was only + .45; the correlation between open
market discount rates in London and Paris was +67. Simple correlations of short-term
interest rates In New York, London, Paris, and Berlin can be found In Id. at 109.
PAGENO="0238"
234 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
movement. Response to new investment opportunities was often slow when it
came at all.4
While tariffs were generally low, barriers to trade in the form of transporta-
tion costs were very substantial, although they declined sharply after the intro-
duction of the ocean steampship. Large differences in comparative costs meant
trade was socially very profitable, but the composition and level of trade was
correspondingly less sensitive to small changes in costs, prices, and quality.
Finally, business organizations, far from being international, became truly na-
tional corporations in the United States only as World War I approached,
and the process was even slower in many European countries.
Thus the alleged integration of the pre-1914 world economy was something
of an illusion. While the pre-1914 world was "integrated" in the sense that
government-imposed barriers to the movement of goods, capital and people
were minimal,5 those imposed by nature were much greater and economic inte-
gration was not high in the sense used here-quick responsiveness to differential
earning opportunities.
Countries today are gradually entering a new environment, not merely return-
ing to a state which had once existed. And they confront new problems arising
from the combination of more ambitious national and international economic
objectives and a higher degree of economic interdependence than has ever existed
before. How, in this world, are they to maintain international equilibrium under
a regime of fixed exchange rates and at the same time achieve their national
objectives? It is now necessary to specify more precisely how conflicts may
arise and to indicate some of the ways in which governments have responded
to these conflicts.
EcoNoMIC OBJECTIVES AND POLmY INSTRUMENTS
A well-known proposition in the theory of economic policy requires that the
number of policy instruments be at least as great as the number of objectives
(target variables) if all objectives are to be achieved.6 If the number of instru-
ments is fewer than the number of targets, it will not be possible to reach all
of the targets; in the case at least some targets must be given up, and the
authorities mustchoose among them.7
A simple example can illustrate the need to have at least as many instruments
as targets. Suppose the government of an isolated country has two economic
objectives; it would ilke to assure full employment of its labor force at all times,
and it would like its national product to grow at a specified rate each year.
It can vary the overall size of. the budget deficit or surplus (fiscal policy) to
assure full employment. But full employment of resources can be met with a
variety of combinations of investment, consumption, and government expendi-
Morgenstern considers it "remarkable" that such permanent differences could be main-
tained for hundreds of months; "the interaction of all these highly organized money and
capital markets and the vast flows of funds back and forth was not strong enough to over-
come fundamental Institutional and risk differences." Id. at 470.
5 Is the definition used In B. BELASSA, TEE THEORY OF Ecooarrc INTEGRATION
(1961).
6 A useful framework for the discussion of economic policy has been provided by the
Dutch economist, Jan Tinbergen. He draws a distinction between three types of economic
variables: target variables, instrument variables, and data. Target variables are those to
the values of which we attach some social importance per se, e.g., unemployment or the
growth in per capita income. Instrument variables, or policy, instruments, are those which
the public authorities caa manipulate directly in order to influence the target variables.
Data are other economic variables which influence the target variables. If an economy
starts from a position' "on target"; `that is, with all `of its target variables where the au-
thoritles want them, then changes In the data are "disturbances" and call for some adjust-
`ment In the policy instruments in order to restore the desired? values of the target variables.
Eec J. TINBERGEN, ON THE THEORY OF ECONOMIC POLICY (19~52.):; J. TINBERGEN, Economic
Policy: Principles and Design (1956).
In general, It will be desirable to have more instruments than there are targets. This
is especially true where the relationships between instruments and targets are not well-
known. More often than not, policy-makers are quite confident about the direction in which
a given change in a policy instrument will affect the target variables, but they are not at
`all confident about the extent of the influenca. This may be due to simple ignorance with
fairly stable structural relationships, or it may be due to a rapid change in the structure
of the economy.
In the presence of this uncertainty, It is desirable to have as many~ policy Instruments
`as possible. None of them will be superfluous, for all can help to keep the target variables
`as close as possible to their targets. Each instrument variable should be used In proportion
`to the confidence held in its relationship to the target variables. For a formal analysis of
this problem. see Brainard. Uncertainty and the Effectiveness of Economic Policy, 57
AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW (May 1967).
PAGENO="0239"
TIlE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 235
ture. Without some other instrument, the desired growth rate cannot be assured.
If, however, investment leads to more growth, then monetary policy and fiscal
policy together can be manipulated to achieve the two objectives. The higher
the growth rate desired, the lower should be the rate of interest. Fiscal policy
can then be adjusted to assure full employment. This very simple model appa-
rently influenced thinking in the early years of the Kennedy Administration.
Viewing economic policy as a problem in specifying targets and finding suf-
ficient instruments to reach them helps to illuminate many policy problems con-
fronting national authorities. The objective of greater economic integration has
lead many officials to reject both flexible exchange rates and frequent variations
in fixed exchange rates as an instrument for maintaining balance of payments
equilibrium. A number of other instruments of policy have been ruled out by
international agreement on the same grounds, or to avoid a round of retaliation
and counter-retaliation that would leave all countries worse off than they were
at the outset. Most types of export subsidies, tariff discrimination among coun-
tries, increases in tariffs, and discriminatory exchange regulations fall into this
category. A number of provisions of the General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade (GATT) are devoted to these exclusions and prohibitions; with specified
exceptions, such as the formation of customs unions or free trade areas, trade
discrimination is proscribed.8 So are many types of export subsidies and dis-
crimination in domestic taxation between home and foreign goods. The Articles
of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund make similar prohibitions
with respect to currency arrangements. The extensive use of these measures in
the past, especially in the 1930's, led to widespread retaliation and mutual
recriminations, and they acquired a bad name among outward-looking officials.
But the price of international rules of good behavior as set forth in the GATT
and the IMF Articles has been a reduction in the range of instruments available
to national policy-makers.9
Some usable policy instruments may be used, as a practical matter, only
within a limited range. In the United States changes in the discount rate of
the Federal Reserve System and (since 1962) deliberate deficits or surpluses in
the government budget are both regarded as legitimate tools of economic policy;
but in normal times the public is not likely to countenance a discount rate of 20
percent or a budget deficit of $50 billion. These exceed the range of acceptability;
policy instruments have "boundary conditions." In the abnormal situations when
such limits become operative, they withdraw an instrument from use. Some-
times these limits are not fully known until they are tested; then we discover
that we have more targets (or fewer `instruments) than were previously
apparent.
It goes without saying that to be attainable economic objectives must be con-
sistent. If they are not consistent, no number of policy instruments will be suf-
ficient. One illustration in the forefront of discussion in most industrial countries
involves the relationship between employment and price stability. Given the in-
stitution of private collective bargaining, is the target of "full employment" (4
percent unemployment in the United States, under 2 percent in the United King-
clom, each by its own standards and definitions) consistent with "price stability,"
defined, say, as stability in the consumer price index? Many economists would
find a conflict.
This kind of inconsistency can perhaps be overcome by developing new policy
instruments.10 Another kind of inconsistency, especially important to national
economies linked through international trade and capital movements, cannot be
eliminated through the development of new instruments. Examples are objectives
regarding the balance of payments, or the trade balance. Since one country's
trade surplus is another country's trade deficit, it is impossible for all countries
to succeed in running trade surpluses. The same is true for balance of payments,
8 Trade discrimination Is also permitted, under Art. XIV of the GATT, when currency
discrimination is permitted under the rules of the International Monetary Fund. That
occurs if the IMF declares a particular country's currency is "scarce" under its Scarce
Currency Ciause. No such finding has ever been made, even during the period of severe
dollar shortage of the late 1940's.
8 Freedom to use some of these instruments may in any case have been more apparent
than real. As noted below, export subsidies In one country raise exports only if other
exporting countries do not also use them, or, if importing countries do not offset them
with higner duties. But that is precisely what happened in the interwar period.
10 These new instruments would involve shifting the trade-off between unemployment
and price Inflation-called the Phillips Curve-enough to make simultaneous attainment
of the two objectives feasible. This is the thrust of "incomes policies."
PAGENO="0240"
236 THE FUTTJRE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
taking into account capital movements.11 If there are n countries, only n-i of
them can succeed in achieving their independent balance of payments targets ; 12
at least one must accept defeat or else fail to target values for its trade position
and its balance of payments position, thereby acting as an international residual.
It has been suggested that the United States played this role until the late 19~O's,
by taking a relatively passive position toward its payments position after the
termination of Marshall Plan aid.H
The requirement of consistency is not merely theoretical. In 1962, for instance,
all of the major industrial countries wanted simultaneously to improve their
payments positions on current account. While mutual success was not logically
impossible in this case, it did imply a correspondingly sharp deterioration in the
current account position of the less developed countries taken together, which in
turn would require ample financing from the industrial countries in the form of
grants or loans. No such increase in capital movements was targeted. Thus na-
tional targets were inconsistent.'5
THE SPEED OF ADJUSTMENT
In summary, successful economic policy requires an adequate number of eco-
nomic objectives, and it requires that these objectives be consistent with one an-
other. If either of these conditions fails, policymakers are bound to be frustrated
in their efforts. Before turning to how these frustrations become manifest, how-
ever, one other point should be made: growing interdependence can slow down
greatly the process by which independently acting national authorities reach
their economic objectives, even when all the targets are consistent and there are
sufficient policy instruments at hand to reach them. Thus in practice nations may
find themselves further from their objectives than would be true with less inter-
dependence.
High interdependence slows the speed of adjustment to disturbances if na-
tional policy-makers do not take the interdependence into account. This is be-
cause the economic authorities in different countries may be working at cross
purposes. An investment boom in one country may raise interest rates both at
home and, by attracting internationally mobile funds, in neighboring countries.
The first country may temporarily welcome the high interest rates to help curb
the boom and may also tighten fiscal policy to keep inflationary pressures in
check. But the other countries may fear that higher interest rates will deter in-
vestment at home and take steps to lower interest rates. Unless this monetary re-
laxation is taken into account in framing fiscal policy in the first country, its
authorities will find that fiscal policy has not been sufficiently contractionary.
But more contractionary fiscal policy will tend to hold up interest rates, so that
the monetary authorities in the neighboring countries will find they have only
been partially successful in lowering their rates. Even if in the end the whole
process settles to a point where the various national authorities are satisfied, it
will have taken longer than if there had been close coordination between the au-
thorities in the several countries involved. The greater the interactions between
the countries, the longer convergence will take if countries act on their own.
Sometimes, of course, actions in a neighboring country can reinforce those
taken at home. If in the above example the domestic investment boom transmitted
inflationary pressures to a neighboring country through enlarged imports, then
contractionary fiscal policy there will complement contractionary fiscal policy
at home. But in this case failure to take into account the interactions between the
two countries may lead to over-correction and excessive unemployment. This will
arise if the authorities in each country decide bow much they have to act when
11 This assumes that national definitions concerning the balance of payments are all
consistent, and abstracts from the additional complications created by disparate national
definitions of balance of payments "deficit" and "surplus." See Host-Madsen. Asymmetries
Between Balance of Payments Surpluses and Deficits, IMF, STAFF PAPERS (1962).
i~ Unless, of course, the targets all happen to be consistent. e.g., if the sum of all balance
of payments targets happened to add to the annual addition to monetary gold stocks.
~ Polak. International. Coordination of Economic Policy, IMF, STAFF PAPERS 199 (1962).
Tlìe ability of the United States to take a passive position ended around 1959, when the
deficit became very large and foreign officials began to call for correction. One interpre-
tation which cam be put on the International discussions to establish machinery for creating
international liquidity is that it presents a search for a new residual supplier in the inter-
national payments system.
14 Trlffin has underlined the dramatic inconsistencies in balance of payments targets
in the early 19,60's. See R. TRIFFIN, THE WoRLD MONEY MAZE 118-32, (1966).
PAGENO="0241"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 237
acting alone to restore equilibrium; then when both groups act, the total effect
will be excessive.
If policy decisions are truly decentralized among nations, in the sense that the
authorities in each nation pursue only their own objectives with their own instru-
ments without taking into account the interactions with other countries, then
the more interdependent the international economy is, the less successful countries
are likely to be in reaching and maintaining their economic objectives. This is
due to the greater impact of domestic measures on foreign economies, calling
forth correspondingly greater offsetting responses which in turn affect the first
country. Under these circumstances, countries must either reconcile themselves
to prolonged delays in reaching their objectives or they must coordinate their
policies more closely with those of other nations.15.
It has of course long been true that small countries must watch closely
economic developments and policies in their larger neighbors, and they would
take these developments into account. For the Netherlands, forecasting German
GNP and German economic policies is a critical component to forecasting Dutch
GNP. But as economies grow interdependent, the importance of two-way inter-
actions increases, so that economically large countries such as Britain, Germany,
and even the United States must increasingly take into account developments
and policies abroad.
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION IN ECONOMIC POLICY
In an interdependent economy, governments do not have full control over the
instrument variables needed to influence the trade balance or the balance of
payments. Each government can effect the domestic interest rate in an attempt
to influence international capital movements or can set tariffs on imports and
subsidies on exports to influence the trade balance. But success in influencing
capital movements or trade flows depends on what other countries are doing. It is
interest rate differentials, not the absolute level of interest rates, which includes
the movement of capital. And it is domestic tariffs less foreign subsidies which
influence the level of imports. There are many instruments of economic policy for
which relative differences affect international transactions, but the absolute value
15 These ideas are complex and are best stated somewhat more formally in a technical
footnote.
In matrix notation, let y=Ax describe the relationship between target variables (y)
and small changes In policy instruments (x). The matrix A= [atjJ, where au indicates
the impact of Instrument xj on target yj. Arrange the variables so that all the targets and
Instruments of one country are grouped together, followed by those of another, etc. A can
thus be partitioned, with blocks representing individual countries running along the
diagonal, and blocks representhig the degree of Interdependence, or interaction between
the instruments of one country and targets of another, lying off the block diagonal.
Suppose that v~ represents the target values the economic authorities of the various
countries would like to reach, that the targets are all consistent, and that there are enough
policy instruments to reach them all, giving the authorities the correct values for these
instruments. x=A1y5.
Suppose now that the target variables take on values different from their targets. How
do the authorities react? Their reaction functions might be described by the following set
dx
or differential equations, =B(y*_y) =B(y5-Ax), which says that the author-
dt
ities change their instruments at a rate which depends on how far the target variables are
from their targets. If they do not take into account international interdependence, B, the
matrix of reaction coefficients, will be a block matrix, indicating that each policy-maker
look only at his own target(s).
The solution to this system of linear differential equations takes the form:
y~(t) =y*+~Kue~jt
J J i
where the Xu are the characteristic roots of BA and the Ku are constants determined by
the initial disturbances. For a policy system which works in the sense that yj (t) will
gradually approach yj~, the second term on the right is transitory. The system will be
more efficient, i.e. achieve the policy targete more rapidly after any disturbance, the more
rapidly this term fades away. It will fade more rapidly the larger are the Xi.
In general, the larger the off-diagonal elements are relative to the diagonal elements. i.e.,
the higher the degree of ignored interdependence, the smaller the smallest root will be and
the longer it will take after any given disturbance to reach the target values y** High
interdependence which Is ignored gives rise to the possibility of overshooting targets several
times, and it even gIves rise to the theoretical possibility that targets will not be reached at
all until the nature of the adjustment process is changed.
Coordinating economic policy, involves not only exchanging information on targets and
use of instruments, but taking this inforalation Into account when using instruments.
Convergence to targets is then much faster.
82-181-67-vol. I-16
PAGENO="0242"
238 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
may continue to exert a strong influence on purely domestic decisions. This is
true, for example, not only of short- and long-term interest rates, but also of
liberal tax benefits to investment, generous depreciation allowances, lax regula-
tion of corporate activities and a host of other measures designed to influence
corporate location. It is also true of foreign trade: generous credit arrangements
or credit-risk guarantees for exports may encourage total exports without im-
proving the trade balance if other countries are pursuing similar measures.
This feature of policy instruments-that the absolute level of the instrument
may have important effects domestically, but that only the level relative to that
in other countries influences the balance on trade or payments-raises the ques-
tion: where do the values of these instruments finally settle? International
capital movements between two otherwise isolated countries will presumably be
roughly the same whether interest rates are at 7 per cent in one and 5 per cent
in the other or at 4 per cent in the first country and 2 per cent in the second.16
In each case the differential is two percentage points. But what determines
whether "community" interest rates settle at the higher level or the lower one?
The effects on other objectives may be very different. Economic growth will be
inhibited more in the first case than in the second.
This would be of secondary importance if all countries had many policy instru-
ments at their disposal. Each country could compensate for an deleterious effects
on domestic objectives arising from the value of instruments determined predom-
inantly by the community as a whole. But as we already noted, the number of
instruments and the range of values they can assume are often sharply limited
by tradition or law. Indeed, it is highly likely that at any point in time a country
will have as its disposal only the minimum number of policy instruments that it
needs to satisfy important domestic political demands. Policy instruments affect
the welfare of particular members of the community as well fis national economic
objectives, so their use will be resisted. Public expectation is that certain meas-
ures, while theoretically conceivable, will in practice not be used. Any attempt to
invoke them therefore meets stiff resistance.17
The values which policy instruments take on in the community of nations, and
the process by which those values are reached, are therefore of strong interest to
the individual nations. They may not have sufficient domestic flexibility to offset
the damaging effects of policy instruments which are forced to an inappropriate
level by international competition among governments. As a result, greater inter-
national integration can force choices among national objectives which otherwise
would all be attainable.
There are occasions in which most or even all members of the international
community will find themselves worse off. The competitive devaluations and
tariff wars of the interwar period offer the most striking examples; many of the
proscriptions in the GATT and the DIF Articles of Agreement are designed to
avoid a repetition of those events.
But competition among policies was not thereby banished on all fronts. For
example, interest rates shot upward in 1965 and 1966 to levels one to two per-
centage points higher than those which had prevailed in most countries in 1964.
Some of the increases were designed to curb domestic demand; others were
defensive, to limit capital outflow. Even after domestic economies had cooled
down, it took a dramatic meeting of finance ministers at Checquers, England, in
early 1967, to reverse the process. Four other types of policy instruments having
these characteristics have been used in the effort to strengthen the balance of
payments of various countries: restrictions on government procurement, gov-
ernment-sponsored export promotion, tax incentives to domestic investment, and
changes in domestic tax structure. The United States, faced with large payments
deficits during the early sixties, made or considered moves in all of these areas:
but in each case there was ample precedent abroad for doing so.
Government purchases for government use are specifically excluded from cov-
erage by the GATT rules governing international trade.18 The result is that a
16 This must be qualified to the extent that interest rates Influence total savings In two
countries.
`~ The inflexibility of potential policy instruments is summed up in the adage. `Any old
tax is a good tax." Changes in taxes not only affect marginal decisions-that may be the
objective-but also capital values which the marketplace has adjusted to allow for the
old tax. Thus changes in taxes often result in capital gains for some and capital losses
for others.
`~ GATT, Art. XVII(2).
PAGENO="0243"
PETE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 239
couspicuously small proportion of a government purchases, by any government,
is from foreign suppliers who compete with domestic producers. In the United
States the Buy American provision-which since 1954 officially gives prefer-
ential treatment of six to twelve per cent (in addition to tariffs) to domestic
over foreign competitors for the Government's custom-has existed since the
1930's. But in 1962 a number of government agencies, including most importantly
the Department of Defense, raised the preference accorded to domestic suppliers
as high as 50 per cent.'9 Foreign aid expenditures by the American government
are even more restricted. Starting with development loans in 1959, such expendi-
tures were tied increasingly to purchases in the United States, until by 1965 only
a limited class of expenditures was not so tied, regardless of the price advantages
offered by foreign suppliers.
The government procurement practices of other countries are more difficult to
document, since most governments do not require open bidding on government
purchases with well-publicized preferences for domestic producers, such as those
found in the Buy American provisions. Many countries follow the practice of
tying foreign assistance, either by law or skillful selection of projects and recip-
ient countries, to purchases from the donor country. This is as true for those
donors with fully employed economies as for those with excess capacity and case,
and merely stimulates additional imports-and it is as true for donor countries
in balance of payments surplus as for those in deficit. Canada, Japan, and the
United Kingdom tie the bulk of their foreign assistance, and France ties some
expenditures. France and the Netherlands give virtually all of their foreign
assistance to colonial or former colonial areas, where de facto aid-tying takes
place through the long-established trading firms. German aid often originates
with requests from prospective exporters who have found projects in recipient
countries eligible for foreign assistance by German criteria.'0
Many of these practices, of course, arise not only from balance of payments
considerations but also from protectionist sentiment. Domestic producers apply
strong political pressures on their governments to buy at home-the more so when
the goods are to be "given away." But weakness in the balance of payments
often strengthens their arguments and increases public acceptability of such
restrictive measures."
Government activities are not solely restrictive of trade. On the contrary, a
second range of practices involves all kinds of schemes, except direct subsidies
proscribed by GATT, to promote exports of goods and services. Governments
sponsor trade~ fairs, product exhibitions, and other advertisements for the prod-
ucts of their exporters; they insure commercial and so-called non-commercial
risks involved in exporting; and they often help to finance exports directly. No
major industrial trading nation can be found without a government or govern-
ment-sponsored agency for insuring and/or extending credit for exports. Some
countries, such as France and Italy, give especially favorable treatment to export
paper in their banking systems or at their central banks. And export credit is
often exempt from general credit limitations to restrict domestic demand. All
of these measures really subsidize exports, although it is often impossible to
identify the amount of the subsidy to any particular sale.
The United States established the U.S. Travel Service in 1961 to attract foreign
tourists to the United States. European governments have been aiding tourism
much longer, and each year spend substantial amounts for the purpose of attract-
ing foreign tourists. Moreover, expenditure for tourist promotion has been grow-
ing rapidly, doubling every two to four years. In addition to straightforward
publicity, most European countries subsidize the hotel industry either through
preferential tax treatment or through low-interest or government-guaranteed
`0The Department of Defense also Introduced, and then raised, a margin of preference
to American suppliers for its procurement for use by American forces abroad, which pro-
curement was not subject to the Buy American Act (41 U.S.C. 10). The change added
an average of 26 per cent to the budgetary cost of those Items shifted from overseas to
domestic procurement. See testimony of Charles Hitch, Comptroller of the Defense Depart-
ment, Hearings on Balance of Payments Before a Subcomm. of the Senate Comns. on Bank-
ing and Currency, 89th Cong., 1st Sess., at 156 (1965).
20 On national practices and their economic effects, see Cooper, External Assistance and
the Balance of Payments Donor Countries, U.N. Doc. E/Conf. 46/141, Vol. V, at 360-73
(1905).
21 When the European common market Is finally established, member governments will be
obliged to give equal access to suppliers throughout the E.E.C.
PAGENO="0244"
240 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
loans.22 In most countries these programs date from the late fifties or the early
sixties.
Subsidies to domestic investment is the third area in which governments have
moved to improve their international payments positions. Investment subsidies
for manufacturing and agriculture improve the competitiveness of a country's
products in world markets. Some countries give direct tax incentives to new
investment in plan and equipment, such as the investment tax credit of 7 per
cent adopted by the United States in 1962 and the 30 per cent investment allow-
ance in the United Kingdom. Japan permits greatly accelerated depreciation of
assets. A rough impression of the influence of these arrangements can be gained
from Table 1, which indicates the speed with which new equipment can be writ-
ten off, taking into account investment allowances and tax credits. Table 2 in-
dicates the susbtantial incentive to invest which accelerated depreciation and
investment allowances provide in some countries by reducing corporate profits
taxes.
Under a regime of fixed exchange rates, government subsidy for domestic
investment is similar to a devaluation of the currency in that it improves the
cost competitiveness both of the country's export products and of its products
which compete with imports.~
Subsidies to investment are obviously motivated by considerations extending
well beyond the balance of payments; economic growth has become a target of
economic policy in its own right, partly for political and strategic reasons
(arising in part from the "economic race" with the Soviet Bloc), partly because
rising standards of living are universally desired. But balance-of-payments con-
siderations do play an important role in the decision to inaugurate investment
incentives. Britain for years has emphasized the need to enlarge and improve its
capital stock to compete more effectively in world markets. And former U.S.
Secretary of the Treasury Dillon, testifying on behalf of the U.S. investment
tax credit in 1962, argued that the measure was required "if U.S. business firms
are to be placed on substantially equal footing with their foreign competitors
in this respect. It is essential," he said, "to our competitive position in markets
both here at home and abroad, that American industry be put on the same basis
as foreign industry. Unless this is done, increased imports and decreased exports
will unnecessarily add to the burden of our balance of payments deficit." 24
TABLE 1.-PERCENTAGEOF INVESTMENT IN PLANT MACHINERY ALLOWED TO BE WRITTEN OFF F OR TAX PURPOSE
In 1st year
By 5th year
Cumulative
total over asset
life
Belgium
Canada
France
Germany, Federal Republic
Italy
Japan
Netherlands
Sweden
United Kingdom 2
United States 3
22
30
25
20
25
43
26
30
55
29
92
71
76
67
100
68
86
100
91
78
(1)
100
100
100
(1)
(1)
110
100
130
114
1 Not available.
2 Including an investment allowance of 30 percent.
3 Including an estimate for the effect of an investment tax credit of 7 percent.
Source: Report of the Committee on Turnover Taxation, London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, Cmnd. 2300, March
1964, p. 52; and Revenue Act of 1962, hearings before the Senate Committee on Finance, 87th Cong., 2d sess., Apr. 2,
1962, p. 82.
ORGANIZATION FOR EcoNoMIc COOPERAT5ON AND DEVELOPMENT, TOURISM IN O.E.C.D.
MEMBER COUNTRIES 22 and Annex I (1903).
23 Investment subsidies differ from straightforward currency devaluation, however, in
that the improvement in competitiveness varies from industry to industry according to
the capital-intensity of the productive process, and in general they encourage the use of
more capital intensive methods of production.
31 HEARINGS OX HR. 10600 BEFORE THE SENATE Co2I~r. OX FINANCE, 87th Cong., 2nd
Session, pt. 1, at 83 (1962). It is noteworthy, moreover, that investment incentives are
usually directed at the manufacturing industries, e.g., those whose goods are important
in international trade. An important exception in some countries is housing.
PAGENO="0245"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 241
TABLE 2.-STATUTORY AND EFFECTIVE CORPORATE INCOME TAX RATES
Earnings fully retained
Earnings fully distributed
Statutory
rate
Effective
rate 1
Statutory
rate
Effective
rate 1
Belgium
France
Germany, Federal Republic
Italy
Lusembourg
Netherlands
United Kingdom
30
50
56
36
45
~
54
30
46
53
32
32
~
39
30
50
32
15
45
~
24
30
46
30
13
32
29
18
1 Computed on the basis of straight line depreciation on the assumption of a constant before tax rate of return of 20
percent over the life of the investment and a market rate of interest of 5 percent.
Source: Peggy Brewer Richman, "Deprecmation and the Measurement of effective Profits Tax Rates in the European
Common Market and the United Kingdom," National Tax Journal XVII (March 1964), p. 90.
Changes in the structure of domestic taxation, and in particular the "mix"
between direct and indirect taxes, constitutes a fourth area in which govern-
ments have moved, or have been tempted to move, to improve their national
trade positions GATT rules prohibiting export subsidies have been interpreted
to preclude remission of direct taxes on exports but to permit remission of in-
direct taxes. Thustaxes on the corporate profits arising from export cannot be
rebated, but manufacturers excise taxes or turnover taxes can. Similarly, coun-
tries are permitted to levy indirect taxes, but not direct taxes, on imports.
Because of this asymmetry in border tax adjustment, it is possible under fixed
exchange rates for a country to stimulate exports and to impede imports by
shifting its tax structure from direct taxes to indirect taxes, provided that
direct taxes affect prices.
The GATT rule is based on the classical economic assumption that indirect
taxes are shifted entirely to the purchaser, while direct taxes are not shifted
at all, being absorbed entirely (in the case of the corporate profits tax) by the
firm. Recent work in the field of public finance suggests, however, that there may
be much less difference in the price effects of, say, corporate profits taxes and
manufacturers' excise taxes than was once thought to the be~ the case.°° To the
extent that indirect taxes are partially absorbed by the producer, or that profits
taxes are partially shifted forward to the consumer, the GATT rules regarding
border treatment of national taxes allow some "subsidy" to exports and a
country can improve its trade position by switching from corporate profits taxes
to excise or turnover taxes.
Soone countries have made tax changes in this direction, and others have been
urged to do so. Sweden reduced its income tax and imposed a general sales tax
in 1900; in mid-1904 Italy reduced payroll taxes (which are not rebatable) and,
to recoup the revenue, increased turnover taxes (which are rebatable). The
German government in 1907 approved a change from a turnover to a value-
added tax which will improve the export competitiveness of Gersnan products;1°
and Britain has been periodically urged to increase its indirect taxes and lower
the direct corporate taxes, although a special committee set up to examine the
matter rejected the proposed change.°7 Similar changes have been proposed for
the United States.
Once again, many considerations have influenced these proposals; in some
cases there may be powerful arguments for making the change regardless of
the effects on the balance of payments. But it is interesting to note that these
proposals have come alive only since the late 1950's, as international competition
has stiffened, and that improvement in the trade balance is often mentioned
15 M. KRZYZANIAK & R. MUSGBAVE. THE INCIDENCE OF THE CORPORATION INCOME TAX,
chs. 6, 8 (19013) ; Stockfish, On the Obsolescence, PUBLIC FINANCE 125-148 (1959).
~° Because rebates under the turnover tax, due to complications in calculating the exact
burden of the tax on each commodity, are lower than the values of rebates-and import
levies-that would be permissible under the GATT rules.
27 REPORT OF THE CoarMsT'UEE ON TURNOVER TAXATION, CMND. No. 21300 (19041 In late
1964, however, Britain did increase tax rebates on exports by extending the definition of
rebatahie excises to include taxes on fuels and office supplies and equipment. The rebates
were estimated at about 3 per cent of the value of affected exports.
PAGENO="0246"
242 THE FUTURE OF TJ.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
explicity as an important reason for making the change. The Committee for
Economic Development has stated, for example, that "a major advantage of
a general excise tax (over a corporate profits tax) is that it would tend to
improve the ability of the United States to compete with others in world
markets," and it goes on to argue that the United States must ~`equalize" its
tax structure with that of the Common Market as tariffs between the two trading
areas are reduced.~
All of these policy measures have a common characteristic. Taken by one
country alone, each represents a concealed devaluation of the currency, at least
with respect to a selected class of transactions. But like devaluation, these
measures are effective only if other countries do not respond in kind. To each
country, tying foreign aid and giving preference to domestic producers in govern-
ment procurement may appear to offer a means to improve the balance of pay-
ments; and indeed in the short run it may do so. But if all countries follow
the same practices, the benefit to each is much reduced and some countries
will have their payments positions worsened as a result. In the meantime, the
total real value of foreign aid has been reduced by reliance on high cost suppliers,
and inefficient production has been fostered.
The same thing is true of the other measures discussed. General adoption
of export promotion schemes and government-sponsored tourist publicity will
surely have a much greater effect on the total level of world exports and tourism
than on the payments position of any one country, since the measures will largely
cancel one another and leave only residual effects on the balance of payments.
Similarly, if all countries adopt sepcial tax incentives for domestic investment,
the net improvement in competitiveness-which depends as much on incentives
abroad as on those at home-will be haphazard and unpredictable. The principal
effect may well be not on any one country's balance of payments position but
on the total investment and the rate of growth in the world economy at large-so
long as these effects are not nullified by a competitive rise in long-term interest
rates! Finally, an effort to raise exports and impede imports through changes
in domestic tax structure may have little overall effect on foreign trade and
leave countries with tax structures which many would prefer not to have.
At any point in time there are often cogent and persuasive arguments for
introducing one or more of these measures to improve the balance of payments.
If other countries did not respond in kind, the desired improvement would be
forthcoming. But if other countries act likewise, the measures largely cancel
out. Not only is the purpose of the move nullified, but all countries may find
themselves worse off in terms of their other objectives. As a rule, individual
countries cannot act unilaterally without inviting reaction. If they are successful,
they are quickly emulated by their neighbors, so that the initial gains are
transistory at best. Countries often must act in self-defense, in response to
the behavior of their trading partners. This is particularly so when measures
to reduce one country's deficit do not reduce the surpluses of the surplus countries
but increase the deficit of another deficit country or move countries in balance
into deficit. These third countries then feel compelled to respond defensively
and their actions in turn increase the deficit of the initial country. Moreover,
many of the measures thus taken are difficult to reverse-countries do not readily
contract export credit programs or lengthen the periods of depreciation allow-
able for tax purposes.~
Today there is little obvious competition among policies, such as the round
of tariff increases in the late twenties and the competitive depreciations of the
early thirties. But more subtle and sophisticated methods can substitute, albeit
imperfectly, for currency depreciation. Taken in sequence by different countries,
these measures produce a kind of ratchet effect. We then have a series of com-
petitive depreciations in disguise.
In this case it is balance of payments difficulties. actual or feared, which give
rise to the undesirable competition in volicies. Competition for the location of
industry can also weaken economic policy in the area of regulation and taxation.
due to the mobility of business, To attract new firms or to keep the firms they
2S COM~TTTTEE FOR flCONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. REDuCING TAX RATES FOR PRODuCTION AND
GPOWTH 39-40 (1962).
~ There are some excentions. Mensures which are sith~ect to a time limitation cnn he
nllonverl to lnnse. As an nnti-inflntionory nn~nsure. Germany finally nermittel its proysions
for accelerated depreciation to lapse In 1960- after the years of large payments surpluses.
PAGENO="0247"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
243
have, local authorities may eschew tax or regulatory measures which in the view
of the authorities would benefit the community as a whole, but for the pos-
sibility of driving away investment.
National governments have not yet engaged in a scramble to adjust their
policies to be most attractive to foreign-owned business firms; on the contrary,
a number of countries are concerned about the amount of foreign control already
present. Differences in taxation and other measures relating to business activity
do, however, affect international corporate location, and some beginnings of na-
tional competition for this location can be seen. Luxembourg liberalized its
depreciation allowances and offered an investment allowance in 1962 in what
appeared to be a deliberate move to attract foreign investment for operations
throughout the European Common Market. Belgium and the Swiss cantons have
also adopted tax and other features designed to attract foreign enterprise.30
POLICY COMPETITION WITHIN THE UNITED STATES
This intrusion of outside considerations on "domestic" policies is a familiar
phenomenon to Americans, who can observe at close hand relationships among
the States of the Union.. The United States represents, by itself, a large and
highly integrated trading economy. Under the Federal system, governmental en-
tities with important responsibilities are often much smaller than the regional
"economies" which they serve. Though. nominally sovereign in many areas, the
states are in fact closely circumscribed in what they can do, and they are some-
times compelled in self-defense .to take repugnant measures. Corporate regula-
tion and tax policy both illustrate this process.
State corporation laws were originally the most popular and effective way of
regulating incorporated businesses.31 In 1886, for example, Massachusetts passed
new corporation statutes designed to prevent fraud or mismanagement by firms
incorporated in the state. The directors and officers of Massachusetts corporations
were made personally liable to creditors if the firms' debts exceeded their capital.
The valuation of new stock had to be approved by the State Commissioner of
Corporations. So long as similar laws prevailed in other industrial states, Mas-
sachusetts corporations had little to gain from incorporating elsewhere.
The system of corporate regulation through state law became unstable during
the following two decades. First New Jersey, then Delaware began to exploit the
provisions in the U.S. Constitution prohibiting impediments to interstate com-
merce and requiring that contracts made in any state be honored in any other
state. New Jersey liberalized its laws of incorporation in 1896 by allowing new
stock valuation to be entirely at the discretion of the corporation directors; it
had earlier permitted debts to exceed capitalization. Both provisions laid the
basis for the Standard Oil Company and other giant firms incorporated in New
Jersey. The state benefitted from a modest tax on the value of corporate capital.
New Jersey's bid for corporations undermined the regulatory corporation laws
of other states. Massachusetts corporations, for example, could circumvent regu-
lation simply by incorporating in New Jersey, and a strict Massachusetts law
would fail in its purpose. In 1902 a special Massachusetts commission reported
"a general practice" of organizing corporations outside Massachusetts to do busi-
ness within the state. The commission drafted a new, permissive corporation law
which was enacted virtually without change a year later. The restrictions o
1886 were largely eliminated.
In a series of laws starting in the first decade of the twentieth century Dela-
ware relaxed greatly its restrictions on incorporation, and in the end maintained
virtually no requirements regarding the capital structure of a corporation regis-
tered in the state. Directors were not closely bound by their charters in issuing
new stock. Illinois had tried to police the capital structure of corporations, but
in 1933 it virtually adopted the latest Delaware revisions of 1927 and 1929, illus-
trating a kind of Gresham's Law in corporate regulation. In the same year,
however, the Federal government undertook much greater responsibility for regu-
lating public stock issues under the Securities and Exchange Act.
State taxation provides a second illustration of the severe constraints imposed
on the states by close competition with their neighbors. Wide taxing powers are
~° Furthermore, the relaxation In France's tough policy on foreign investment may have
been dictated in large measure by the prospect of losing Investment to other members of
the EEC which would nonetheless have free access to the French market.
31 This history is taken largely from Dodd. ~5tatutory Developments in Business Corpora-
tion Law, 1886-1986, HARV. L. Rzv., 27, 32-35 (1937).
PAGENO="0248"
244 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
nominally reserved to the states. Yet while authorities in state taxation complain
bitterly about the large differences in tax structure and tax treatment of business
income and commodities from state to state, these differences are very narrow
compared with those between countries. Commodity taxation is predominantly
at the retail level-the administratively simpler manufacturers' excise tax is vir-
tually non-existent-and the rates are very close to one another, particularly
between contiguous states, State taxation of corporate income also tends to be
much the same from state to state, and differences in rates, coverage, and definition
of taxable income have narrowed over time.32
The reasons for increasing uniformity are obvious enough. The freedom of
commodities, capital, and persons to move from state to state without legal im-
pediment, and the ease with which they do so, reduces greatly the scope for wide
differences in tax treatment since both purchasers and sellers will leave the high
tax states, A striking example of the pressures toward uniformity is provided
by North Carolina's adoption in 1957 of a new tax law which changed the basis
for calculating state taxes on the net income of corporations engaged in inter-
state commerce. The new law had the effect of reducing the tax burden on out-
of-state corporations making interstate sales from bases in North Carolina and,
moreover, it relieved in-state corporations from paying North Carolina income
taxes on income derived from out-of-state sales.H The tax change was frankly
designed "to encourage more industry to locate and expand in the State." H
Within three years South Carolina and Virginia had adopted essentially the same
formula, as the governor of South Carolina explained, "to keep competitive."
Under this pressure of acute competition for industry, measures are taken
which benefit industrial firms but which, since most states are following similar
practices, may not much affect the actual location of industry. It is not surpris-
ing, therefore, that there are perennial cries for greater coordination of state
taxation, and even for uniformity. In 1957 the National Conference of Commis-
sioners on Uniform State Laws approved a model Uniform Division of Income
for Tax Purposes Act which would eliminate the pointless competition among
states in their tax laws. But to date only three states have adopted the approved
act in its entirety, and even then not without modification ;H no state acting
alone has much incentive to adopt it. Hence, even state tax commissioners and
others who might he supposed to be jealous of states' rights have called on the
federal government to impose uniformity on state taxation of corporations en-
gaged in interstate commerce (which means in effect virtually all direct taxes on
business)
A noteworthy feature of this competition among the states is that much of it
arises from the mobility of business. Taxation and regulatory activities are less
effective if the range of feasible business locations exceeds the jurisdiction of the
taxing of regulatory authorities. State regulatory laws began to lose effect
around the turn of the century when American corporations increasingly be-
came truly national in their operations.
To some extent. however, similar problems arise from mobility of persons,
especially when a metropolitan area is made up of several governmental jurisdic-
tions, persons working in the area can choose to live where taxes are lowest even
while enjoying the public benefits of the central city.
22 See Special Subcommittee on State Taa'ation of Interstate Commerce of the Committee
on. time Judiciamu, State Taxation of interstate Commerce, HR. Rep. No. 1480. SSth Cong..
26 Sess.. 9.~-126 (1904~. See also, J. MAXWELL, THE FISCAL IMPACT OF FEDERALISM IN
THE UNITED STATES (1946) especially Ch. XIII.
~3 The first of these two features recalls some of the tax privileges of foreign corpora-
tions setting up sales offices in Switzerland. The second. amounting to a remission of direct
taxes on export sales. would at the international level be a clear violation of GATT rules.
~ Advertisement in N.Y. Times. Nov. 17. 1957.
3~ STATE TAXATION OF INTERSTATE COMMERCE, supra note 32, at 123-26.
~` I~h. at 133.
~ The situation is actually somewhat more complicated than this Implies. States, faced
with rapidly increasing needs for revenue, widened their business taxes considerably during
the fifties to include a number of taxes touching significantly on interstate commerce. In
1959 the Supreme Court in Northwestern Portland Cement Co. v. Minnesota, 358 U.S. 450
(10591. upheld the right of Minnesota to tax the net income of an out.of-state business
arising from sales in the state. A series of decisions on related cases made clear the wide
taxing powers of the states. The business community was alarmed, and in late 1959 Con-
gress passed a law limiting the rights of states to tax interstate commerce. Many states
resented the limitation of their taxing powers, but-caught between rising revenue needs
and competition with other states-urged the Congress to legislate unifornv standards for
defining tax base, apportioning income. etc. See Hearings on state Income Taxation of
Mercantile and Manufacturing Corporations Before a Special subcommittee of the House
Committee on the Judiciary, 87th Cong., 1st Sess. at 367 (1961).
PAGENO="0249"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 245
IN SUMMARY
In a highly integrated economic area which surpasses in size the jurisdiction
of governments, each group of policy-makers is subject to such strong interac-
tions with the surrounding area that the constraints actions become very severe.
Indeed, in the hypothetically limiting case, these constraints determine entirely
the course of action each jurisdiction must take. The region-or the nation-in a
highly integrated economy becomes analogous to the perfect competitor-or at
best the oligopolist-in a market economy. The range of choice it has, consistent
with economic survival, is very small; for the most part it simply adapts its be-
havior to stimuli from outside. Awareness of the high interactions will eventually
inhibit action.
A. C. Pigou and John Maynard Keynes pointed out long ago that the sum
of individual decisions by consumers and producers may not always be optimal
for society as a whole (and hence for its members), even though its members may
be acting individually on entirely rational grounds.38 Some kind of collective ac-
tion is therefore required to produce an optimal outcome.
The same can be true among nations, or among regions within a nation, if
the interactions among their decisions are sufficiently strong. One jurisdiction
gropes for new instruments in an attempt to improve its position. If it succeeds,
others follow and there is a competition in policies which defeats everyone's ob-
jectives and in fact can even lead all participants away from their national or
local objectives, like the members of a crowd rising to their tip-toes to see a
parade better but in the end merely standing uncomfortably on their tip-toes.3
38A. PIGOU, THE ECONOMICS OF WELFARE (1932). This was also the central underlying
message of J. KEYNES' GENERAL THEORY OF EMPLOYMENT. INTEREST. AND MONEY. (1936).
~° A recent illustration of this, drawn from the United States, Is provided by tile growing
use by States and municipalities of their privilege to float tax-exempt securities for the
purpose of raising funds for new businesses locating there. This practice was used by only
three states as recently as 1956 with such issues totalling less than 82 million ; but by
1966 these issues had been made in 28 states and exceeded ~5OO million. As tile process
spreads,, the actual effect on the location of industry diminishes, and tile net effect will
simply be to erode the Federal corporate tax base and to raise interest charges on all tax.
free state and municipal securities, thus in tile end hurting tile protagonists in the process.
A simple game offers a suggestive if inexact analogy to the consequences of policy com-
petition. Consider a "game" in which each of two persons must name an even number be-
tween two and ten. If they name the same number, each player receives half of that num-
ber. If they name different numbers, the player naming tile lower aumber wins the number
he named; the other player wins nothing. The "payoff matrix" for either player looks like
this:
Number chosen by 1 player
Number chosen by the other player
2 4 6 8 10
2
4
6
8
10
1
0
0
0
0
2
2
0
0
0
2
4
3
0
0
2
4
6
4
0
2
4
6
8
5
Maximum joint gains are reached if both players choose ten; in that case eacil of tlaem
Wills five, But for each player the choice of "eight" dominates the ciloice of "ten" in tile
sense that the payoff is sometimes higher and is never lower, no matter what tile other
player chooses. If the choice of "tea" is ruled out by both players on these grounds, the
choice of "six" then dominates the choice of "eight" by reasoning similar to that above;
and so on, until both players end up choosing "two" as tile only safe strategy yielding
some sure payoff.
Tile mutual gains from cooperation are obvious in this case, and should be obvious to
both players. The temptation to cheat will always be present, biat if the game is played
again and again tile long-run loss from deviating from a jointly agreed choice of "ten"
should induce both players to stick to their agreement. If, however, this kind of game is
extended to include many players-each player wins if he names `the lowest number, alone
or in common with others, but nothing if someone else names a lower number-any one
player may feel he can violate the agreed conventions to his own benefit without inducing
retliatory action by all the others. Since all tile participants may reason in this way, all
may be made worse off than necessary.
International trade and financial policies have something of this character: if nfl tile
other players adhere to tile rules which benefit all, any one `of them may gain by deviating
from them, and therein lies the risk of unraveling. The rules Will be workable only if nil
play by them.
PAGENO="0250"
246 THE FUTIJRE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
An invisible hand seems to be working in the area of economic policy as well as
in the market place. Competition in the market place is alleged to lead to the most
efficient allocation of resources. Whatever the merits of this claim, we can be
much less confident that competition among policies will be optimal. Governments
seek many ends, not the efficient allocation of resources alone; and the process of
policy competition can certainly thwart some of those objectives.
Existing rules of international behavior as set forth in GATT and in the IMF
Agreement do limit the use of direct and straightforward means of policy com-
petition such as open export subsidies and multiple exchange rates, and they
therefore slow the process of policy competition since the more subtle and sophis-
ticated methods-loopholes in GATT and the II\IF Agreement-usually involve
strong domestic considerations which delay their implementation. But existing
rules do not fully accomplish the air of preventing self-defeating policy competi-
tion and of freeing domestic policy measures to pursue largely domestic objec-
tives. Moreover, the pressures on domestic policy are likely to become greater as
the world economy becomes more interdependent. Freedom of action in economic
policy formation can be lost through the need for each country to compete in
policies with its competitors in commerce.
To minimize adverse effects from this competition, countries can coordinate
closely their national economic policies, attempting to define and reach an opti-
mum combination of policies for the community as a whole. This route involves
extensive "internationalization" of the process of economic policy-making, trans-
ferring this governmental function to the larger integrated area.4°
Alternatively, countries can attempt to remove the major source of pressure
on their actions-deleterious effects on their international payments positions-
by providing each country with ample liquidity to finance any deficit and allow-
ing it to go its own way. Or this goal can be accomplished by reversing the
process of economic integration, artificially breaking down or reducing the
numerous economic links between countries. While some movement can be seen
on all three of these fronts, actions in the United States and Europe in the mid-
sixties seemed dangerously pointed toward the third alternative.
Chairman BOGGS. We will be pleased to hear from Mr. Pincus at
this time.
You may proceed, sir.
STATEMENT OP FOHN PINCUS, THE RAND CORP.
Mr. PINotrs. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, after hearing Mr.
Cooper's succinct and brilliant paper, I am not sure that it is really
necessary for me to say anything. But for the purpose of disagree-
ment, I will say a few words.
I don't look upon the future of U.S. trade policy as being pri-
marily an economic matter. I think that the future of the U.S. inter-
national economic policy could most usefully be considered by both
the legislative and executive branches against the broader background
of U.S. foreign policy objectives.
Now this raises a basic difficulty in recommending or adopting any
set of future trade policies in today's perspective, because the U.S.
Government has not yet developed a set of international political
goals which is consistent with the realities of the emerging world
power situation as of today. It is easy enough for all of us to say
4° The same is true for regulation and taxation as well as balance of payments policies.
A governmental unit spanning a territory which equals or exceeds the locational domain
of the firm can make and enforce regulations without inviting socially undesirable relo-
cation of industry. As the locational domains of business firms increase, it is necessary
also for the jurisdictions of governments to increase correspondingly-at least in some
dimensions-if subsequent "policy competition" among governments is not to result in
practices and policies which are socially sub-optimal. Water and air pollution control pro-
vide topical examples. It is this, rather than the narrower question of possible misalloca-
tion of resources, which suggests that the pressure for "harmonization" of policies-i.e.,
joint decisions-makes sense.
PAGENO="0251"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 247
that the United States seeks a stable world order in which each na-
tion is free to pursue its own destiny, safe from both external ag-
gressions and those forms of internal subversion that if successful
would aid the interests of powers hostile in the United States. Such
statements had a very specific meaning in the first two decades after
World War II. They took policy in the form of our aid to the recon-
struction of Western Europe, and the containment of Soviet expan-
sion, in efforts to promote the economic growth and political ability
of the underdeveloped countries. Today all of that is changing
rapidly.
A variety of factors account for the changing political scene: the
emergence of China as a prospective major military power, the in-
creasing political independence of Western Europe from the United
States, the analogous growth of a restricted political independence in
Eastern Europe, and the increasing evidence that there is little-and
I would virtually say, no-relation between economic aid and political
stability in underdeveloped countries. All of these issues offer testi-
mony that the political vistas before us are likely to be incompatible
with present world views, acted on not only by the U.S. Government,
but also by the governments of other major countries, whether they
be friendly, hostile, or neutral to the United States. In a world where
the United States and the Soviet Union are dominant but not para-
mount powers, with China emerging as a lesser, but nonetheless formid-
able world power, and the underdeveloped countries clearly march-
ing to their own drummers, our preconceptions about a world order
based on the earlier uneasy Soviet-United States balance are becom-
ing increasingly incompatible with reality in the world as it faces us
today; and will, I suggest, become more and more incompatible.
Now these are, of course, far broader issues than U.S. trade policy
which is our concern today. But I do not agree with Mr. Cooper in
saying that it is useful to insulate economic policy from politics. My
disagreement is not a matter of value systems, I just don't think it is
possible to divorce trade policy from politics.
Therefore, I believe that the changing world political scene is among
the basic factors which should influence the nature of trade policy
decisions that the United States does make. And I suggest that this
factor must lead us to a thorough reconsideration of our foreign trade,
aid and investment policies.
U.S. international economic policy is now based on the concept of
a liberal nondiscriminatory world trading system, with four excep-
tions to the general principle:
First, we maintain special barriers to trade with unfriendly nations.
Second, we maintain special barriers to products that can compete
too effectively with high cost U.S. production, whether of farm or fac-
tory, as Mr. Witt points out in his testimony.
Third, we accept discrimination as long as we consider that the dis-
crimination helps our political interests-the EEC, the EFTA, the
proposed Latin American Common Market, the Central American
Common Market, and other blocs, which I am sure will emerge and
which we will accept.
And, fourth, we also intervene in capital markets and in the regula-
tion of U.S. Federal procurement policies to protect, as deemed desir-
able, the U.S. balance-of-payments ~osition.
PAGENO="0252"
248 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Now, I believe it is an open question-I haven't prejudged it-as
to whether eithe.r the basic policy or the exception will in the years
ahead be the most appropriate technique for promoting American
interests. And I interpret these interests broadly. in terms of the world
picture.
Obviously this is something which I cannot cover in 15 minutes
of testimony today. And I don't know enough about the subject to do
it, anyway. So, let me address myself to a more modest analysis, and
a more restricted range of subjects: the future of U.S. trade policies
toward developing countries. The following remarks are not based
on any more extensive reconsideration of policies which I believe must
be evaluated as a matter of interest to the U.S. Government.
In more specific framework, there are four elements that seem par-
ticularly relevant today. The first. is preferential treatment for the
manufactured products of poor countries in the market of rich nations.
The second is to increase the mutual interests of the United States
and the underdeveloped countries in expanding their trade and in-
vestment ties.
The third is to deal with the problems besetting the commodity
trade that currently provides 85 percent of underdeveloped countries'
export earnings.
And the fourth is to improve, by a more intensive technical analysis,
our knowledge of the effects of alternative trade policies on the eco-
nomic interests of the United States and other nations.
These four matters themselves raise policy issues of some complex-
ity. which in this statement, for brevity's sake, receive bare mention,
or in some instances, not even that.
TARIFF PREFERENCES
My first subject is tariff preferences. I favor the extension of tariff
preferences by the United States and the other rich countries to under-
developed countries. These preferences would confer upon the poor
countries a competitive advantage in the U.S. market over nonpre-
ferred suppliers, in the same manner that Commonwealth preferences
and EEC preferences now provide for the countries that qualify under
their systems. In order to avoid an excessive competition among dif-
ferent preferential systems, or the creation of divisive rich-poor trad-
ing blocs, it would be best if a. general preferential system could be
based on common principles subscribed to by all preference-granting
and preference-receiving nations. However, any system actually
adopted should allow flexibility to meet the interests of particular
counrties. Thus, there are certain products that the United States
might wish to exempt from preferential treatment. Sweden might, for
example, wish to exempt an entirely different group of products. Some
nations might wish to base preferential treatment on some form of
global quota system, related to domestic consumption or imports;
others might wish to avoid quotas, and rely primarily on escape clause
mechanisms. At the present stage of our knowledge concerning the
effects of such alternative systems, it would be premature to insist that
all nations adhere to one general preferential formula to the exclusion
of all others. As Mr. Greenwald pointed out in his testimony here on
PAGENO="0253"
THE FTJTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 249
July 12, many complex issues of policy and administration remain to
be worked out before the United States and other nations can reach
agreement on an appropriate system of preferences.
If possible, however, a few common elements do seem desirable: (1)
preferences should be given from all rich countries to all poor coun-
tries, with the definition of a poor country being left to the sole discre-
tion of the applicant for preferential treatment (members of the De-
velopment Assistance Committee of OECD and hostile nations pre-
sumably excluded); (2) preferences should be, temporary, preferably
through the device of progressively lowering existing post-Kennedy
Round tariffs down to the preferential level (this, in effect, is what
the United Kingdom has been doing by its participation in the suc-
cessive GATT rounds since 1947); (3) the system should have more
than a token effect-it is one thing to exempt from preferential treat-
ment those products for which poor countries are already competitive
exporters, and quite another to exempt products for which preferences
are likely to catalyze a potential competitiveness into an actual one.
It may well be asked whether preferences are not simply a particu-
larly complicated way of offering to underdeveloped countries advan-
tages that they might receive anyway from most-favored-nation re-
duction, as in the Kennedy Round. The answer, briefly, is no. First, on
political grounds, the governments of underdeveloped countries be-
lieve that they are particularly disadvantaged in the international
competition for the fast-growing world market for manufactured
products. Most-favored-nation reductions clearly do little to mollify
this view. Second, Kennedy Round tariff reductions appear to have
bee1l considerably larger for manufactured products of interest to rich
countries than for those manufactured products that poor countries
are presently or potentially capable of exporting. This fact simply
reinforces poor countries' conviction that general trade liberalization
is primarily a device for enriching the wealthy. Third, preferences can
act as a stimulus to underdeveloped countries to look at the opportuni-
ties afforded by world trade, as a counterweight to their often costly
and self-defeating preoccupation with the encouragement of import-
substituting industry. The potential gains to both rich and poor coun-
tries are evident and potentially large.
Rich countries are often concerned with the balance-of-payments
effects of their trade policies. It should be noted in this connection that
the growth of LDC exports may well offer the United States certain
potential balance-of-payments advantages under a general preferen-
tial system, particularly if that system is accompanied by other policy
measures.
EXPANDING TRADE AND INVESTMENT INTERESTS
This leads to the second major policy issue that I am raising today:
Increasing the mutual interests of the United States and the under-
developed countries in expanded trade and investment ties. In 1964
Mr. David Horowitz, governor of the Bank of Israel, proposed that
rich countries guarantee the flotation of bonds in their capital mar-
kets, the proceeds to be used by an international agency, such as the
World Bank, for relending to underdeveloped countries. He also sug-
PAGENO="0254"
250 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
gested that governments of the rich countries subsidize these loans by
appropriating relatively modest amounts for interest subsidy. in rec-
ognition of the pressing debt service problems of many underedevel-
oped nations.
This scheme, as advanced by Governor Horowitz, suffered, in the
U.S. view, from two cardinal defects. First, it was generally believed
that most of the proposed borrowing would take place in the United
States or Eurodollar markets, both of which are the primary current
sources for U.S. domestic and foreign capital investment, as well as
for the normal borrowings of the World Bank. Second, because the
aid was to be administered by an international agency, it would pre-
sumably be untied, thereby possibly further aggravating America's
balance-of-payments difficulties.
It is not necessary, however, to choose between endorsing the Horo-
witz proposal as originally advanced and rejecting the principle en-
tirely. The Export-Import Bank of Washington, D.C. lends money to
finance exports of American equipment abroad, largely to under-
developed countries, at rates of interest which reflect the implicit
U.S. Government guarantee involved. If the United States wants to
maintain and enlarge its trade and investment ties with underdevel-
oped countries, it is free to authorize a similar institution to borrow
funds directly in the U.S. market, to be relent to underdeveloped
countries at terms and conditions that would depend on the present
and prospective international solvency of the borrower. A modest in-
terest subsidy fund appropriated by Congress could cover the differen-
tial between the Government guaranteed market borrowing rates and
the lower rates that some underdeveloped countries could afford to
pay.
This relending facility should, as long as the United States faces
balance-of-payments problems, be tied to the purchase of American
equipment.
In addition to building and perpetuating markets for American
goods, such a device offers the additional advantage of linking the
underdeveloped countries to U.S. capital markets. The Government
of Mexico today, for example, borrows certain amounts annually in
the New York market. As nations receiving these loans progressively
develop their economies, the activities of such a proposed relending
agency might be limited simply to guaranteeing bond issues of these
countries without subsidy provision, and in the longer run, without
intervention by the U.S. authorities.
Ultimately, of course, appropriations for foreign aid and bond
issues floated in the New York market to be relent under subsidized
interest rates, are simply alternative ways of tapping U.S. capital
resources, although the latter method obviously encourages far more
trade per dollar of appropriated funds. The method that I am now
suggesting allows the tapping of capital markets to be done on the
basis of mutual material advantage without the lengthy and, I sug-
gest, frequently unprofitable process of annual congressional hearings,
to say nothing of the great temptations faced by the foreign aid
agency to allow relatively short term considerations to dominate the
allocation of funds.
PAGENO="0255"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 251
This is not to say that foreign aid is or should be devoid of short-
term political goals or of regular congressional review. It should be
a basic role of the foreign aid agency, under the general policy author-
ity of the Department of State, to use foreign aid to further U.S.
political interests as appropriate. But this is no reason to allow U.S.
commercial interests in the economic development of underdeveloped
countries to fall within the province of an agency whose dominant
goals are necessarily and legitimately political.
Therefore, I suggest that the executive and legislative branches
should seriously consider the establishment of an American develop-
ment bank with authority to borrow in the market and relend at vail-
able terms and conditions to underdeveloped countries in order to help
them finance purchases of American equipment.
Co~I~IoDITY POLICY
The third matter on my list is commodity policy-international
action to affect world trade in the food and raw materials produced
and exported by underdeveloped countries. First, a few words about
existing policies. The U.S. Government now follows a policy of exam-
ining, on a case-by-case basis, international commodity agreements
aimed at stabilizing prices and, in effect, thereby raising the incomes
of commodity exporting nations above the levels that would prevail
in a free market.
These agreements are in some way similar to rich countries' policies
for their own domestic agriculture. It is also the policy followed by
unofficial agreement in world markets for such products as petroleum,
aluminum and, to a lesser degree, copper. The U.S. currently partici-
pates in two official internationa' commodity agreements: the Inter-
national Coffee Agreement and the International Wheat Agreement.
Tin and olive oil are also subject to international commodity agree-
ments, to which the United States is not a signatory. Among products
of primary interest to underdeveloped countries, only three other
products can seriously be considered as likely candidates for interna-
tional price fixing agreements: cocoa, tea, and sugar.
It is time, and I suggest long past time, that the United States
agreed to an international cocoa agreement. We have been negotiating
for 9 years, with negotiations regularly breaking up over trivial
issues; 1 or 2 cents a pound difference in proposed floor prices; the
size, financing and composition of buffer stocks, if any, et cetera. It
may well be true, as Senator Long has said, that some commodity
agreements are objectionable on the grounds that they transfer
incomes from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor
countries. But, by and large this is not true of cocoa, which is pro-
duced mainly by small farmers in West Africa. Furthermore, free
market cocoa prices fluctuate excessively from year to year, thereby
making it almost impossible for a cocoa farmer to relationally plan
his investment in new trees, spraying, fertilizing, et cetera. This
fluctuation also increases the difficulties faced by governments of
cocoa exporting countries in following a rational foreign exchange
policy.
PAGENO="0256"
252 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
A world tea agreement is not necessary. There are oniy four major
exporters: India, Ceylon, Tanzania, and Uganda. If the govern-
ments of these four nations choose to reach a price stabilizing agree-
ment, there is nothing to prevent them; it is a very different case
from that of the 40-odd countries that export cocoa.
Futhermore. most of the tea entering rich countries is imported by
the United Kingdom, which would be unlikely to consent, voluntarily,
to an international agreement raising the world price of tea.
An international sugar agreement is similarly unnecessary. Most
of the world's sugar aheady moves at prices above those which would
prevail in a free market, thanks to the special arrangement offered to
exporters by the United States, EEC and the United Kingdom. The
other major sugar importers, Canada, Japan and some of the other
Western European countries are also free to offer premium prices to
the countries whose sugar they normally buy. An international agree-
ment today would be politically unacceptable because of the issues
raised by marketing Cuba's supplies. If the Soviet Union or other
countries wish to pay Cuba premium prices for its sugar, that is their
concern-there is no reason for the United States to be involved in an
international agreement which brings it no advantage and which cre-
ates difficulties in the international scene.
There are no other major commodities moving in world trade for
which the price-fixing commodity agreements can be negotiated that
will significantly benefit underdeveloped countries.
On the other hand, there is a considerable, and yet largely unex-
plored, potential for using commodity agreements as a device to pro-
mote efficient world production of commodities, using temporary sub-
sidies to benefit those nations whose exports decline as a consequence
of shifts in production.
I should point out that while that possibility would considerably
increase world economic efficiency, our experience in these fields has
not been in particular successful. If the United States were to go to
underdeveloped countries and suggest that a more rational world
order of commodity production be established, we would first have to
put our own house in order.
TRADE POLICY ALTERNATIVES
Let me come to my fourth point, analysis of trade policy alterna-
tives. As Mr. Baldwin said today in another connection, we don't know
very much about the effects on production, trade, and balance of pay-
ments of the various policy alternatives that face the United States
at the conclusion of the Kennedy Round. The U.S. Government has an
opportunity over the next few years to support a detailed and search-
ing analysis of the economic and political implications of various al-
ternative trade policies, both singly and in combination. The decisions
that the Congress and the Executive make in the next few years will
have profound effects on a world trade level which is now approaching
$200 billion annually. For an expenditure of not more than $1 or $2
million annually over the next few years, the United States could come
to the conference table with a much sounder knowledge than it now
has of the implications for itself and for other countries of specific
economic policies.
PAGENO="0257"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 253
Some of these issues that I have just discussed are too difficult to be
resolved effectively by simple introspection. Other analytical issues
cannot be resolved in the short run by any expenditures of funds, no
matter how great, because the analytical tools have not yet been de-
veloped to cope with the problems. But in this age of the electronic
computer, and `with the constant improvement of data on production
and trade, we are dealing in trade policy with issues whose results are
too complicated to guess at, but in many cases not too complicated to
analyze by detailed examination of data.
This analysis will cost money. I feel reasonably confident in saying
that the return from such an investment might be among the most
profitable investments Congress could have the wisdom to make in the
field of foreign policy.
Thank you.
Chairman Boeos. Thank you very much.
Mr. Witt, we will hear from you. And then the members of the com-
mittee will ask questions.
`STATEMENT OF LAWRENCE W. WITT, PROFESSOR OF AGRICUL-
TURAL ECONOMICS, MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Mr. WITT. Mr. Chairman, and gentlemen, my special topic this
morning is on agriculture. Each of the people before me has com-
mented in some degree on agricultural problems. And I find that
`there is a bit of overlap, and I will refer to some of these comments,
as I go along.
Most of my comments look beyond the Kennedy Round toward fu-
`ture international negotiations on trade restrictions and policies. The
range for action in the agricultural arena is greatly limited by pressure
*om a variety of political forces that feel that trade policy is central
to national policies for agriculture and for national development. In
this case I am very close to the position with which Mr. Pincus started
his testimony. To clarify this point, let us look at the developed and
`the developing nations separately.
Many developed nations use import restrictions or export assistance
as devices to implement their particular farm policy. Trade restric-
tions are used by importing nations to increase the income to low
income farmers and to provide equitable returns to agricultural re-
sources. Subsidies by exporting nations seek to achieve the same
objectives. For individual nations of 1,Vestern Europe, 75 percent to
nearly all farm commodities receive price benefits from such measures,
in contrast to less than half in the United States. Instead, and in addi-
`tion, the United States has used CCC purchases and storage, land re-
tirement and direct payments to attain similar objectives.
Thus, in effect, the implied position of the United States in nego-
tiating trade policy with developed nations, asks them to put the
major share of their farm price policy on the negotiating table while
putting only Part of our policy into the discussion. Understandably,
the ~gricultural leadership in the European developed nations feels
that existing farm policy is threatened to a greater degree. They take
political action to prevent change and to avoid the necessity for a
long struggle to hammer out a new farm program. With 25 to 40 per-
S2-i8i---67-vol. I-17
PAGENO="0258"
254 TUE FUTURE OF U.S~ FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
cent of the voters in or close to agriculture, the strength of this political
resistance is strong. The only solution, if there~ is one, requires that a
basis be established for negotiating over the entire area of agricultural
policy: Here I find myself saying much the same thing as Mr. Diebold
said.
The hopes for agriculture in the Kennedy Round were not fully
realized, primarily for this reason; namely, the political aversion to
concessions that would require a reformulation of existing agricultural
policy. Even so, some progress has been made. The commitment to
supply a substantial quantity of grains as international food aid (thus
subtracting them from European food supplies), coupled with rising
incomes and shifts toward a greater consumption of animal products,
on the part of European countries, will benefit the food and feed
grain producers of Canada and the United States, despite the absence
of major changes in Europea.n trade restrictions.
The political forces in the developing nations take on a different
focus. Their national leaders understand well the importance of pri-
mary products as the major exports of these nations, and the vital role
which exchange earnings play in national development. And they
know that the developed nations are their major customers. Past in-
stabilities in these markets, slow rates of growth in the demand for
primary products, and fears that exchange earnings will continue to
be inadequate, support a strong political approach among the develop-
ing nations toward the developed economies. The formation of
UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development)
in 1964, with its first conference in Geneva, provided a forum for the
organization of new political forces in the world trade arena that
will not be easily satisfied. Professor Baldwin has also commented in
this vein. While we and Western Europe might agree among ourselves
that certain exceptions to free trade that discriminate in favor of our
national producers are politically necessary, the developing nations
press for instant removal of all discriminations against them. And
more, they press for discrimination in their favor and against the
production and exports of developed nations. And in fact they would
not object if there were discrimination against domestic producers in
the developed nations.
These political pressures from developing nations will intensify
with the 1968 UNCTAD Conference in India; thus a second reason
for looking beyond the Kennedy Round into our foreign policy area.
I turn now to summarize quickly the more specific economic mate-
rial in the study paper prepared for this committee. Agricultural
products constitute over 20 percent of U.S. exports, and nearly a third
of the total world trade. For most developing nations, agricultural
and other primary products dominate their export picture.
While the volume of agricultural trade is expanding, it is declining
as a proportion of the total. Thus, trade does not provide a reliable
engine of economic development. Growth is hindered by basic char-
acteristics of demand and by policies. With higher incomes, food
absorbs a smaller share of the added income. Also, the policies of
developed countries support domestic production at the expense of
imports, and thus limit the potential exports of agricultural nations.
The resulting complex leads to international markets without con-
sistent rules and with conflict increasingly focused on agriculture.
PAGENO="0259"
THE FTJTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 255
Let me turn for a moment to ii of our study paper. Developing
countries face special problems because of price instability and ad-
vanced country policies. The nature of the demand for agricultural
products exposes these commodities to fairly wide price fluctuations,
which leads to government intervention to influence the market, such
as minimum export prices, domestic price supports, subsidies to ex-
port, marketing boards, and international commodity agreements. In
technical terms, this basic characteristic is a low elasticity of demand
with respect to price; that is, a small increase in volume brings a larger
decrease in the price received. This traditional concept has been less
valid during the past decade, primarily because of the increased ability
of major consuming nations to maintain economic stability, but still
is important. In consequence, the less developed countries, as they
examine their agricultural trade potentials, hesitate to expand most
farm exports greatly. Although some have done so successfully, most
nations fear that larger volumes of exports will lead to lower prices
and lower foreign exchange earnings. This point is more telling when
the Nation provides a significant fraction of the total world trade in
its principal export commodity.
Consequently, the developing nations argue that: (1) they are dis-
criminated against in favor of the domestic producer of competing
products; (2) their exports are subject to substantial price instabili-
ties; and (3) their most logical industries face especially high rates
of protection which force them to export raw materials and to turn
to import substitution industries. Neither of these is an optimum solu-
tion in terms of economic logic and comparative advantage, for them
or for us. In our paper we give an example showing that a modest
tariff of 5 percent on raw materials and 15 percent on processed goods,
becomes a 35-percent protection for the importing nations processing
industry.
Mr. Cooper has already touched on this, and also Mr. Pincus.
I have already suggested that the trade prospects are favorable for
the export of red meat and feed grains to most developed nations.
Some shifts in patterns of trade will occur if membership in the EEC
is expanded, or if new regional groupings develop.
The population-food supply problem is a prominent feature of
the developing countries. The problem stems primarily from the ac-
celerated rates of population growth, which overwhelm the very cred-
itable increases in food production occurring in many of the develop-
ing nations. Concessional exports will be required for some time to
come. A substantial program of family planning can influence the
need for a food aid program after 1980, but the potential heavy con-
sumers of concessional food aid during the 1970's are already born.
Without population control, the "need" for food aid will increase
continuously.
The relation of trade and domestic interests is becoming evermore
comprehensive and interrelated. The United States has a complex pat-
tern of interests in agricultural trade. This interest includes but goes
far beyond the economic interest in a large volume of exports. It in-
cludes trade from developing countries as a partial substitute for for-
eign aid. It includes the support which growth in trade can make to
improved economic welfare of people around the world. It includes
PAGENO="0260"
256 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
the economic welfare of U.S. farmers and marketing agencies who
produce and distribute for the export market. It includes the simple
humamtarian interest in making bread, rice, and better nutrition more
possible than before. These and more are elements of the broad U.S.
mterest in agricultural trade.
These interests continue to present the United States with major
challenges and opportunities for policy leadership. Our efforts should
seek to increase the competitive structure of wor1~i markets and at the
same time to encourage cooperation among nations in dealing with
food aid and the trading problems of less developed countries. Ex-
ploration of appropriate policies and possibilities for coordinated in-
ternational action needs to continue on such important issues as: (1)
methods of reducing the conflict between domestic agricultural policy
and international trade policy, (2) provision and financing of all aid
includmg food aid, (3) preferential trading relations and reduction
of barriers on imports from developing countries, (4) financial ar-
rangements and marketing aids to permit expanded trade and im-
proved export possibilities for developing countries, and (5) the pur-
pose and role of international commodity arrangements in future im-
provement of international agricultural markets. Because of timing,
it is especially important that we, with other developed nations, pre-
pare a realistic, coordinated policy position before the 1968 UNCTAD
Conference in India.
Thank you.
Chairman Bo~s. Thank you very much, Mr. Pincus.
We will begin the questioning with Congressman Reuss.
Representative REuss. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Cooper, you point out the link between trade policy and
monetary reform, in that the existance of the new international
monetary medium makes it possible to finance balance-of-payments
deficits longer than would otherwise be the. case, a.nd hence yields less
of a temptation to adopt restrictive trade devices. I think that is a
point you are making on the second to the last page. In that connec-
tion, we note in this morning's paper that. the meeting of the Ministers
in London on international monetary reform has currently broken up
without any substantial agreement having been reached. I gather
that what must have happened was that the French maintained their
insistence on some kinds of a drawing right with a fairly harsh repay-
ment provision, so that it really didn't even come close to constituting
an international asset. And our negotiators, I gather, must have
stuck-properly-to our position, that unless there was something
approaching a new international monetary medium which the central
bank would be willing to hold, any agreement would be illusory.
I now come to my question. In your judgment, is the United States
well advised to stick to its guns, or would it be in our interest to sign
any kind of agreement just for the sake of having an agreement at
an international monetary meeting?
Mr. COOPER. I was very disheartened by what I read in the paper
this morning about the lack of agreement among the finance Ministers
on international monetary reform. From what I know of the
European, which I guess is the French, position on the monetary
reform, I would not recommend accepting it just for the sake of
agreement. Countries are going to be faced with balance-of-pay-
PAGENO="0261"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 257
ments difficulties from time to time. The purpose of reserves or inter-
national lines of credit is to permit countries to finance these occasional
balance-of-payments deficits without having to do violation to their
other objectives, both national and international.
I do not fear a repetition of the 1929 debacle. Most Western govern-
ments are sufficiently committed to their domestic economic objectives
to carry through with action to prevent a deep depression. The real
threat I see in severe balance-of-payment deficits is precisely to the
areas that we have been talking about this morning, trade policies.
Deficits which cannot be financed, and about which there is a sufficient
uncertainty that a change in exchange rate seems inappropriate are
likely to be stopped by interferrence with trade and other interna-
tional transactions.
I see no reason to think that forces leading to imbalance of payments
are likely to diminish in the future. On the contrary, they will per-
haps increase, for a number of reasons. It will therefore be necessary
to have an adequate flow of new international reserves to permit financ-
ing of larger and more prolonged deficits. I don't mean by this that I
see a perpetual deficit for the United States. I am talking about the
international payments system as a whole. And Countries need larger
reserves to finance these deficits and to feel comfortable about doing it;
that is, they must feel free to use those reserves rather than modify
their policies to defend reserves.
As I understand the French position on monetary reform, it would
do very little to provide that kind of financing. I would say even that
a straightforward increase in IMF quotas such as we had in 1965, with
mitigation of gold subscriptions, would be preferable, and should not
be denigrated.
Representative REtTSS. Mr. Pincus, you've made a suggestion in your
paper which I quote: "The executive and legislative branches should
seriously consider the establishment of an American development bank
with authority to borrow in the market at variable terms and condi-
tions to underdeveloped countries in order to help them finance pur-
chases of American equipment." I think that is a good idea. However,
don't we have such an institution-the Export-Import Bank-which
lately, it turns out, has been getting into antics not having to do with
development? That to the side, the Export-Import Bank does have
the power to go to the market with participation certificates-maybe
not enough from our standpoint, but it does have that power. It can
relend at variable terms and conditions-maybe not as much as you
have in mind, but, of course, it can charge a 7-percent interest rate on
some loans, and then use the money it gets to be able to charge a 2 or 5
percent interest rate. And to the degree that it does, it may be the
wrong people and the wrong commodities. And finally, it is restricted,
of course, to financing purchases of American equipment. So, why
couldn't the Export-Import Bank, with maybe a few refinements sub-
stantially be what you have in mind?
I suspect it could.
Mr. PINctrs. I suspect it could, also.
The kind of thing I have in mind would involve some annual or bi-
annual appropriation of the interest subsidy, because I am thinking
of larger sums of money than the Export-Import Bank is now operat-
PAGENO="0262"
258 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
ing with. And there is a certain international competition among
export credit agencies, which is in effect what the Export-Import
Bank is-a long-term supplier of export credits.
I feel that the Export-Import Bank's potential has been greatly
underrated by people who concern themselves with the welfare and
development of the underdeveloped countries, because there is a tend-
ency to feel that it is nothing but a device for selling American mer-
chandise abroad. What I am saying is that I think it should have
much greater flexibility. As a realistic matter, flexibility would have
to include much longer terms. In some cases, for the poorer countries,
the interest ra.te would have to approach zero. This means that an
interest subsidy would have to be appropriated. The Export-Import
Bank could not go to one colmt.ry and say, you will have to pay 12
percent to compensate for the low rate we are charging another bor-
rower. The answer would be, no, we will get our export credits else-
where, at rates lower than 12 percent.
I think that in trying to do something to ameliorate the economic
conditions of underdeveloped countries, however much one might wish
it could be so, Congress or other departments cannot do it solely on the
basis of considerations divorced from the U.S. material interest. What
lubricates trade is the coincidence of material interest. I am saying
that some of these countries are so poor now that that lubrication
process is going to take a long time, and cost the United States a
certain amount of money. In my personal opinion, it is going to take
much more money than the Export-Import Bank now has at its
disposal, and it is going to take some form of interest subsidy which
would be even larger than that implicit in the present operations of
the Export-Import Bank. I believe on the other hand to have the
foreign aid agency do it, opens up a series of vistas that I find irn-
palatable for the economic development, of those countries, and also
quite possibly for the interest of the United States, in that short term
considerations might then tend to dominate.
Representative REUSS. Thank you.
Chairman BOGGS. Senator Miller?
Senator MILLER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Pincus, do you draw any distinction between rich countries with
a balance-of-payments deficit and rich countries with a balance-of-
payments surplus ~
Mr. PINCUS. In this testimony I have said that as long as the United
States has a balance-of-payments problem, the Export-Import Bank,
or some revision of it, should tie the loans. I think that the struggle
to achieve untied aid in the international arena is fruitless. I think
every major trading nation is mercantilist. If it has a balance-of -pay-
ments surplus, it wants to keep it. If it doesn't have one., it wants to
get it. By simple arithmetic we have to recognize that that is impos-
sible.
However, we do have a balance-of-payments deficit for reasons that
obviously take us too far afield to discuss now. I see no reason what-
soever why we should not follow the same policies followed by `Western
European nations who are doing the same things, extending tied
export credits, and nonetheless maintaining a fairly substantial bal~
ance of payments of surpluses. We have no leverage that. we are will-
PAGENO="0263"
THE FTJTURE' OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 259
ing to exercise to force them to change their policies. I don't see why
we shouldn't follow the same policies ourselves. It is the coincidence
of material interests that lubricates economic activity.
Senator MILLER. So, the preferences from a rich national with a bal-
ance-of -payments deficit should be the same as the preference extended
by a rich nation with a balance-of-payments surplus, is that your
position?
Mr. PINcus. No, that' is not my position. What I say is that a
country with a balance-of-payments deficit should look, among other
factors at the balance of payments influence on it of the preferential
systems it chooses to adopt. And you can make your preferences by
product in such `a way as to affect your balance of payments, you can
do it by recipient nation in such a way as to affect your balance of
payments; you can do it by escape clauses and quotas; and you can
do it by many devices that wehaven't yet considered.
I think, in essence, the principal point I have made in this testi-
mony is that the Government is perfectly willing to go into negotia-
tions that involve billions and billions of dollars of trade annually,
but is not willing to spend a few million dollars a year on electronic
computers to find out what the various of balance of payments impli-
cations of alternative trading systems are. That is the concern of
Congress. It just seems to me to be extraordinarily shortsighted.
Senator MILLER. The reason that prompted my question was your-
was where you said preferences should be given from all rich'
countries to all poor countries. But you didn't necessarily mean that
identical preferences should be given, that this should be within the
framework of trying to cope with the balance-of-payments deficit on
the one hand, or the balance-of-payments surplus on the other.
Mr. PlNctrs. That is what my testimony states.
Senator MILLER. Now, to carry that a step further, should these pref-
erences be the same for' poor nations with a balance-of-payments sur-,
plus as for poor nations with a balance-of-payments deficit?
Mr. PINcus. Poor nations with a balance-of-payments surplus are a
problem that has worried the foreign aid agency in recent times, be-
cause it was pointed out to AID, look, you are giving money to coun-
tries which are building up their foreign exchange reserves. Now, that
to me is not a convincing argument. I am sure one could devise a
method to keep all underdeveloped countries' foreign exchange reserves
at zero, but I' don't see the utility of it. They are not building them up
because of some desire to have money in the bank rather than develop
the country. These things can be cyclical. One year the price of coffee
is high, and at another time it is low.
Senator MILLER. In that case, there would be no distinction that you
would make on the preferences?
Mr. PINCUS. I don't see any undeveloped country that I know of-
unless you look to Kuwait as a less developed country-which is regu-
larly building up a balance-of-payments surplus.
Senator MILLER. In considering preferences for an undeveloped
country, shouldn't one of the factors be its balance-of-payments
situation?
`Mr. PINCUS. Not in my opinion.
Senator MILLER. Mr. Cooper, you testified as follows: Restrictions
PAGENO="0264"
260 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
on imports are obviously suitable if the balance-of-payments deficit is
not expected to last. That is, the currency should be devalued.
Are you thinking of any particular countries with respect to this
devaluation?
Mr. CooPER. No.
Senator MILLER. Do you have any examples?
Mr. COOPER. No. There are many historical examples. If a country is
facing a serious balance-of-payments deficit, and if there is just noth-
ing in the cards so far as anyone can see to reduce it in the foreseeable
future, then that is a prima facie evidence that the country is in "struc-
tural disequilibrium" to use the term in the IMF articles of agreement.
Under the IMF rules, that country ought to change the parity of its
currency. That is the accepted solution for such a disequilibrium.
Senator MILLER. I am not denying the validity of your statement.
But I am pointing out that it might be difficult to apply. I was wonder-
ing if you had any countries you would want to name where that point
should be applied?
Mr. COOPER. I wouldn't want to name any country where it should
be applied now. There are historical examples. The French franc in
1955-1957 was in fundamental disequilibrium. It was devalued in
1957 and again in 1958, but perhaps devalued too much.
Senator MILLER. It may be embarrassing for the United States or
any nation to suggest to one of these other nations that they should
devalue their currency because things are hopeless.
Mr. CooPER. It has been done, but not publicly. The IMF holds dis-
creet conversations with all of its members.
Senator MILLER. Now, I would like to ask any of you gentlemen at
the table if you know how important this American selling price prob-
lem is to the Common Market countries? Does anybody have a com-
ment on that? I know that you didn't particularly cover it, but would
you like to make a comment on how important to the Common Market
the American selling price is?
Mr. BAU)WIN. I don't know the exact trade figures, but we know,
of course, that the Germans are very much interested in it. They feel
that it is important for them, and that if it were removed, they would
be abel to increase their exports of chemical products considerably.
Senator MILLER. Is it important to France, too, do you know?
Mr. BALDWIN. I am not sure of that. I know it is the Germans who
are pushing the hardest. I imagine there are some chemical products
affected by ASP coming from most of the Common Market countries.
Mr. DIEBOLD. I think Switzerland and Britain have an mterest in
it, too.
Senator MIILER. Thank you very much.
Mr. Witt, you stated: "The commitment to supply a substantial
quantity of grains and international food aid (thus subtracting), will
benefit the food and feed grain producers of Canada and the United
States." We had testimony from Mr. Roth, the other day, that this
food aid share on the Common Market would amount to about a mil-
lion tons a year.
Mr. WITT. I thought it was a total of four and a half million tons.
Senator MILLER. Well, from the Common Market it would be a
million tons. Now, my concern is mainly with the Common Market.
And what you in effect are saying is that the Common Market
PAGENO="0265"
THE FTJTTJRE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 261
is putting up a million tons of food aid, and this will subtract from
the Common Market food supply, and therefore give us a better op-
portunity for exports. But only 2 or 3 days ago there was an article
in the New York Times indicating that the Common Market had
decided to increase their support prices for domestic produced grains,
and the forecast was that they would substantially increase their pro-
duction. So, I question whether this will, in fact, subtract from their
market.
Mr. WITT. Senator Miller, the question here is: What are we com-
paring? Is this new price policy a direct consequence of the Kennedy
Round negotiation, or would it have come anyway? Which shall be
the basis for comparison? But more important, the food that we are
discussing is in part denatured and fed to livestock, from France in
particular, as reduced internal barriers facilitate flows into other
parts of the European Common Market And a certain amount has
been subsidized and exported into other parts of the world. Since
Europe produces much soft wheat, it is not possible to use it all, and
it has been necessary to import high protein wheat to prepare the
kind of flour that is needed.
Now in the present situation, with this new agreement we substract
a million tons, to be distributed through something like a food-for-
progress program on some kind of basis to the developing countries.
It is not in Europe to feed to livestock, and it is not there to mix in
with the other wheat, and produce flours for the population.
However, if there is in the present or future a deliberate policy on
the part of the European countries to increase their food production
and their wheat production so as to provide this extra wheat which
they are committed to providing for distribution to the rest of the
world, to that extent, of course, it is contrary to what I am suggest-
ing here.
If you will permit me, Mr. Chairman, I will be glad to extend my
remarks on this matter in a subsequent submission for the record.
Chairman BOGGS. Without objection, you have permission.
(Material subsequently filed by Professor Witt appears below:)
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY,
East Lanthig, Mich., July 2~, 1967.
Hon. HALE BoGGs,
Joint Economic Committee, Congress of the United states,
Washington, D.C.
DEAR Mn. Booos: This letter is a further response to Senator Miller's question
at the Hearings last Wednesday, and represents a request to respond to your
invitation to extend our remarks.
Professor Sorenson, who worked with me in preparing the study paper, pro-
vided me with the enclosed statement on the questions posed by Senator Miller,
namely: will the price changes by the EEC lead to a net increase in grains
production? You will note from 8 that no net increase is anticipated, but that
some shifts in trade may occur This could mean a smaller rate of increase in
North American exports to the EEC but greater opportunity elsewhere.
Very truly yours,
LAWRENCE W. Wirr.
EXTENsIoN or REMARKS OF LAWRENCE W. WITT
The following statement dated Tune 27, 1967 prepared by George E. Rossmiller
is added to comment further on the questions raised ~by Senator Miller. It is based
on research materials developed in a Michigan State University-U.S. Department
of Agriculture Project on the EEC, under the direction of Vernon Sorenson and
Dale E. Hathaway.
PAGENO="0266"
262 T~ FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
EEC PRICE STRUCTURE CHANGE ANALYSIS
With a change in the EEC price structure as follows, what factors play a part
in determining production and consumption shifts and what are the estimated
magnitudes of these shifts?
Price changes:
Barley, from $91.25/ton to $96.00/ton.
Corn, from $90.63/ton to $99.00/ton.
Beef, from $66.25/100 kg. to $70.00/100 kg.
Pork, from (?)/100 kg. to $73.50/100 kg. (increase).
1. The effect of these price changes taken together is to raise the price structure
of livestock products and feed grains absolutely and relative to wheat. We can
say this because beef and dairy products are jointly produced and the feed grain
price will influence poultry meat and egg prices. Thus production changes are
possible due to relative price changes and consumption changes are possible due
both to the rise in price relative to the total economy and the relative shifts
within the agriculture price structure.
2. Due to (1) the inflexible farm structure and, (2) a partially offsetting
increase in the price of beef (a forage using enterprise) no shift is envisioned as
between grain and forage or other crops. Thus the price changes will not affect
total grain surface.
3. Some shift into barley from other feed grains, pkrticularly oats, is to be
expected. This will be less than one might first expect due to limits, at least in
the short run, on the crop rotation pattern and the already rapid rate of decrease
in oats and rye surface. But to the extent this shift occurs, projected feed grain
production will increase by an amount equal to the difference in barley or corn
yields and the yields of those crops they replace times the amount of surface
shifted in this maimer. Some shift from wheat to barley surface is probable, with
a resulting increase in total feed grain production but with an.offsetting decrease
in wheat production.
4~ The price of corn has increased not only relative to other grains but to
barley price as well. So from a price point of view pressure exists to shift to
corn production even over barley. In practice the~direct effect on corn production
will be very small because. corn surface is already being expanded as rapidly
as capital (irrigation in Italy and France) can be provided and varieties can
be improved and adapted to soil and climatic conditions. Corn yields in the mary
ginal areas are highly variable due to yearly weather fluctuations and the rela-
tively small change in the barley-corn price ratio is not enough to bring about
more than a negligible surface shift from barley to corn. Thus, no change in
projected total feed grain production is seen from this source.
5. The increased price of feed grains will have some effect on production in
the livestock sector, particularly in those livestock enterprises which must pur-
chase their feed. But so will the price increase for beef and the newly established
base price and intervention mechanism for pork. Since the feed grain price is
a variable in the formula determining the sluice gate price and import levy for
poultry meat and eggs, the sluice-gate price will increase. The poultry meat-
feedgrain and egg-feedgrain price ratios will remain about constant so no signi-
ficant shift in the production trend is probable for these products. The net effect
of the barley, corn, and pork price increases is an increa~e in the pork-feed
grain ratio. We can expect a surplus situation in pork production. The rate of
feed grain use for cattle may decrease slightly. Thus the net feed grain utiliza-
tion effect. (lisreganhing for t1~e momeat consumption considerations, will be
(1) no change in requirements fo~ poultry meat and eggs, (2) increased require-
ments for pork. (3) partially offset by decreased requirements for cattle.
6. On the consumption side, a generally higher price will tend to slow the
growth in consumption of meat. Since the price of pork will rise relative to
poultry, some shift to consumption of poultry at the expense of pork can be
envisioned. Beef demand will probably increase consisent with earlier projec-
tions since an upward beef price trend was assumed. Increased prices for pork
and poultry were not assumed for earlier projections. Thus in net the beef
deficit will remain largely unchanged from the prolections. The potential pork
~curplus u-ill he argravated by the consumption effects of the price structure
change. To the extent that demand shifts toward poultry. greater feed grain
utilization in the sector will, occur. (Modifying conclusion in. point 5 above.)
PAGENO="0267"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 263
7. This leaves the effect which may well be the most important of all-the
possible shift of wheat from export to feed channels. With an increase in feed
grain prices relative to the wheat price, wheat becomes a stronger competitor
in the feed grain market. Two main factors must be considered in production
and one with respect to transportation. The transport question revolves around
whether it now becomes more profitable to move wheat from wheat surplus
areas (mainly the Paris Basin) to feed grain deficit areas (mainly Netherlands,
Northern Germany, and the Po Valley) within the EEC than to import feed
grain directly from third country sources. The production questions thclude (1)
will the mix of grain produced and fed on farms include a higher portion of
wheat and, (2) to what extent will the mix of feed grain moving in commercial
channels shift toward a higher portion of wheat.
The feed mix from farm produced grain will probably not shift significantly
since a high portion of wheat is already contained in farm produced feed grain
mixes. (In Germany, only 60% of wheat produced in 1964/65 moved through
commercial marketing channels-a high proportion of the remainder presumably
was fed on the farm.) With respect to locally mixed commercial feed, some shifts
in mix to a higher wheat portion may occur. If the change in price ratios is great
enough to make movement of wheat to feed deficit areas more profitable than im-
porting from third countries a substantial diversion of export wheat into feed
uses can occur.
8. Analysis of effects. We see no change in projected feed grain production
levels due to points 2 and 4 above. The effects discussed under point 3 above will
result in an increase from the projections of not more than 1 million tons addi-
tional feed grain production by 1970, with next year's product shift from these
sources being substantially less.
The consumption effects of point 6 coupled with the livestock production effects
of point 5 will increase utilization of feed grain by probably at least an equal
amount. Thus the effects of points 5 and 6 will cancel those of point 3 leaving
the net feed grain production-utilization balance largely unchanged.
The unanswered question, and as indicated above the one of potentially great-
est importance, is whether a major diversion of surplus wheat from export to
feed use occurs. Some diversion can occur locally, but unless large quantities of
surplus French wheat are denatured and shipped to Northern EEC and/or the
Po Valley, the implications for ILS. exports should not be great. Whether this
diversion will occur can be answered only through direct discussion with trade
and EEC officials in Europe who buy grain and compute feed manufacturing
costs related to surplus disposal. The price at which surplus wheat can be sold in
world markets, as well as internal EEC prices and transport costs will influence
the outcome.
If the pork support policy stands and is effective, we expect this to lead to sub-
stantial and burdensome pork surpluses. Further, a rise in pork prices causing a
demand shift to poultry may create a short term spurt in poultry imports until
domestic (EEC) production adjusts. Finally it is doubtful that the policy will
stand without further changes because of the additional pressures created by
the probable beef deficit and pork surplus.
Source material.-MSU-TJSDA Project on EEC. Reports by Sorenson, Hatha-
way, Rossmiller, Mangum, Epp, and Petit.
Senator MtLLER. Thank you very much. My time is up.
Chairman Boc~s. Senator Javits?
Senator JAvIT5. Gentlemen, I will not detain you very long. I would
like to know, first, what is your opinion as to giving up the most-
favored-nation principle in order to make the necessary deals with the
less-developed countries?
We might start out with Professor Cooper.
Mr. COOPER. It depends on what you mean by giving MFN up in
principle. I stated in my testimony that I think the best outcome for
the United States, and indeed for the world, would be carrying on
with the trade negot1ations of the broad-gaged Kennedy Round type,
that is, within the MFN context. Personally I would not. object to the
idea of so-called advance cuts in that context, that is, if we have be-
PAGENO="0268"
264 T~ FUTURE~ OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
fore us a period of say, 10 years of trade liberalization on an MFN
basis, but phased over time so that the tariff cuts come in small in-
crements, I can see some argument for extending those cuts at once
to the less-developed countries. I think that one should not exaggerate
the gains from that, and recognize what it really is. It would, in effect,
be transferring foreign aid through commodities, with the selection of
recipient countries taking place through the market rather than
through the foreign aid agency. Nonetheless, in a period as long as 10
yea.rs t.hat might stimulate some investment in some less-developed
countries. Of far greater importance than preferences in advanced
countries' markets are improvements in the tariff structure of the ad-
vanced countries. There is much what we might call anecdotal evi-
dence that processing industries are excluded from less-developed
countries because of the tariff structure in advanced countries. As a
result, they export raw material in a relatively unfinished state.
But this change in tariff structure can be brought about by general
across-the-board reduction in tariffs; preferences are not necessary for
that.
To sum up, I wouldn't mind breaking temporarily from the MFN
principle in the form of advance cuts, but only in a clearly defined con-
text of across-the-board MFN tariff reduct.ions among all industrial
countries.
*Senator JAvrrs. Any other comments?
Mr. Witt?
Mr. Wirr. I think I would say essentially the same thing. It is much
more important to look at the commodities and the tariff structure
here than to look at easing up on-giving them special preferences.
They obtain preferences if you deal in commodities that are important
to them, without violating the most-favored-nation clause. The recent
trade agreements involved many commodities that. were of interest to
the developed nations. And one of the objections that some of the de-
veloping countries are making-whether true or not is another ques-
tion-is that we have negotiated enough on the commodities that are
of major interest today to the developing nations. And we can do a
great deal this way.
Senator JAvrrs. Mr. Baldwin?
Mr. BALDWIN. I would like to go along with Mr. Cooper on this. I
certainly would support the notion of an advance cut of the Kennedy
Bound tariff reductions to the less developed countries. I also think that
we should be quite skeptical about the merits of preferences. It seems
to me you inevitably get into the kind of problems that Senator Miller
raises and that these will lead to an elaborate system of quotas, not just
tariff quotas, but quantitative restrictions among the developed coun-
tries and among the less developed countries. Are you going to treat
every developed country the same regardless of whether the country
has a deficit or not? Or are you going to treat every underdeveloped
country the same? Should you treat India the same as some African
country, for instance, Kenya? Of course, if you do, India is going to
get much more of the benefits from generalized preferences or manu-
factures. And should the degree of preferences for India differ from
the preferences to the developing countries, depending upon the level
of development and the balance-of-payments situation? You could also
PAGENO="0269"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 265
establish different quotas for each individual commodity. After a
while I think you would get into an extremely elaborate system of
quotas that will be difficult to administer, and that would lead to in-
creasingly bitter haggling among the developed countries and the less-
developed countries. I think, as in the case of the cotton textile agree-
ment, there would be a severe backlash of ill feeling against the United
States.
I don't think in the long run it is going to help the less developed
countries more than a moderate amount. The problem just isn't one of
simply granting small preferences. This growth difficulty arises to a
considerable extent from their own elaborate import substitution poli-
cies that many countries are undertaking to an excessive degree and
which results in excess capacity and high prices on commodities that
could be export products, in an attempt to handle their expansion of
exports themselves.
We also have some evidence that the Commonwealth preferential
system, which was introduced in the early 1930's, did not have much
effect on commodities where the tariffs were not too high-as will be
the case for many commodities at the ed of the Kennedy Round. We
have also found in that experience that the effects were rapidly dissi-
pated. By the end of the 1930's non-Commonwealth countries had
caught up and restored their historical shares in the British market.
Thus, I think we are going to get all the drawbacks in terms of the
political backlash, and yet not any great economic benefits.
Another point I want to make is that it will begin, I think, to lead
to the destruction of our whole principle of free multilateral trade.
As yOu get these quota arrangements applied to less developed coun-
tries, you are certainly going to get pressures in the United States to
apply them against other developed countries. Why shouldn't you
apply a quota against Japanese goods and not just Indian goods? In
the long run the less developed countries are going to suffer because of
type of extension of quantitative restrictions.
Senator JAvITS. Would the answers be any different if we talked
about abandoning the MFN principle with a Latin American Com-
mon Market on the same theory that the European Economic Com-
munity gives preferences to the former associated countries?
Mr. BALDWIN. I don't think it would make much difference.
Senator JAVITS. It would be the same?
Mr. BALDWIN. These special regional preferences are actually worse
than the general ones.
Mr. DIEBOLD. Most of what I originally intended to say was said by
Mr Baldwin and Mr Cooper I share very much their view on the
preference issu~ gener~tlly. I won't repeat what they have said, but I
think there .is a problem in the approach that Mr. Pincus was sug-
gesting, because 1 find a conflict in tendency between some of the
things he said.
On the one hand he said we ought to be' flexible so that~ countries
could exclude from the preferences those things that they wished to.
The aim is to get mOre done than if we insisted that the United States
and every one else do the same thihg. I think that is an attractively
realistic idea in many ways. But `my fear' is that, particularly in the
case of preferences, it would be one more element in the kind of erosion
PAGENO="0270"
266 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Mr. Baldwin was talking about, because each one would not oniy do
what was easiest for him, but he would tend to ask a special quid pro
quo, which would tend to make the whole system a complicated one
in which the advanced countries would in effect, if not always in form,
be looking for special preferences in the undeveloped countries. In-
deed, the Common Market did that in their agreement with Nigeria,
something I think we should have objected to more strongly than we
did.
The other weakness of the flexible approach, it seems to me, is that
would be one more factor making the preferences less valuable to the
developed countries than people would like to think. It is precisely at
the places where important trade gains could be made that prefer-
ences will not be given because of competition with the domestic
producers.
But I would like to go back to the point that you started with, Sen-
ator Javits, leaving aside now the merits or demerits of preferences.
If for whatever reason, political or otherwise, the United States were
to go into some form of preferential arrangement for some or all less-
developed countries, I think we should not think of it as "abandonmg
MFN." We should think of it ra.ther as a controlled departure from
the principle of the most-favored-nation. And if this sounds cynical,
I can only suggest that we have had such a controlled departure in the
case of Western Europe during the dollar shortage. There were a
lot of people in this country that thought that GATT and the ITO
were really frauds because the exceptions were more important than
the rule. Those exceptions permitted people in balance-of-payments
difficulties to discriminate against us primarily. But if we had not had
the basic agreement on the equal treatment principle, we should now
still be trying to get back some of the things that we got automatically
from 1958 on when European currencies became convertible. I would
think that any experiments in preferences for less-developed coun-
tries, on a hemispheric basis or otherwise, ought to be subject to the
other side of what Mr. Pincus talked about, which was the stress on
certain broad principles of generality, of temporary limitation, and
things of that sort. I think under such rules one can reduce the risk
of complete erosion and destruction of the world trading system and a
better control the departure from the principle of equality.
Senator JAVITS. Mr. Pincus, do you want to get into this, too?
Mr. PINCUS. I think that the remarks made by the other witnesses
today are quite correct, by and large. I am simply approaching it from
a slightly different viewpoint. I think Mr. Diebold's comments are
correct in talking about the control of departures from MFN. The
point about quotas made by Mr. Baldwin is ill taken. Those are tariff-
free quotas. They are not quotas as to the total amount of imports that
one takes. In other words, 10 percent of what you send me I will allow
in duty free, but that doesn't mean that I stop importing the rest at the
MFN rate. So, I don't see the relevance of his point.
The second point that I would make is that the preferences offered
by advanced countries to underdeveloped countries are by their very
nature not going to allow changes in the system of world trade, because
domestic producers in the rich countries don't want vast changes made
in the domestic structure of production.
PAGENO="0271"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 267
Therefore, any system, any preferential. system adopted will neces-
sarily be limited in its effect. My arguments for it are essentially two,
and I think they are basically political, although phrased in economic
terms. One is that I believe that a series of preferential systems are in
the cards. Now, if the United States wants to stand back from that, it
is their privilege. I just happened to think it is a poor idea to stand
back from it.
The preferences system actually adopted by the OECD countries
in concert or separately will certainly be such as to have a rather small
impact on the actual structure of the production in the developed
countries, but they may have the very important effect of doing exact-
ly what some of the earlier speakers said, turning these people's eyes
away from high cost import substitution and toward the fact that
there is a world market in which they now have at least some feelings
as being the victims of discrimination.
Senator JAVITS. Now, to followup that, is that your prescription
for the optimum proposition you can offer UNCTAD, what you have
just stated?
Mr. PINCUS. On this matter, you mean?
Senator JAvITs. That is what UNCTAD is all about.
Mr. PIN0Us. It is about other things. It is about commodities agree-
ments and supplementary finances, the whole bunch of things.
Senator JAVITS. Let's stay on this matter.
Mr. PINcus. I think I can answer it a little indirectly. One could
say to the UNCTAD countries, no preferences. That is what we said
in 1964.
Senator JAVITs. Go ahead.
Mr. PINcus. In 1964 we said we were willing to study the subject.
And we studied it. In the spring of 1967 at Punta dcl Este statements
were made that implied a change in our position, I believe. I certain-
ly took the inference that the U.S. Government would back some kind
of a general preference system. And this is our present stance in our
OECD discussions with other rich countries.
Now, I think from what little I understand of the political eco-
nomies of most countries, that such a system has two purposes. One
is to give the underdeveloped countries not only something that they
want, but something that may actually have a beneficial effect on their
world economic view.
The second is to do a minimum of "damage" to the interests of the
domestic producers in the developed countries, In order to do that, you
have to walk a tightrope.
Now, if you are asking me whether walking that tightrope is the
only likely stance I can. think of in the preferential line, the answer
is "Yes."
Senator JAvITS. Gentlemen, just one other questIon. What do you
think of these commodity agreements? Do you like them, or don't
you like them?
Now, we have got a new one now coming up as of the result of the
Kennedy Round. And there are others being negotiated. On the whole,
have they performed, and do you favor this as a policy of the United
States ~
PAGENO="0272"
268 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Mr. Wirr. Senator Javits, we have some experience with the prede-
cessors of the commodity agreements, and with a number of com-
modity agreements. And out of this history most people who examine
it decide that the consuming nations, exporting nations, both should
be involved, at least if it is an important product. And in this respect
I part company with what Mr. Pincus said in his testimony about
letting the tea countries get together and exploit Great Britain's tea
consumption to the extent that they can. Our experience with the
existing commodity agreements on the whole is not very satisfactory.
It has solved some short run problems. We find that many people
still look at commodity agreements as having potential, whereas they
look at exactly the same principle applied in domestic agriculture by
the United States and a number of other countries as failures; yet
they want to use international commodity agreements on an inter-
national basis with much less control of production, over the flow of
the commodities. We become very sophisticated on many of the diffi-
culties of wheat programs, corn programs, cotton programs, tobacco
programs in the United States. And yet suggest that perhaps inter-
national commodity agreements can solve similar surplus problems
on the international level. In fact, it is extremely difficult for a less-
developed country to go as far as we have been able to go in having
some control over production. If a commodity agreement is going to
be effective, it means that you must have some influence on both the
supply and the demand of the commodity. If you fail to control the
supply, you create stocks, you create the necessity for some secondary
disposal programs, or the agreement eventually will brea.k down. An
effective commodity agreement calls for a good deal more sophistica-
tion in management than is feasible in many cases.
So, I think that many people's hopes for these programs are simply
not borne out by the practicability of actual operations, except as a
short-term solution to a particular problem of price instability under
unusual circumstances.
Senator JAvITs. Any other comments?
Professor Cooper?
Mr. COOPER. I would just. like to comment briefly on your question
about UNCTAD.
I believe that the United States should not feel that it has to go to
UNCTAD with a proposal giving preferences. I know there is a feel-
ing that when there is a big international conference, the United
States traditionally is expected to take the initiative in those areas,
and very often does. I also feel that TJNCTAD has been a very useful
organization for bringing into public focus many of the problems of
the less-developed countries. But I do not think that we should be
dragooned for so-called political reasons into policies that we think
are not sensible. The political gains, that is, the psychological gains,
the Brownie points that we get from such proposals, will be very short
lived. We are not going to make friends forever by coming forward
with preference proposals in UNCTAD. If it doesn't make sense on
its merits or it isn't in our long-term interests, it seems to me we should
not feel obliged to put forward some kind of preference arrangement
merely in order to appear forthcoming in an international conference.
PAGENO="0273"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 269
Chairman BOGGS. Gentlemen, unfortunately, our time is up. The
House is in session. I would like to thank each of you for coming. And
if any of you care to elaborate on your remarks this morning we would
be happy to add the additional material to the record.
Senator JAVITS. Mr. Chairman, may I join with the Chair in thank-
ing the panel. I have rarely seen a more gifted panel. I was just riveted
to my seat all morning, although I have a million other things to do.
I thank them.
Chairman B0GG5. I agree with you, they are most learned. We are
very happy to have had them with us.
We will meet tomorrow at 10 o'clock, when we will hear David
Rockefeller, president, Chase Manhattan Bank, and George W. Ball,.
former Under Secretary of State.
(Whereupon, at 12:15 p.m., the subcommittee adjourned, to recon-
vene at 10 a.m., Thursday, July 20, 1967.)
82-481-67-vol. 1-18
PAGENO="0274"
PAGENO="0275"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
THURSDAY, JULY 20, 1967
CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES,
SUBOOMMIrrEE ON FOREIGN EcoNoMlo POLICY,
JOINT ECONOMIC COMMIrPEE,
Washington, D.C.
The subcommittee met at 10 a.m., pursuant to notice, in room 1202,
New Senate Office Building, Hon. Hale Boggs (chairman of the sub-
committee) presiding.
Present: Representatives Boggs, Bolling, Reuss, `Rumsfeld, and
Curtis; and Senators Proxmire and Percy.
Also present: John R. Stark, executive director; John B. Henderson,
staff economist; and Donald A. Webster, minority staff economist.
Chairman BOGGS. The subcommittee will come to order.
I am very pleased today to have two very distinguished witnesses,
former Under Secretary of State, George Ball, and Mr. David Rocke-
feller. Mr. Rockefeller's plane has. been slightly delayed in landing.
Mr. Ball, we are very glad to have you here.
I might say that it was largely the work of Secretary Ball and his
colleagues that made possible the 1962 act and the Kennedy Round.
So, we have a very experienced and able witness before us this
morning.
We welcome your appearance, Mr. Ball.
STATEMENT OF HON. GEORGE W. BALL, FORMER UNDER
SECRETARY OP STATE
Mr. BALL. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee:
I
Thirty-three-years ago the United States abruptly reversed the
course of its commercial policy and set its compass in a direction that
we have been following ever since. The decision to steer by a new chart
was born of economic hard times. It was based on the simple, straight-
forward proposition that our high tariff policies had, by fragmenting
world markets, dried up international trade and helped to produce
a worldwide depression. By the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act
of 1934 we undertook, through freeing the movement of goods, to
stimulate business for our farms and factories, to create jobs, and to
help a battered world find its way back toward, prosperity.
271
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272 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
The enactment of that legislation launched the United States on a
sustained period of leadership in international commercial policy.
Since then, by a succession of reciprocal trade negotiations, we have
changed the trading habits of the world.
Today, with the completion of the Kennedy Round, we are within
sight of the fulfillment of the original vision of Cordell Hull and of
his intrepid and dedicated disciples, such as Will Clayton. To be sure
we still have some distance to go before tariffs cease to be a factor in
restricting trade and we should not lose momentum. But we have
arrived at what I regard as a significant watershed in world economic
progress, and it is a good time for us to take stock of our position. Just
as three decades ago we fixed our sights on the tearing down of tariff
walls, we should now take new navigational bearings and reset our
compass toward a farther horizon.
For our modern world is different in almost every respect from that
of 1934. Then a handful of European metropolitan nations dominated
one-third of the world's population through colonial structures that
were at the same time closed trading systems, while American industry
concentrated on our domestic market. It was a very wide wOrld. No one
could cross the Atlantic in less than 5 or 6 days, and anyone traveling
to the Far East had to set aside months for his visit. Producing and
even selling abroad were still thought of as something exotic and
quite outside the scope of most American enterprises.
But the modern world is marked by air transport and telephones and
teletypes, computers and automation; it is a world in which thousands
of American companies no longer make much operational distinction
between domestic and international trade. They no longer see their
markets or their production limited by national boundaries but do
business in every corner of the globe, utilizing raw materials and
components, plant facilities and capital, labor and managerial talent
wherever they may find them so as to produce the highest yield with
the least cost to serve markets wherever they can be developed.
Underlying this activity is an inarticulate premise. However our
Government may define the policies of the United States, the great
American industrial enterprises have defined their own policies in
terms of a world ecnomy. They operate as though that world economy
were a fact, and it is, I suggest, sound policy for us to shape our
governmental action so as to help give reality to that assumption.
For the widespread development of the multinational corporation
is one of our major accomplishments in the years since the war, though
its meaning and importance have not been generally understood. For
the first time in history man has at his command an instrument that
enables him to employ resources flexibility to meet the needs of peoples
all over the world. Today a corporate management in Detroit or New
York or London or Dusseldorf may decide that it can best serve the
market of country ~Z by combining the resources of country X with
labor and plan facilities in country Y----and it may alter that decision
6 months from now if changes occur in ~osts or prices or transport. It
is the ability to look out over the world and freely survey all possible
sources of production, to study markets, and to use all of th~ factors
of production with great flexibility that is enabling man to employ the
world's finite stock of resources with a new degree of efficiency for the
benefit of all mankind.
PAGENO="0277"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY~ 273
But to fulfill its full potential the multinational corporation must
be able to operate with little regard for national boundaries-or, in
other words, for restrictions imposed by individual national govern-
ments.
To achieve such a free trading environment we must do far more
than merely reduce or eliminate tariffs. V~Te must move in the direction
of common fiscal concepts, a common monetary policy, and common
ideas of commercial responsibility. Already the economically advanced
nations have made some progress in all of these areas through such
agencies as the OECD and the committees it has sponsored, the Group
of Ten, and the International Monetary Fund, but we still have a long
way to go. In my view, we could steer a faster and more direct course
`if the United States and the other major trading nations were to set
a common goal by agreeing that what we seek at the end of the voyage
is the full realization of the benefits of a world economy.
Implied in this, of course, is a considerable erosion of the rigid con-
cepts of national sovereignty, but that erosion is taking place every
day as national economies grow increasingly interdependent, and I
think it desirable that this process be consciously continued. What I
am recommending is nothing so unreal and idealistic as a world gov-
ernment, since I have spent too many years in the guerrilla warfare of
practical diplomacy to be bemused by utopian visions. But it seems
beyond question that modern business-sustained and reinforced by
`modern technology-has outgrown the constrictive limits of the antiq-
uated political structures in which most of the world is organized, and
that itself is a political `fact which cannot be ignored. For the explo-
sion of business beyond national borders will tend to create needs and
`pressures that can help alter political structures to fit the requirements
`of modern man `far more adequately than the present crazy quilt of
`small national states. And, `meanwhile, commercial, monetary, and
antitrust policies-and even the domiciliary supervision of earth-
straddling corporations-will have to be increasingly entrusted to
`supranational institutions.
Already we have seen this process beginning to work in Europe
ivhere six nations have created an Economic Community dedi'cated
`to the achievement of an integrated economy. Hopefully-I would say
almost `certainly-within the next 1 to 5 years that Community will
be enlarged to include at least one other great trading nation, the
United Kingdom.
To be sure, the members of the Community are finding the path
*increasingly hard going as they tackle the cherished prerogatives of
nation states. In practical terms they are discovering that their failure
to make progress toward political unity i's severly holding back the
full merger of their economies. Nevertheless, they have recently been
able to reach agreement on a common approach to taxation. But they
are suffering, and suffering rather querulously, from their inability
to agree on a common companies law, or common social policies, or to
achieve a sufficient degree of common action in monetary matters.
`Thus, European businessmen live in a state of anxiety. They are
worried that their industries may be swallowed by giant U.S. enter-
prises. They are concerned that they are losing place in the tech-
nological race because their relatively small companies `cannot afford
PAGENO="0278"
274 T~ FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
the cost of adequate research and development and thus there is a
widening technological gap. They are fretting about the brain drain
of their scientifically equipped personnel to America. They are worried
because they do not have access to an adequate capital market enabling
Europe efficiently to mobilize the savings of its citizens and thus keep
pace with American corporate investment.
All these quite legitimate apprehensions stem from the obsolescence
of the European political and economic structure, and they will be
corrected only when enough Europeans recognize that fact. Meanwhile,
I listen with more regret than sympathy to complaints that are founded
on a refusal to come to grips with the essential problem. It does no good
to talk about a technological gap so long as European companies find
it almost impossible to merge across national boundaries because of
fiscal impediments and the lack of a uniform companies law, and there
is little purpose in talking about the creation of an adequate capital
market unless Europe is ready, through greater political unity, to move
not merely toward the adoption of common monetary policies, but a
common currency.
I suspect that Europe will be able to achieve a fully integrated
economy only when the present nostalgic nationalism proves its inca-
pacity to deal with the hard problems of the latter 20th century. Mean-
while, there is much that all of us can do within the limitations of
existing political structures to bring about the conditions of a world
economy. For we will never be able to put the world's resources to use
with full efficiency so long as business decisions are frustrated by a
multiplicity of different restrictions by relatively small nation states
that are based on parochial considerations, reflect no common philoso-
phv, and are keyed to no common goal.
But in view of the apparent vitality of old habits of thought, is the
goal I have suggested a realistic possibility? Certainly it is nothing
that will happen overnight. Yet, if we can achieve even a moderate
degree of common purpose we may bring about the conditions of a
world economy in considerably less than the 34 years it has taken us to
reduce tariffs to their present relatively low levels.
The first step is for us to examine in detail the wide spectrum of
measures that a world economy implies. Such an examination is a
something for the economically advanced nations to undertake together
since what we mean as a world economy will, for many years to come,
be largely confined to these advanced nations, which lies principally in
the Northern Hemisphere a.nd in Western Europe, North America, and
Japan. At the same time we should clarify our thinking regarding two
other sets of problems: those involving our trading relations with the
poorer nations-the underdeveloped or developing countries as they
are commonly called-which lie largely in the Southern Hemisphere,
and our trading relations with the nations behind the Iron Curtain.
II
There is a common complaint among the less-developed nations that,
while the advanced nations have provided foreign assistance, they have
largely ignored the trading prohlems of countries that are only begin-
ning to experience the industrial revolution. The solution strongly
PAGENO="0279"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 275
urged in TJNCTAD (the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development) is for the advanced countries to offer preferential tariff
treatment to the industrial products of the developing nations. This
would make it possible, so the argument goes, for the developing
countries to earn foreign exchange and accumulate the capital they
so urgently need.
A strong theoretical case can be made for this proposal, yet I have
never believed that it was politically realistic. Let us, for example, con-
sult our own experience. The weaving of textiles is, after all, the clas-
sical case of labor-intensive light industry best suited to the resources
and abilities of countries just crossing the threshold of industrializa-
tion. Yet, the moment that the developing countries began to send their
cotton textiles into our U.S. market in any volume, the pressure from
our domestic producers compelled us to restrain imports through a
succession of international arrangements.
Since we have denied nondiscriminatory entry to the textiles of the
developing countries on the ground that they are produced by cheap
labor and thus disrupt our markets, how can one possibly believe that
the advanced countries would be prepared to accord the developing
countries preferential treatment for their manufactures on a gener-
alized basis?
For it is one of the ironic facts of present day society that while we
talk glibly of "trade not aid" and make speeches about the need for the
developing countries to earn their own way, the advanced countries find
it far easier to provide resources through gifts or long-term loans than
to open their markets. The reason for this is, of course, obvious-that
the opening of markets creates problems for specific and articulate
groups who can translate their unhappiness into political action,
whereas the burden of foreign aid falls on the taxpayer.
But if generalized preferences for the developing countries are not,
as I see it, the wave ofthe future, what about discriminatory prefer-
ences to specific countries? Should we, for example, as has been often
suggested, set up a special trading system with Latin America in which
we would grant their products favorable treatment in our market
while they would accord reciprocal favorable treament to our products
in their markets?
This is the kind of question that cannot be answered intelligently
unless we are quite clear as to the whole set of structural relations we
envisage between the. industrialized north and the preindustrial or
semi-industrial south. This is an important question, since the rich
nations can never efficiently work together in assisting the poor nations
unless they reach some common agreement as to the general shape and
structure of the totality of these north-south relations. We have paid
very little attention to this problem, but we cannot go on ignoring it
forever since pressures are building up that will require us to face it
frankly.
* The problem is an important one, because it raises the central ques-
tion as to whether we should continue to cast our relations with the
rest of the world in universalist terms or should move avowedly to-
ward some tacitly or explicitly agreed allocation of responsibilities,
which cannot and should not be disassociated from the whole question
of spheres of influence. At the moment there are two existing systems
of north-south relations-rarely ackno ~vledged or differentiated. One
PAGENO="0280"
276 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
is what we might call the open system. The other consists of a series
of closed systems. The basic assumption of the open system is that all
industrial countries of the free world will accept responsibility for the
economic, commercial, and political well-being of all developing coun-
tries without discrimination. They will, through systematic consulta-
tion, concert their efforts to achieve that objective. The closed system,
on the other hand, assumes that specific industrial countries or groups
of countries in the north will maintain special relations with specific
developing countries or groups of countries in the south, and will
establish preferential and discriminatory arrangements to reinforce
these relations. This is the situation, for example, that exists with
regard to the African States of the French Community and, to a lesser
extent, within the British Commonwealth.
The United States has been the leading proponent of the open sys-
tem, but the existence of even incomplete closed systems, as in Africa,
has led to demands that we extend similar arra:ngements to Latin
America, many of whose products compete directly with those of
African nations. Up to this point we have been firmly loyal to the
principle of nondiscrimination; but recently the pressure for a special
trading regime with Latin America has become more clamorous, in
part at least because the European Economic Community has been
expanding the closed system, in practice if not in principle.
The activities of the European Economic Community-the Common
Market-in this connection are rooted in colonial arrangements. The
provision of preferential access to the products of certain African
countries resulted initially from the preferential regime that existed
within the French community. At the present time, of the 38 inde-
pendent African States, 18 former French, Italian, and Belgian ter-
ritories are already associate members of the European Common
Market. Two more areas of Africa may well come in: the Maghreb
countries of Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco, and (in the event that
Britain enters the Common Market) the 12 African members of the
British Commonwealth. After the coup in Nigeria in January 1966,
the Nigerian Government signed an as yet unratified agreement with
the Common Market for associate membership, which would have en-
titled Nigeria to the privileges both of the British Commonwealth
preference system and the preferential system of the European Com-
munity. I am not quite sure what is going to happen to that arrange-
inent, given the present state of turmoil in that unfortunate country.
Talks underway with Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda broke down
last year because the African States refused to grant preferences for
imports of the Six in return for full access for their exports to the
Common Market, but there are indications that such talks may be
revived, since the African States in question have had second thoughts
and may now be ready to work out some reciprocal arrangements
~although insisting on special protection for their own industries. Since
the European Community has provided its African associates with
more than $1.5 billion of aid over the past 7 years, the African States
have found associate membership profitable in addition to the trade
advantages; a.nd this does not include substantial grants of aid still
provided directly from Paris to the nations of the French community
and directly from Brussels to the Belgian Congo.
PAGENO="0281"
THE FTJTTJRE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 277
Three or 4 years `ago, when I was in the Government, I initiated
a series of talks with the French and British Governments in an
endeavor to persuade them to phase out their preferential systems and
move toward a regime of nondiscrimination. Those talks met with
lukewarm response `and their failure led me to conclude that the issue
of American policy could not be resolved on any doctrinal basis; but
that, sooner or later, if the European Common Market continued to
increase the geographical scope of its preferences to Africa, we would
be faced with serious problems in other parts of the world. Those prob-
lems would become even more acute if Britain should join the Com-
mon Market and the preferences now enjoyed by African members of
the British Commonwealth be extended so as to give them favored
access to the whole Common Market.
To my mind these trends, while undesirable, can scarcely be ignored,.
and if they continue we shall have to accept them as political facts
and'shape our policies accordingly. If Europe is not prepared to accept
responsibility for the third world on a universalist basis then perhaps
some regime of closed systems may be necessary. But in that event
should we not go the full way? Should we not seek the benefits of a
geographical division of responsibilities?
Should we not insist, in other words, that arrangements for com-
mercial preferences carry with them substantial obligations on the'
part of the industrialized partner? Thus, for example, if the European
Economic Community continues to expand its system of preferences
for Africa, should we not make it clear that we will look to the na-
tions of the community to carry the burden of economic assistance,.
and where necessary political tutelage for those African countries
that enjoy such preferences? In practice this would mean an Ameri-
can recognition of the primacy of the European interest in Africa,
and consequently the primacy of European responsibility for provid-
ing foreign aid, and looking after the education, health, and defense
of the African people. We would, in other words, resognize that Africa
was a special European responsibility just as today the European na-
tions recognize our particular responsibility in Latin America.
I do not raise this question in the belief that the division of the world
into a series of north-south slices is the best solution. I would much
prefer to see the other advanced nations take a generalized responsi-
bility toward the poor nations in the south, but if they are not going to
do so-and the reason that they are not going to do so is because they
haven't gotten their own political structure in modern form-then
perhaps we should settle for some sectionalizing of the world that
would involve and agreed concentration of effort by particular ad-
vanced nations of the north for the benefit of particular poor nations'
in the south within the framework of preferential trading systems.
Such an `approach has obvious disadvantages since it would not con-
tribute to the best use of resources, but at the end of the road we may
well find that this is the most effective way to share our burdens with
the other advanced nations.
III
I shall not attempt. this morning to deal with the problem of East-
West trade, since that raises a special set of questions bearing on our'
present and prospective relations with the Communist world. I urge
PAGENO="0282"
278 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
only that when this committee comes to look at this problem it do so
hardheadely so that we do not continue to deny trading opportunities
to American business when the goods are going to be provided anyway
by other Western countries if we do not provide them ourselves. In
other words, all I am suggesting is that we look at this problem criti..
cally and unemotionally and try to free it from the moralistic mush
in which it is so often submerged.
Thank you very much.
Chairman BOGGS. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Mr. Bolling?
Representative BOLLING. Mr. Secretary, it is a pleasure to hear you
again.
I wonder if you would expand a little bit on the last point you made.
I think the rest of your statement is very explicit and clear. I have
some questions, but I think I will leave them until later. But on that
last point which you made very briefly about East-West trade, it is
clear to me what you meant, but I wish you would make it more explicit.
Mr. BALL. Mr. Bolling, the problem we encounter again and again
in our trading relations with the Iron Curtain, or for that matter, even
with Red China~, is that our producers are denied the opportunity of
making perfectly good sales of their products in the belief that we
are hurting the Iron countries by denying them something, when the
fact is that they can get these same products elsewhere, and do get
them elsewhere. All we are doing is an act of self-flagellation that
doesn't advance the American interest.
Part of this, I think, results from a cultural lag on our part. It re-
sults from the assumption that the United States has a practical mo-
nopoly of technology in the world, that therefore anything that the
Iron Curtain countries can buy from the United States is going to be
better than what they can buy elsewhere, and that, to the extent that
we deny them the opportunity to buy machines or equipment from the
United States, they are going to have to get a poorer product some-
where else, and thus they are going to suffer by it. I think in a very
large number of cases this is nonsense. In the first place, an enormous
number of American companies have licensed their patents and know-
how overseas. Europe itself has spurted ahead technologically, as has
Japan, and as has Canada. There is very little that we have that other
nations don't have where our denial would have any practical effect on
whether the Iron Curtain countries would get the product, or not.
We no doubt do indulge a feeling of moral satisfaction from not
selling to the Iron Curtain countries. But I think it is rather stupid,
because by and large, except for a certain list of strategic goods, with
which we are in agreement with the other NATO powers-the so-called
Cocom list-most of the things the Soviet Union wants it can buy
elsewhere, and there is no particular reason why we should be hard on
our own producers.
NOw, I would say the same thing with regard to Red China, but with
a qualification. The case I was thinking of, specifically, was American
wheat. I think it is a terrible shame that we didn't offer our wheat on
the market some years ago when Red China was buying from Austra-
lia and Canada. The American wheat farmer would have enjoyed a
prosperity he has never known in history. The Chinaman got his
wheat. He could have bought it just as well from us, and the American
PAGENO="0283"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 279
farmer would have enjoyed a certain prosperity, and China would
have been in the same position, no matter what happened. It seems
to me that this was a situation where we let a kind of primitive moral-
ity get in the way of practical good sense.
Representative BOLLING. On that last point, Mr. Secretary, not long
ago some of the members of the Kansas City Board of Trade in my
district, all of them good Republicans, complained bitterly about the
unrealism of our policy on that particular subject. And I took pleasure
in telling them that the main effort in seeing to it that we had this
moralistic policy came from others than I.
I thank you very much, Mr. Secretary.
Chairman BOGGS. Mr. Rockefeller has just arrived. We will go
ahead with him.
STATEMENT OP DAVID ROCKEFELLER, PRESIDENT, CHASE
MANHATTAN BANK
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee,
first of all, let me apologize for my delay. I was unfortunately held
up over at the airport for an hour and then was sent to Dulies.
For the record, my name is David Rockefeller. I am president and
chairman of the executive committee of the Chase Manhattan Bank.
I appreciate very much, indeed, the invitation to appear before a
group which, in my opinion, is contributing significantly to better pub-
lic understanding of U.S. trade policies in the wake of the most sweep-
ing tariff reductions in the history of international trade.
The subject that engages your attention also holds special interest
for me for two reasons: first, because it is so directly relevant to what
I regard as the major challenges of our time; second, because a good
part of my own life has been devoted to studying various aspects of
world trade, though I hasten to add that I assert no claim whatever
to expert knowledge :in this enormously complex area.
Over the past 2 weeks, you have heard testimony from a number
of illustrious witnesses about the impact of the worldwide lowering
of tariffs. At this early date, any technical evaluation of the over 6,000
U.S. tariff changes is impossible and must await detailed analysis. But
a good guess might be that as `a direct result of the Kennedy Round,
U.S. exports and imports will rise by around 5 percent, with the gain
spread over a period of 5 years or more.
This relatively modest percentage impact translates into an in-
crease of close to $3 billion in total U.S. foreign trade. So, you can
readily see what it could bring in terms of export opportunities as
well as somewhat stiffer import competition. In some instances, sub-
stantial adjustments may be required. For this reason, I fully support
President Johnson's proposal to improve the adjustment assistance
provisions of the Trade Expansion Act, so that both industry and labor
will find it easier to obtain prompt `and adequate aid if adversely af-
fected by the tariff cuts.
The great promise of the Kennedy Round, as I see it, is the effective
increase in export opportunities brought about by the reciprocal re-
ductions in foreign tariffs. I feel strongly that U.S. businessmen should
approach the results in this affirmative manner, seeking to supply new
PAGENO="0284"
280 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
foreign markets rather than worrying about greater import competi-
tion at home. And it seems to me the expanded opportunities for addi-
tional sales abroad should outweigh any adverse import competition,
resulting in a net benefit to our balance of payments.
For one thing, the roughly reciprocal tariff reductions should assist
TJ.S. trade more than that of Western Europe if only because we start
out from the competitive advantage of running a substantial trade
surplus-something on the order of $4 billion this year. So, even if
U.S. imports were to increase by a larger percentage than exports, our
trade balance still would improve.
The Kennedy Round tariff cuts will reduce the inherently discrimi-
natory impact of the European trade blocs. Eight years ago, when
European countries began to eliminate tariffs among themselves, ex-
porting from the United States became relatively more difficult. But
the lower the external tariffs of the European trade blocs, the smaller
will be their discriminatory impact. Indeed, the major reason Presi-
dent Kennedy proposed the Trade Expansion Act in 1961, you will re-
call, was to reduce the European Common Market's diversionary effect
on world trade. The goal has been largely accomplished in industrial,.
if not in agricultural, products.
In looking ahead one might suppose that another round of interna-
tional tariff negotiations could provide a still further boost to world
trade, and the U.S. policy should continue to pursue the goal of multi-
lateral tariff reductions.
However, I suspect that the Kennedy Round is likely to be the last
such worldwide tariff-cutting session for some time. The Geneva nego-
tiations--long drawn out and often acrimonious as they were-indi-
cated there would be little further scope for another similar exercise
soon. Tariff levels are now quite low, averaging an estimated 8
per cent on industrial products in the United States and WTestern
Europe. So, further cuts would probably provide a comparatively
smaller overall stimulus to trade than the present reduction.
What's more, new reductions in the remaining tariffs could prove
more difficult to secure. These tariffs often constitute important spe-
cial protection, with strong domestic interests opposing any further
cuts. In addition, there could well be an absolute resistance on the part
of regional trade blocs-both in Western Europe and elsewhere-to
preserve at least minimal external tariffs, since preferential treatment
within the blocs was the main incentive for their establishment in the
first place.
My feeling, therefore, is that additional general tariff reductions
along the lines of the recent Kennedy Round are not in the cards. To be
sure, further progress in tariff-cutting can and should be made. I am
very much in favor of providing the Government with some type of
negotiating authority to carry out minor adjustments. This could in-
clude possible elimination of so-called nuisance tariffs-those which
are already below 2 percent and which serve only ~o increase admin-
istrative costs. But no new general tariff reductions seem feasible in
the foreseeable future.
This means that after six rounds of GATT negotiations since the
Second World War, U.s. trade policy will most likely face in the years
ahead a completely different set of policy issues from those of the past.
In my view, three of these issues merit special attention.
PAGENO="0285"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 281
First, the problem of nontariff barriers which, after the Kennedy
Round, remain the most serious obstacles to trade expansion.
Second, the demand of many less-developed countries for some kind
of preferential tariff treatment.
Third, the pattern of U.S. trade relations with Canada, a particu-
larly compelling issue in view of the steady expansion of regional trade
arrangements in other parts of the world.
In the area of nontariff barriers, some headway was made in the
Kennedy round, most notably the successful negotiations of an anti-
dumping code, and modification of certain European trade restric-
tions as part of the agreement to eliminate the American selling price
valuation of some chemical imports. But other important nontariff
barriers remain as impediments to trade. For instance, there are the
European border taxes which are levied against imports as an offset
to domestic sales taxes and which are refunded to European exporters
on the grounds that such taxes are not imposed in foreign markets.
Though this practice of offset and refund is sanctioned under GATT,
I must confess to considerable misgivings over the principle and its
practical validity. European countries derive a major part of their
revenue from sales taxes at each stage of the manufacturing and dis-
tribution process, while income taxes are relatively less important.
In the United States, on the other hand, the overwhelming part of
business taxation is in the form of income taxes. Thus, contrary to
European manufacturers, American businessmen cannot claim part of
their tax liability as export refunds.
Other important nontariff barriers are differential government pro-
curement policies with respect to local and foreign products; import
quotas, particularly in agricultural trade; various domestic subsidies
or government pricing policies that affect international competitive-
ness; and customs valuations and practices. Just how many such non-
tariff barriers exist, and in what ways they may affect international
competitiveness, we know only incompletely.
I understand that Ambassador Roth's office is preparing to under-
take a detailed study of the whole complex of nontariff barriers. This
is absolutely necessary before the next step-a reciprocal dismantling
of such barriers-can be contemplated. There is a persistent feeling
that Western Europe's nontariff barriers pose a greater obstacle to
trade expansion than our own. But I don't think we really know all the
facts, and this specific problem of border taxes would seem to require
a thorough rethinking. In my opinion, it would not make much sense
to push for further tariff reductions without first making some prog-
ress in reducing the more prohibitive nontariff barriers.
A second major issue confronting U.S. trade policy in the years
ahead will be the developing countries' demand for preferential tariff
treatment on manufactured goods. Britain grants tariff preferences
to member nations of the Commonwealth, and the Common Market
has concluded special arrangements with the French-speaking African
countries. This means, for instance, that many of our Latin American
and Asian friends find themselves at a competitive disadvantage when
exporting to the large European markets.
There is a real question in my mind whether we have not rejected
out of hand an important means of aiding the less-developed coun-
PAGENO="0286"
282 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
tries. For political, economic, and moral reasons, the United States
cannot afford to see a continued widening of the gap between the in-
dustrial and the less-developed nations. The 20 or so industrial na-
tions with one-fifth of the free world's population produce and enjoy
one-half of the world's wealth. In contrast, the developing nations
with half the world's population account for barely one-sixth of the
total output. Per capita income in the developing countries ranges
from a quarter to a half dollar a day.
To bring about a better balance will require massive economic and
tecimical aid. It is increasingly clear that the job is much too big for
the United States alone, and especially that it camiot be done by Gov-
ernment aid alone. Additiona.l support could well come from some
form of preferential tariff system, especially since this would involve
self-help.
I am familiar, of course, with the chief objections that have been
raised against tariff preferences for developing countries. And I con-
fess that I am somewhat sympathetic with these objections. it ha.s been
said that a two-tiered tariff system would be costly to administer that
its benefits would be slight; that outright financial aid would be more
appropriate than a tariff subsidy; and that, in any case, tariff prefer-
ences would violate the GATT principles of reciprocity and nondis-
crimination.
While these points may have some plausibility, they disregard, I
think, a number of persuasive arguments on the other side. The pref-
erential tariff systems of the Common Market and Great Britain show
that the added administrative cost must at least be bearable. To what
extent the developing countries could expand their exports of manu-
factures is admittedly an open question, but as Prof. Harry Johnson,
of the University of Chicago, has pointed out, tariff preferences might
well exercise a powerful influence in expanding export earnings and
promoting industrialization. And, while financial aid might be the
preferred form of assistance, the current controversy over the foreign
aid bill is not a very reassuring sign for increased support from this
source. In my view, preferential tariffs are a form of aid, and all addi-
tional aid is urgently needed to bridge the ominously widening gap
between the industria.l and the backward nations.
The most desirable approach, as I see it, would be for our own
Government to take up this problem with the Governments of other
industrial nations and try to persuade them to join us in granting
tariff preferences to all the less-developed countries. Only if all indus-
trial nations treat all developing nations equally can we preserve tl1e
substance of the important GATT principle of nondiscrimination.
A third major issue of U.S. trade policy in the coming years, as I
see it, will be the course of U.S. trade relations with Canada.
Our neighbors to the north are our most important trading part-
ners just as we are theirs. The volume of Canadian-United States trade
amounted to some $12 billion last year, representing about 60 percent
of all Canadian exports and 25 percent of all U.S. foreign sales. It
follows that continued expansion of Canadian-United States trade is
essentia.l for the continued growth of both countries' foreign trade.
To this end, the two may wish to reduce trade barriers between them-
selves, and could probably find ways to negotiate a mutually adva.n-
PAGENO="0287"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 283
tageous bargain. Nonetheless, any such potentially beneficial agree-
ment would run counter to the most-favored-nation principle as
enunciated in GATT, unless such a bilateral dismantling of trade bar-
riers were part and parcel of a formal process to establish a free trade
area.
With most countries in Western Europe and Latin America now
members of regional trade blocs, I think it is essential that we recon-
sider the feasibility of working toward regional free trade arrange-
ments of our own. Thus, I would urge this distinguished subcommittee
to take a fresh look at Canadian-United States trade relations, with a
view to establishing a Canadian-United States free trade area. Such
a plan might in time include other countries as well-Great Britain,
for one, if Common Market membership should again prove elusive,
and Mexico once her industry was able to compete on an equal footing
in the North American market.
The most far reaching change in world trade patterns in the post-
war period has been the emergence of regional trading blocs-EEC
and EFTA in Europe, LAFTA and CACM in Latin America. For
both political and economic reasons, we have consistently supported
the formation of these regional groups-and these groupings have
contributed immeasurably to the economic strength and stability of
the free world. At the same time, however, it is important to recognize
that the formation of regional blocs of which we are not a part tends
to reduce the international competitiveness of U.S. exports, that nego-
tiations become more difficult when trading blocs are involved, and
that the principle of most-favored-nation treatment is a suitable ve-
hicle for reducing trade barriers only so long as all countries are will-
ing and able to make reciprocal concessions. Canada and the United
States may no longer be able to expand their trade outside North
America as rapidly as they have in the past. Under these circum-
stances, it is my view that we must seriously reexamine whether Cana-
da and the United States should not move toward establishment of a
free trade area of their own.
As I see it, the Kennedy Round's success was an encouraging out-
growth of our pursuit of multilateral and reciprocal tariff reductions
over three decades. But while tariffs have come down substantially,
numerous nontariff barriers remain as serious hindrances to trade ex-
pansion. Their reduction and eventual elimination require a some-
what different approach to international trade negotiations, as do the
issues of tariff preferences for the developing countries and future
patterns of Canadian-United States trade.
I am strongly convinced that we should continue to be a firm sup-
porter of GATT; but while giving it our full backing, we can still
accomplish some of the other objectives I have outlined. At this stage
in the continuing process of trade liberalization, tariff preferences and
regional arrangements may well prove the most effective route to
further progress.
Chairman BOOGS. Thank you very much, Mr. Rockefeller and Mr.
Ball.
I would like to ask Mr. Rockefeller one question.
In your statement you suggest that the governments of industrial
nations get together and grant tariff preferences to all less-developed
PAGENO="0288"
284 TIII~ FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
countries. Secretary Ball in his statement mentioned his efforts to bring
about this sort of a solution, and he said he was not too successful.
How would you suggest that this be done in the light of present world
conditions?
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I would hope that after the completion of the
Kennedy Round negotiations that perhaps there might be a better op-
portunity to pursue this than previously. For 4 years we were bogged
down by negotiations on tariffs. That is behind us. And it seems to me
it is worth a good, hard try in this direction again.
Chairman Booos. Mr. Ball, would you care to comment on that?
Mr. BALL. I wouldn't start the negotiations, Mr. Chairman, with the
European countries, I would start it with the U.S. Congress, because I
think that at the end of the road we wouldn't have a prayer of getting
the Congress to pass a generalized preferential enactment for the bene-
fit of the less-developed countries.
Let me say that I agree with Mr. Rockefeller in principle. He and
I disagree on very few things, and on this particular one I fully agree
with him. But as I suggested in my statement, I think it is politically
unrealistic. When I was in the Government I was probably more re-
sponsible than anyone for what a lot of people regarded as a negative
view on the question of generalized preferences for less-developed
countries. My feeling was that we would do an enormous disservice to
encourage the less-developed countries to bieleve that this was going
to work when, in fact, it wouldn't. In view of the character of the
products that the less-developed countries are most capable of produc-
ing, which are primarily light manufactures, whenever they now begin
to ship any substantial quantities of such products to the United States,
Congress and the administration are faced with demands for manda-
tory quotas or some other kind of arrangement that would restrict the
introduction of such goods. There is the aboriginal cry of cheap labor,
which is loudly heard.
I think that the possibility of our being able to reverse the process
and say that not only will we refrain from imposing mandatory quotas
limiting the import of these goods, but we are going to provide pref-
erences to make it easier for the less-developed countries to produce
for our markets-I just don't think it is possible. That was always my
feeling, and, therefore, I did gain the reputation of being negative on
this issue. The European countries talked a good game, but when one
got down to hard discussion with them, I had a feeling that they were
being disingeneous with the less-developed countries, because they
weren't going t.o grant generalized preferences any more than we were.
Our record with the less-developed countries is generally better than
the record of European countries, except in those special areas where
they have preferential regimes which constitute happy hunting
grounds for their own industrialists.
I don't want to be too dogmatic, but I would be enormously sur-
prised if Congress were prepared to provide the authority in the Ex-
ecutive to grant generalized preferences for manufactured goods to the
less-developed countries. We have a situation now where the steel
industry is complaining because of import competition from countries
like Japan, and again the argument is based on the fact that labor
costs are so much cheaper. Now, do you seriously think that Congress
PAGENO="0289"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 285
would give the administration the authority to grant preferences for
the import of steel from less-developed countries? I don't believe it
for a minute.
While I agree entirely with what you say, Mr. Rockefeller, I just
don't think it is politically feasible.
Chairman BOGGS. Mr. Reuss, do you have any questions?
Representative REUSS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for bringing be-
fore us these two wise and thoughtful witnesses.
Mr. Ball, you and I over the years have had a genial debate, but
nevertheless a debate, about the Common Market. To caricature our
positions a bit, I accuse you of being excessively in love with the Six,
and you accuse me of being excessively doctrinaire. And I want to
pursue the dialog this morning.
You, in effect, say that you are ready to throw in the sponge and go
to a closed system, let Europe, with perhaps an expanded Common
Market to include the United Kingdom, take over Africa, accept
African imports into Europe on a preferential basis, and let African
countries receive European exports on a preferentially low basis, and
devolve upon Europe the general aid and welfare burden of the
developed world. And you then say, let the United States do likewise,
generally speaking, for Latin America.
If you want to correct my statement, do so.
Mr. BALL. No, I think that is about right.
Representative REUSS. May I put to you my alternative, so you may
comment on it. My alternative is that I don't think we are yet forced
to that unpleasant position of dividing the world into zones of in-
fluence, having papal lines of demarkation. And I don't think it is a
policy very relevant to the world of quick communications and the
seemless web in which we now live.
Now, I do not in any way belittle the valiant diplomatic efforts you
made 3 or 4 years ago to try to get Europeans out of their parochial
closed system view. But I would hate to see our country toss in the
sponge and operate a closed system without making it the utmost
object of public discussion, without allowing some time for a public
great debate on it, and particularly without making an all American,
all out stand to revive the principle of nondiscriminatory multilateral-
ism, the principle of GATT, at the very highest public level, I mean
summit conferences with heads of State. And if we don't succeed, if
we are forced to it, admittedly there would be no alternative. But where
you and I think differently is that you say that that point is now-that
we should sort of slide into a closed system. I would much prefer us
trying to get the Europeans, the French, the Italians, and the Germans,
that have great historical ties with Latin America, to come in and help
us on that burden, and conversely, to try to get the Europeans pro-
gressively to diminish these preferences so that Latin America. can
~orne into their markets. There really is a policy choice.
I think I must get some help for my point of view later from David
Rockefeller, but please come back to that.
Mr. BALL. I don't quarrel with the way you described it, Mr. Reuss,
but I think you are putting it a little more easily than I did.
In general, I am completely in agreement that closed systems make a
very bad use of resources-if you were to sectionalize the world and
82-181-67-vol. I-19
PAGENO="0290"
286 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
have special trading areas. Nonpolitically it is the best solution. The
basis on which we are now proceeding is different. It has been a matter
of our national policy ever since the war to recognize a kind of col-
lective responsibility on the part of the northern rich countries for the
southern poor countries on a nondiscriminatory basis. Obviously I
regard that as preferable, but I question whether the policy is feasible
for the long pull. I don't think we have half thought the problem
through, and I would agree with you, I would like to see this a matter
of public debate. I would like to see the issues placed in what seem to
me the proper terms, for the problem is a structural one. The European
countries are too small for any one of them to take a universalist
approach toward the world. A country which hasn't got the resources
to diffuse around the world has to think of focusing its efforts. His-
torically the European nations have done that by concentrating their
efforts on bits and pieces of real estate within colonial systems. But
such systems don't exist any more. And therefore, there is a feeling on
the part of the European peoples that since they no longer have terri-
torial interests to give a focus to the areas to which they should provide
help, they don't need to provide help. What they have thought of as
a substitute for colonial interests-a vestige from the old colonial
systems-is the retention of preferential trading arrangements.
Now, I thought such arrangements would ultimately die. I thought
that the trading system, the preferential system, of the French Com-
munity as well as the British Commonwealth system would be phased
out in time. Certainly they have become less significant as the general
level of tariffs has been reduced. But what is happening is something
quite different-something I did not predict, something I think is quite
foolish-but, nevertheless, something that is clearly going on. And that
is that the European Community nations are proliferating the special
arrangements primarily with African countries. They are creating a
whole new preference structure in which the preferences extend not
merely from a single European nation to a single African nation, but
from the six nations of the European Community to a number of
African countries. This is becoming a very much bigger thing than it
was. When I was in the State Department I tried not only to get the
French and British Governments to phase their systems out, but I
made a valiant try to get the European Community t.o abandon the
idea of proliferating these closed systems, because it didn't seem to
me that they were useful from anybody's point of view.
But the point I'm making is this, that while we may think that a
closed trading system is bad so far as the allocation of resources is
concerned, and it violates the most-favored-nation principle, nonethe-
less it may be about the only way that we are going to persuade the
European nations to maintain an adequate flow-or even an inadequate
flow-of resources into these countries through foreign aid programs;
because what they have done in their own minds is to substitute
preferential systems as a focus for their aid efforts, whereas histori-
cally the focus was provided by colonial systems. Because of their own
inadequate geographical size and their control of an inadequate supply
of resources, I don't think they can be persuaded simply to participate
in a worldwide effort to help the less-developed countries. Thus if the
preferential systems, the closed systems are eliminated, we may find
PAGENO="0291"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 287
that the European countries will provide no aid at all. And then we
will have the problems that Mr. Rockefeller described in cards and
spades. .
Representative REUSS. Mr. Ball, where you and I differ is in the
field of politics and human relations. While it is true that the techni-
cians of the European governments are obsessed with this closed sys-
tem-I have heard that-I think that if you got through the
technicians to the people of Western Europe, particularly the young
people, you and modern European politicians would find that there is
a great reservoir of idealistic feeling, call it what you will, which sees
something bigger than these old parochial closed systems which have
caused so much trouble in the past.
All I am saying is that before we give up on it, let us make it
the great international issue of the next 5 years, and let us see if we
can't maybe get some of those stupid old politicians voted out of
office by their own people over there so we get rid of this closed
system.
Mr. BALL. I just want to make two points in that connection. First,
there is a kind of mystique that one finds in part of Europe, par-
ticularly in France, with regard to a concept called Eurafrica. The
closed systems are an expression of this, a feeling that Africa has a
kind of national affinity to Europe, because of its geographical posi-
tion,, and because of history, and so on, and that the Europeans should
feel the same kind of responsibility for Africa that we feel for Latin
America. They express that in trading terms, because those are the
terms with which they are familiar.
Now, as far as making a try, I am all for it. Let me emphasize that
I don't like closed systems. I am simply saying that I see them devel-
oping, and I am not sure that we can do anything about it. I am all
for trying to do something about it-to make quite a big effort. But
I think that we ought to be quite clear in our own minds that if we
do make such a big effort, and if we should reach a point where these
trading systems, these preferential systems, are dismantled, we may
find that we have greatly diminished the European effort of foreign
assistance.
Representative REuss. My time has expired, Mr. Chairman. I hope
you may return to me.
Chairman BOGGS. Mr. Curtis?
Representative CURTIS. I wanted to have Mr. Rumsfeld go first, but
I just couldn't let this go by.
I am not entirely sure that the benefits of these closed-in deals
with the African countries and the Western European countries
aren't going the other way. Maybe it is still the old milking process
of colonialism with a new title. You say that this might cut down
on this assistance to these African nations. I wonder if this remark
presents the case correctly, because I know there are students of this
who say that the benefits are still going from the less-developed Afri-
can countries to the developed European countries.
Mr. BALL. I think they are going both ways, Mr. Curtis. The French
experience is one that I think is the most conspicuous. The French
are putting very substantial amounts of resources into the African
countries. They are helping them to develop. At the same time you are
PAGENO="0292"
288 ~ru~ FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
entirely right, these countries remain happy hunting grounds for
French producers, French industrialists. And to that extent the coun-
tries do contribute to the French economy as well. I don't argue with
that. But I would guess that the benefits, when you add in the
amount of foreign assistance that goes in which might not go in
if the closed systems didn't exist, I would think that it would~be a
net benefit of some value to these countries.
Representative Cmrns. I think this is something which should be
evaluated the same way we judge the relationship of the satellite coun-
tries behind the Iron Curtain with Russia. Is that really a reciprocal
economic deal, or do the benefits flow one way?
Mr~ Chairman, first let me apologize to you for not having been able
to attend these hearings, which I think are so important. But you
know where I have been. I have been in the WTays and Means Commit-
~tee, on which you and I serve, which is engaged in the final weeks of
some months study of the social security' system. To me it is an inter-
esting thing to realize that when we are talking about welfare we are
talking a.bout a way to put people back on their economic feet. And
here w~hen we say "trade, not aid," I think we are talking about foreign
aid as being a teclmique to help nations get on their economic feet. The
similarities are economic ones, and I think they are very striking.
And then let me express my appreciation for the two witnesses for
taking time out to come down here and give us the benefit of their wis-
dom and judgment, which is, of course, considerable in this area.
Mr. Cha.iuflan, I don't know whether it has been done before, but I
would like to call attention to a study of trade restraints which ap-
peare.d in the Ways and Means Committee's hearings on the Trade Ex-
pansion Act of 1962. Here was an attempt to look into the nonta.riff
trade barriers. And I know that this kind of material is going to be
valuable in this current study. (See p. 303, appendix.)
Another thing-and this I would like to suggest be made a part of
the record-is "Non-Tariff Trade Barriers of the United States," a
study conducted by Noel Emminger, TJnited States-Japan Trade
Council. It talks about U.S. nontariff trade barriers, and I think we
need a similar study in depth of these other nontariff trade barriers.
Chairman BooGs. Without objection, it will be made a part of the
record.
(The material referred to appears in the appendix, p. 345.)
Representative CURTIs. Mr. Ball, the thing that has been basically
worrying me-and this is in the light of your recounting the history
of the Reciprocal Trade Acts, which really have all been amendments
to the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930-is the idea- that we are now
out of trading material, now that we have got the tariff rates down.
But I have been deeply concerned with whether we haven't in many,
many instances been replacing the tariff technique for regulating trade
with something that I would regard as much more regressive. I refer
to the license and quota. approach. And I think the Long-term Cotton
Textile Agreement would give gTounds for this concern.
Of courseS we have had t.he sugar license and quota setup for some
time. And we now have an int~rnational coffee agreement. WTe are
talking about an international cocoa agreement. And they are talking
about extending the cotton textile agreement to include, wool and man-
PAGENO="0293"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 289
made fiber. We have got the oil import quota arrangement. Do you see
a danger of moving forward to what we call mercantilism at the same
time we have been taking down the tariff barriers, so that we will end
up with not having keyed up trade, but having restricted it by the
use of the other techniques?
Mr. BALL. You touch on a very sore point, Mr. Curtis, because I
invented and negotiated the cotton textile agreement, and it has al-
ways been on my conscience. I think it was a bad thing. But I did it
only because if I hadn't I was very much afraid that Congress was
going to impose mandatory quotas, which would have been even
worse.
But I wholly agree with you, I think that there is a tendency to try
to substitute for the tariff quota restriction or other impediments,
based very often on a rather specious issue of national defense. And I
think these are very bad, for the most part.
Representative Ctnrris. I should have mentioned the other one, too,
the United States-Canadian Auto Treaty. Yet, if at the time it was
made, it was said that this was the beginning of a real Common Market
with Canada, I could see some logic. But if it was just the beginning
of dealing with commodity or industry arrangements on a bilateral
basis it would appear to be a very dangerous precedent.
Now, there has been some conversation to the effect that this is a be-
ginning of a real common market with Canada. Would you comment
on that?
Mr. BALL. Of course, it also was devised to counter a greater evil,
which was the threat by the Canadian Government under the leader-
ship of a rather nationalistic Finance Minister at that time-he is a
friend of mine, incidentally-to put a requirement of local origin on
a great part of the production of automobiles in Canada. And if this
had been done, it would have stultified and interfered with trade to a
far greater degree than the solution we finally arrived at. I thought the
solution was pretty good, given the atmosphere and the circumstances
in which it had to be developed.
On the question of a Canadian-American free trade area, or customs
union, as the case may be-depending on whether we arrive at a com-
mon exterior tariff, or don't-I would agree with what Mr. Eocke~
feller said, but with a very big question mark, for I don't think the
ob~ ection to it comes from the United States side nearly as much as it
does from the Canadians. The Canadians live in a country which has
one-tenth the population of the United States with one-fourteenth the
gross national product, and they live in mortal terror all the time of
losing their national identity from living next to this giant. Yet I
would doubt very much if there can be complete free trade back and
forth without a considerable erosion of national identity, and I think
this is what most Canadians think. Personally, I feel they are fighting
a rear-guard action, a losing battle, because I don't think over the
years they will be content to have a 25-percent lower standard of living
than the United States just in order to preserve their national
integrity.
But these are fighting words in Canada.
Representative Cumris. Of course, being in Congress, I am in the
place where great pressures are applied. And I think the thing that
bothers me-you can argue that this is true of almost any area,
PAGENO="0294"
290 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
whether it is the auto industry, or whether it is the sugar people, or
whether it is oil, or textiles, or whatever, it is whoever puts on the most
political muscle that wins. And this is what has bothered me. You
can take each one of these items. We could discuss the all-important
quota. And you could say the agreement was the lesser of the two evils.
I hope we are trying to develop some rational system rather than a
system that is based on who can generate the most political pressure.
The thing that disturbs me as I read history on this subject is the
reaction that the people have had to the Smoot-Hawley tariff. The
determination of the tariffs got to be wide open-who could put on
the most political pressure. And I think we are moving very rapidly
to this kind of situation now. And that is why I make these remarks.
Are we really moving to what I would hope would be a liberalized or
more reciprocal setup in international trade?
I do not look for free trade in any sense, but fair trade, because I
happen to think this is an imperfect world, and there are many eco-
nomic differentials that perhaps need measuring, or legitimately can be
measured. You could possibly allow for differentials through the tariff
technique-which is the most liberal of all the techniques, I would
argue. Or you can go to this license quota system, or these many, many
varieties of Government subsidies which we haven't really discussed.
The United States is in that subsidy business. That was the problem
we got into in the two-price cotton. This is the problem that faces our
petrochemical industry here today. Because of the oil import quotas
and so forth, the price that they have to pay for their raw material
is greater than their competitors in the international marketplace have
to pay. Again we see that one subsidy begets another subsidy, as we
found in the long history of cotton.
* So, I am not posing this question idly. Are we really liberalizing
world trade? In fact, your response worries me even more. To each one
of these items that I *have seen come before the Ways and Means
Committee, and before the Congress, the answer has been what you
say, `~Well, this is the lesser of two evils." In other words, the first
evil is the pressure-I assume I am right in saying `so-the political
pressure being put on by an organized industry.
So, the coimnon and easy way seems to go to something second best.
What I would think would he the preferable thing is to face up to
these problems. Let's have a public dialog. Let's have a national dis-
cussion. What is the best arrangement? As I asked the automakers, Is
your interest best served by going along in this line of bilateral com-
modity agreements? Because, if it is done in autos, it can be logically
extended to any industry, the logic to do it in any commodity is there.
We can go back to bilateral negotiations and away from multilateral,
and we can forget about most-favored-nation clause principles. Maybe
that is what we are headed for. I tlili± we `have got to face these
issues.
Would you care to comment further?
Mr. BALr~. I don't disagree with you at all, Mr. Curtis. In fact, I
think you have stated very well a serious problem that we do face,
whic.h is the tendency of particular industries, when they are con-
fronted with some imports-and they don't even have to be very
large in a number of cases-to try to mount pressure for some kind
PAGENO="0295"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 291
of special treatment, such as a mandatory quota or some device which
would have the substantial effect of limiting the volume of imports.
And if it is in an industry such as the cotton textile industry, where
there is a cotton mill in almost every political district, it is likely to be
pretty important pressure.
Representative Cuirris. My time is up. But we have got to face the
problem.
And I am thinking of our great steel industry. They came to the
Congress early this year talking in these terms. And let me try to
make it clear, I am deeply sympathetic and I have a great admiration
for our domestic industry, our textile people, and our steel people. And
all I have been asking them is, `What are the facts? Let's find out
what really are your problems? If they are what I think they are-and
I might be wrong-your solution does not lie along these lines. And
that is what I tried to say to the cotton textile people, this isn't your
solution. They might not be wrong, they know their industry. But let's
get the dialog going in public, and let them advance their arguments.
But I find that when they get sympathy from other people in politics
in response to bring these pressures, it puts people like myself in a very
unenviable political position.
I hope I am not so naive that I don't recognize that. Coming from
St. Louis, Mo., I represent some of the industries most involved in this
problem of imports and international trade.
Thank you.
Chairman B0GG5. Thank you, Mr. Curtis.
Mr. Rumsfeld?
Representative RtTMSFELD. Mr. Rockefeller, in your statement you
suggest that the full impact of the recent discussions is not known,
and you indicate there will be export opportunities as well as some-
what stiffer import competition. Could you, from your background on
this subject, possibly touch on some of the problem areas you see? In
view of the discussion Mr. Ball had with Mr. Reuss and Mr. Curtis,
I think that the dialog and the discussion of some specifics in this
area might be useful.
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I think perhaps the biggest problem area is the
one we have been touching on of nontariff barriers, because those are
the areas which have been least dealt with in the Kennedy Round.
As I also suggested in my paper, I think it is an area that needs to be
worked on most in the period ahead. Most of the discussion since that
time has been along these lines. And I think we can agree completely
with its importance, but we must also recognize the difficulties of the
problems.
Representative RUM5FELD. You also indicated that you were very
much in favor of providing the Government with some type of ne-
gotiating authority to carry out minor adjustments. I assume you have
some specific portion of the Government that you are referring to be-
yond simply a branch of the Government.
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I would think that the power would have to be
entrusted to the President, and that he in turn would designate the
appropriate agency to act on his behalf.
Representative RUMSFELD. Are you satisfied with the structure of
the Government and the ability of the structure as it presently exists
PAGENO="0296"
292 TUE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
in this area of trade to deal with these problems? There have been
proposals to try to bring together various aspects of this problem
within the executive branch, and the different categories or compart-
ments, feeling that there were some problems that existed. And there
has also been some suggestion with respect to the relationship between
the executive and the legislative branches in these areas. And some
problems have been highlighted by Mr. Ball. Have you made any
recommendations in this area?
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I have not. And I haven't had sufficient personal
experience to be able to pinpoint the areas where there are difficulties,.
and where improvements could be made. I am sure they exist. And I
am sure that the closer that the administration and the Congress can
work in this area, the better. This has certainly been a problem in the
past, that there has not been full agreement between the administration
and Congress. I am in favor of anything that would encourage that,.
but I have no specific proposals.
Representative RUMSFELD. Before I turn to Mr. Ball, possibly you:
could comment on the question that has been touched on here by Mr..
Beuss and Mr. Curtis. I think it is fair to say that Mr. Reuss has sug-
gested a certain timidity, and cautioned against throwing in the
sponge. And Mr. Ball agreed that we should try to have a dialog in
this area.
Mr. Curtis has pointed out some of the problems with respect to
specifics in relationship to the executive. And Mr. Ball in response to
a question talked about negotiating first with the Congress rather
than other countries. Now, the Congress does change, at least in part,.
every 2 years. And the system is constructed so that theoretically it is
capable of being responsive to the people. I would suggest that at some
point is is well to move beyond suggestions that Congress has simply
not seen the problem properly, and possibly turn it inward to the
executive, who claim special Imowledge in this area, and ask some ques-
tions as to what we could attribute the monumental lack of persuasive-
ness and inability to adequately discuss and conduct the dialog on
the subjects, so that the people of this country-and therefore the
Congress, assuming Mr. Ball is right-might be in a better position
to deal with some of these problems.
Do you have any thoughts on this absence of a constructive dialog
that brings ideas point to point? Is it too complicated an idea? Is the
executive, as Mr. Curtis suggests, tending to be too timid, and taking
lesser evils rather than trying to sell broad concepts that may be under-
stood and that make sense and are legitimate and justifiable?
You are in a unique position, I think. You are not in the executive
or legislative branch. And possibly you could be helpful to both.
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. It may ta.ke more time than I possibly should
take, in the best interests of the institution I work for, to make speeches
on subjects of this kind, having in mind just the sort of thing you are
speaking of. I do agree that citizens as well as Members of Congress
must speak out and express themselves and try to explain the problems
of public policy on matters of this kind. I say, I am striving to do so.
I suppose one of the principal difficulties in arriving at a more satis-
factory dialog is the fact that a person, or rather special interest,
often loom larger in the minds of individuals who came to speak t&
PAGENO="0297"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 293
Members of Congress than broader matters of policy. If' there is a
pinching, even if it is oniy a small one, that is felt more acutely than a
broad, philosophical concept or objective, then it seems to me that
some of the regretable legislative acts that are taking place have been
the product of that kind of special interest.
Representative RUMSFELD. I have not been in Congress as long as
Mr. Curtis. But it is my, at least tentative, conclusion that the pinch
within the Congress is generally felt in the very restricted number of
areas of the country, not across the border. And it is true, it is acute
where it hits. But I have at least the feeling that if the dialog were
conducted better, and if arguments that could at least point to the con-
trary were developed, that our system is capable of dealing with these
problems.
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I agree with you. And I don't think that most of
us who speak out on these questions in hopefully objective ways do
enough of it.
Representative RtTMSFELD. I was most impressed with both of these
statements.
Mr. Ball, as an ex-resident of the 13th District I am delighted to
see you here. And I was very interested in your statement.Would you
like to comment on this question that I have raised?
Mr. BALL. `I think it has very broad ramifications, the question as to
how one can best discuss what are basically conceptual problems with
the public and keep them interested, and at the same time offset the
very specific interests that might be affected by the adoption of a
particular measure. We have this question of preference treatment
~or the less-developed countries, for example.
Now, I think that generalize.d preferences, most of us would agree,
are a good idea in principle, because they are a ~vay to enable the
developing counties to establish markets in the industrialized coun-
tries, and get a little headstart. It may be that one should grant these
preferences only for a limited period of time to give the new nations
a chance to get a beachhead in the industrial revolution. But I can see
enormous practical difficulties, because I think-
Representative RUMSFELD. You have lived with them.
Mr. BALL. I have lived with them. The kind of industry which is best
suited to the abilities of a less-developed country is a labor-inten-
sive industry, and in such an industry there are, by definition, more
individuals interested in it-the working force in every country-than
in a capital-intensive industry. Thus a labor-intensive industry has
an unusual ability to mobilize pressure. So far the dialog has always
been the other way, just as Mr. Curtis has suggested. The question has
been whether we should impose impediments to the imports of those
articles. Can we now turn it around and say not only that we are not
going to impose impediments, but we are going to grant preferences?
I find it hard to believe this is possible, no matter how seriously one
makes the point in public discussion. And yet it is a very important
thing, because unless we can assist these nations to get a beachhead in
industrial production, and fmd a place in world markets, then the
`problem of being able to meet their requirements through external
grants out of the public sector every year becomes a continuing one,
~tnd a more and more irksome and difficult one.
PAGENO="0298"
294 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
I don't know the answer from the point of view of political feasi-
bility. I am just extremely doubtful that one can do it.
Representative RUMSFELD. My time is up.
The chairman, Mr. Boggs, has pointed out that the Joint Economic
Committee is a bit removed from the daily legislative struggles and
can, I think, assist in the dialog, in trying to take a longer range view
of the problems.
I would just simply again, thank you both, and possibly it is naive,
but I have, I think, at least at this point, a great deal more confidence,
and would hope that the executive branch would not (a) throw its
hands up; or (b) decide that it must compromise on something that
is less distasteful, rather than trying to analyze its past and present and
future with respect to the computation of the dialog.
Chairman Boaes. Thank you very much.
Senator Percy?
Senator PERCY. Mr. Chairman, I do not want to take the time of
the subcommittee for questions, because you have been with this a long
time, and I am not a member of this subcommittee of the Joint Eco-
nomic Committee.
But I did come down from hearings on housing in the Banking and
Currency Committee because the two witnesses that you have today are
m my judgment two of the most forward-thinking, progressive men
that I have known in public life as well as in business. They recognize
and epitomize to me the true partners in progress that we have in this
country, where someone comes from the law into public life and returns
to the law. They give to our Government and our whole system a spirit
of forward-looking, progressive thffn'king that imaginatively and.
boldly paints what the future of this country and the world should be.
And certainly David Rockefeller's contribution to the field of banking,
as he ha.s worked with Government through the years, is remarkable
for its foresight and perceptiveness. I can go back and find value in any
of the things he said 8 years ago about the future trend of our relation-
ship with other nations as seen through the eyes of the bankers. It is not
because his nephew is now my son-in-law that I say this. I have long
held this opinion. This is the first time that I have had an opportunity,
while in the Senate, to comment on tariff and trade. I would just
remind our chairman and Congressman Curtis that I have appeared
as a witness before the Ways and Means Committee and the Senate
Banking Committee and the Finance Committee through the years on
every trade bill and that was ever presented to Congress as long as I
have been in business. And some of those were excruciatingly painful
experiences, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman BoaGs. I would like to say that the Senator has appeared
before various subcommittees that I have chaired many times, and. he
has always been tremendously helpful.
Senator PERCY. You will recall that I testified against my industry,
because I felt that !the facts they were presenting were wrong. I had
more faith in our industry than those who came down to plead their
special case. I had more faith than the makers of the yellow box in
Rochester that I have been fighting so many years in a friendly way,
and all the other friendly competitors that we have, that we could sur-
vive. I was told by the people in the industry that this company of ours
PAGENO="0299"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 295
out in Chicago would die if Congress allowed the Germans and the
Japanese to pour their products in, produced by cheap foreign labor,
and allowed to compete against our products. And I was proud, as a
result of that testimony, that our industry's tariffs were reduced 40
percent at one fell swoop on one day. I am proud that the Kennedy
Round that I fought for has successfully reduced them another 50
percent, because I know that industry `is going to survive. When I
began testifying they said we would dry up and blow away if we had
to compete on a fair and equal basis with foreign competition. At that
time, our employees numbered 1,300. Our sales were $13 million. I am
happy to say that that same little midwestern company now has sales
of $250 million, and has 13,000 employees. And we are, I think, getting
out of `that category of small business, not because we came to our
country and said, we are so weak and inexperienced, and we have such
little faith in this system that we need the protective help of subsidies
from the Government.
So, with good conscience I can say to my friends `in steel and in the
meatpacking business and all these other companies that have com-
petition from abroad that through the years I have been for the
consumer. That is what this economy is all about. And as we go into
this new phase, as Mr. Rockefeller emphasizes, there are things other
than tariffs that involve the free movement of goods and services.
I know we are going to be aggressive and imaginative in the Congress,
and I hope in the business and legal profession and banking com-
munity, to adjust this great country to the whole new period of change
that we are going to face ahead. -
I don't think any company should come here and say what is best for~
our country. That is what the Congress should do. I think a company
can stand up and say we are going to adjust to whatever is best for our'
country.
And that is the spirit of these two men who have through the years,
I think, been a tremendous inspiration to me, both of them, and I know
to others throughout the country.
And, I commend your witnesses this morning. And I want to say
that Senator Ribicoff started `this testimony upstairs with a quotation
from David Rockefeller, and we talked about that quotation for an
hour and a half. And that is the reason I couldn't get down sooner to
hear the testimony.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman BOGGS. Thank you, Senator Percy.
Congressman Boiling?
Representative BOLLING. I would like to pursue the differences of
degree and of timing between the two witnesses as to the solution for
the treatment for the developing areas' problems. And it seems to me
that thebest way to do this at this time is to ask Mr. Rockefeller why
he feels, as he says, that the most desirable approach-this is on page
7-would be for our own Government to take up its problems, the
problems of the developing areas, with the governments of other
industrial nations and try to persuade them to join us in granting tariff
preferences to all the underdeveloped countries. I am well aware that
you two gentlemen, in your different capacities, have worked together
for many years on this subject. So, I am interested in the apparent
PAGENO="0300"
296 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
differences, at least in degree, as to your hope of success. And I think
this is the difference in the approach recommended by Mr. Rockefeller.
And, Mr. Rockefeller, I would like you to speak to that, why you are
hopeful that we might achieve what we have not been able to achieve so
far.
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. Boiling, perhaps if I had had the years of dis-
appointing negotiations that Mr. Ball has had that I would be less
optimistic than I am. I have not had those years of negotiation. And
I am basically an optimist by nature. So that I still am convinced that
the right solution ought to be a possible solution. I am strongly con-
vinced that, as I said in my testimony, it is important to continue and
preserve a multilateral nondiscriminatory approach. And I am very
much afraid that if we join the Europeans in a different approach,
which, in effect, would abandon the most important principles of
G-ATT, that we would lose more than we would gain. And therefore,
with Mr. Reuss, I am not yet prepared to do it. I think that we have
just won a resounding and encouraging victory in the results of the
Kennedy Round negotiations. That would lead me to feel that there
is still hope that we can win another round in relation to the nontariff
barriers.
Representative BOLLING. Mr. Ball, do you care to comment?
Mr. BALL. I regard myself as an optimist, also, Mr. Bolling. In
fact, some of my friends have accused me of being rather pathological-
ly an optimist.
But I do have doubts as to the ability as to any-and I don't confine
this to the United States-the ability of any of the major economically
advanced countries to adopt and administer a system of generalized
preferences for less-developed countries. I don't think our problem is
with Europe in the first instance. I think our problem is at home. I
thiiik it is a question of our own inability to do this. Even if this
became a matter of public debate, I am not sure where the public
would come out. I think there would be serious doubt in the public
mind as to whether we should give a preference in our markets for
what they regard as the cheap-labor countries in industrial production.
And I am just not sure, even if we were to carry this to the country in
a big public debate, who would win. Because I think on the other side
you would find all, or 90 percent, of the companies, particularly in
labor-intensive production, shouting from the housetops about the fact
that this was going to be ruinous to American business. And I think
you would find a substantial part of the American labor movement,
particularly in labor-intensive industries, supporting the same view.
And I think it would be very difficult.
I would hope Mr. Rockefeller is right, but I am doubtful.
Representative BoLLING. Mr. Rockefeller?
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. It seems to me the real issue is how serious for
our country this widening gap between the poor and the rich nation is.
In my judgment, it is very serious. I think this is one of the two or
three most important problems that we face in the world which is of
comparable importance to our domestic problem in the urban area.
If this is so, then it is perfectly apparent, it seems to me, that we in the
United States have to play a leading role in trying to reverse tha.t trend.
One way that it can be done is through economic assistance. And as
PAGENO="0301"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 297
I indicated in my testimony, unfortunately, 1 think ill-advisedly, the
Congress and the country is becoming less enamored with economic
assistance just to the point when in my judgment it is being admm-
istered more effectively and more intelligently than it ever has been.
If we are to increase rather than cut down on foreign assistance, the~
need for some kind of tariff preferences might be diminished. I do
think, as I said also in testimony, that tariff preferences are in fact.
a kind of economic aid. But given the reluctance on the part of the~
country and Congress to support adequate programs, it seems to me
we must turn to the other if we recognize the reality and urgency of
this problem.
~tr. BAI4I4. If I may add just one word, Mr. Boiling, about the
difficulty, the relative difficulty, of getting an appropriation for
economic aid as against the difficulty of some kind of an arrangement
to give up part of our market to the production of the developing
countries. I think experience has shown that Congress would be much
more inclined, and the public would be much more inclined to support
money for economic assistance, because the burden falls generally on
the taxpayer, than it would be to support legislation that would pro-
vide preferences in American markets because the burden there would
fall on specific identifiable groups of people who are articulate and
can make their concern felt in some form of political action.
Representative BOLLING. If that is correct, and I expect it is, we
are in serious trouble, because Congress shows no particular willing-
ness to maintain what the Administration-and I guess many others
-feel is an adequate level of economic aid. At the same time-and I
don't remember this coincidence of events ever taking place, at least
in my experience, since World War IT-there seems to be a growing
reluctance to go along with freer, to use the general term, trade. And
I would suggest that it may be-and this is a rather different set of
circumstances than we were in not too many years ago during the ad-
ministration of President Eisenhower, as I remember it, when by one
vote only we preserved the extension of the Reciprocal Trade Act on a
procedural matter.
This sufficiently galvanized a substantial number of people, not in
the executive, but also in the executive and in Congress, so that a
major educational effort was undertaken by private groups. And while
I wouldn't for the moment deny the fundamental responsibility of the
executive and the Congress, I would suggest that if my reading of
the situation is correct, that the kind of effort that was needed in the
middle fifties to revive public support for reciprocal trade, as it was
then called, is needed in both areas unless the policy of the United
States is to result ultimately in a disaster to the United States in
both fields.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman BOGGS. Thank you very much, Mr. Boiling.
I might say that in connection with the statement just made that
in 1961 and 1962 we did have very much of an educational program
both in and out of Government to secure the enactment of the 1962
act, which a lot of people thought was not possible prior to that time.
The difficulty of the problem can be illustrated in many ways.
I was interested in the remarks of Congressman Curtis. And there
comes to my mind an incident where the president of one of the large
PAGENO="0302"
298 THE Ft~TURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
international oil companies came before one of the committees I
headed in tins field and protested the imposition of quotas, whether
voluntary or compulsory. The next day the president of one of his
wholly owned subsidiaries, which was engaged in domestic produc-
tion, came in and complained very bitterly about the proposal not
being sufficient. And I took the liberty of asking the question, had
he consulted with the president of his company before he made his
statement. And he was a bit chagrined to realize that his policy was
quite different from that of his own company.
This certainly, to my mind, points up the type of interest, and it
does cut across all kinds of lines in this area.
Of course, it induces me to ask one question. And that is, with the
impact of the developing supranational corporations being set up now,
and having been very much so in the last decade, how do you see this
as overcoming these barriers other than tariff barriers which have been
created by the developing nations?
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I would hope that this development of the multi-
national corporations would be beneficial to a more liberal approach
to trade, and in restrictions to trade.
Chairman Boocs. In a way, don't they get around the restrictions?
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. In part by investing in other countries they
reduce the need for exports. But I think that is an oversimplification.
There are many cases-take the case of Caterpillar Tractor Co., which
has huge investments in many parts of the world. It is the second
largest exporter. And the experience that they have had has been that
their exports have grown with foreign investment rather than shrunk,
because they have continued to supply parts and various items that
could not be produced completely abroad.
So, my feeling is that the multinationai corporations will help in a
more understanding and, in my judgment, a better attitude on trade,
and that it also has another beneficial effect to the extent that these
corporations would become international in character, and are less
clearly identified with the United States, and U.S. personnel-many
of them now have policies of establishing headquarters in different
parts of the world, and they are employing an increasing proportion
of foreign, not only employees, but executives-and I think that as
this internationalization of the corporations takes place, it may tend
to lesson the resentment and resistance on the part of foreign countries
to American investment, and what they consider to be, I think in-
accurately, American domination.
Chairman BoGes. Mr. Ball, would you comment on that?
Mr. BALL. I agree entirely wit.h Mr. Rockefeller. And I think, as I
suggested in my statement, that there is one further consideration
here. The ability of the multinational corporation to fulfill its real
objective, which is the use of resources wherever they are found in the
most efficient manner for markets wherever they are developed-this
implies a gradual washing out of the restrictions that are based on
national lines. These multinational corporations are simply too big
to operate within national restrictions. And when such instructions are
imposed, they interfere very seriously with the fulfillment of the pur-
pose of these corporations. And I think that the realization of this
point may over tirne,tend to erode away these impediments based on
national boundaries. -
PAGENO="0303"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 299
Chairman BOGGS. Thank you very much.
Mr. Reuss?
Representative REU55. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Ball, in connection with this parceling out under the proposed
closed system, you suggested that it may well be that Europe gets
Africa and the United States gets Latin America. Who gets India?
Mr. BALL. That is a very fair question, and I have been waiting for
it. Of course, what your question does is to point to some extent to the
vice of a closed system, in that there are always some people who are
left out of any closed system. Then the question is, do you have more
closed systems, or do they simply suffer from being outside?
This is why in 1963, I think it was, when there was a first meeting of
the UNCTAD, the Indian Government, which enjoyed the preferences
of the Commonwealth system~ opted to support a principle of general-
ized preferences, because they were rather afraid that at the end of
the road they might be left out.
But I would think that if one looks at the experience of the last
few years that Africa is a place where a considerable amount of re-
sources have been going from Europe, and there has been a very high
volume of trade.
India is a situation where most of the support, I would say 90 per-
cent, I don't know what the figures are, exactly, has been provided by
the United States, or the Soviet Union, and a very little has come
from Western Europe. I would suspect that that would be the system
that would continue.
Actually, what we are talking about isn't as serious as it sounds,
because the kind of production that you talk about when you think
of Africa is the productions of tropical products primarily. They do
compete with Latin America. They don't compete very much with
India or almost any other area of the world. This is a rather special
situation. I would suppose that, to the extent that aid is provided,
we would continue to provide it. Whether or not there would be any
virtue in trying to have a closed system with regard to India-I would
doubt it. It is in a closed system now, it is in the Commonwealth system,
and it does enjoy the benefit of Commonwealth preferences. They
aren't terribly significant except on certain items. But they are sig-
nificant in this, that the British, for example, have been prepared to
accept cotton textiles from the Commonwealth, even though classically
they are a low-cost labor item-they have been prepared to accept
them and rationalize their own cotton industry, to the point where,
though Britain was once on balance an exporter of cotton textiles, it
now gets, I have forgotten the figures, something like 50 percent of its
requirements from abroad, and primarily from the British Common-
wealth. So, India is already in a closed system.
Representative REU55. Mr. Rockefeller, you are quite right, I think,
in saying that the great trade task is the reduction of nontariff barriers.
On the tariff barriers themselves, you say in your paper that not too
much additional tariff cutting is in your judgment going to be possible
or even desirable. You then go on to make several points, one, that
they should try to cut down their preferences now granted by Europe
to Africa and if you are going to cut down those preferences, the real
way to do it is by tariff negotiations, that is, you aren't likely to get
PAGENO="0304"
300 TIlE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
the Europeans to give up their preferences to Africa, the way `to
salvation is to have them diminish their tariff barriers toward others,
notably Latin America, is it not?
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Yes. Perhaps I didn't express myself `as clearly
as I should have. I was thinking of general tariff reduction along the
lines of the last six GATT negotia.tions. I do feel, and so stated, that
there is a need for special preferences on a generalized basis from the
industrialized nation to the developing nation as a means of helping
them improve their luck.
Representative R.euss. In addition, then, to that kind of tariff cutting
which you and I agree remains on the agenda, you then turn `to the
United States-Canadian relationship and suggest a free trade area,
and you indicate the possibility of enlargement, mentioning specifi-
cally Mexico. Would you be willing to consider enlarging that concept
a little bit so that if-well, maybe more than a little bit-so that it
related not. only to Canada. and Mexico, but possibly to those members
of EFTA which, for one reason or another, are not able to make the
grade into the Common Market?
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. This doesn't shock me too much, though. I think
it is conceivable that England would find it more acceptable to come
in on that basis. And if they did, I would see no objection from our
point of view to having them come in on that basis.
Representative R.EUSS. Doesn't t.his then suggest that there may
well be a. considerable role for tariff reduction in the yea.rs ahead as
well as the reduction of nontariff barriers, the need to do something
about the incipient discriminations with rega.rd to the developing
nations, and the need to see what can be done wit.h the free trade bar-
rier concept? In your paper as a whole you say that you don't mean
to exclude tariff reducing negotiations, though perhaps of a new kind,
from things that we have been discussing.
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. A new approach is what we have really been
saying. I think it would either be on the. basis of a. regional elimination
altogether, the formation of a. regional free trade area of which we
would be a part, or, a.s I mentioned before, aid to developing nations.
And what I was really speaking of was a new round of GATT nego-
tiations on a worldwide `basis.
Representative REUS5. But even then, when you get all these excep-
tions into it., don't you think that a possible approach might be a new
round of &ATT negotiations, profiting by the lesson the Kennedy
Round, which would try, one, t.o inultila.tera.lize matters by reducing
those preferences, or by reducing tariffs generally; and secondly,
making another attempt, whatever the chances of success, of getting
t.he Common Market to give up some of its restrictive protectionism,
and thirdly, t.o move, if not into free trade, at least into something
which would make t.rade a little more free; if the Common Market
wants to exclude itself from that multilateral `basis, so be it, although
I would by no means conclude that until we have tried it. Would you
be prepared to accept a formulation along these lines?
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. If there is to be another GATT negotiation, I
would have thought that it would be more productive if it devoted
itself primarily, if not exclusively, to the nontariff barriers.
Representative REUSS. But where GATT i.s all we have got~ where
PAGENO="0305"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 3Ol~
else do we hold these nearly global negotiations between the developed~
countries in Europe, this country, and Canada?
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. This country and Canada, I should think, would
have to be negotiated between Canada and ourselves. And that should
probably take place before we included other countries. It is conceiv-
able to me that if Britain is finally and definitively excused from the
European Common Market, that then conceivably she might be
included in the three-way negotiation that we might undertake. This
would seem to me to make some sense. I do not think that. can be
handled through GATT. Possibly discussions of generalized aid to
developing nations could. And I would certainly favor GATT as the
vehicle, if that proves to be the right thing.
My recollection is that this has been discussed in the past or through
OECD, has it not, rather than GATT?
Mr. BALL. OECD and TJNCTAD.
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Yes.
But certainly, I would welcome another GATT round on the non-
tariff barriers. And I think it might be more profitable to concentrat&
on that rather than trying to include more tariff reductions on the
general basis. That was really my main point.
Representative REuss. Thank you. You have clarified it.
Chairman BOGGS. Mr. Curtis, we have time for. one more question.
Representative CuRTIs. First, I wanted to just make this clear.
I was glad to see opening up this very important area of investment
which you have so vitally linked with trade. And I worry very much,.
by the way, about Government investment. I have pointed out that
according to Gresham's Law, Government money has a tendency to
draw out profit. It doesn't have to, but i.t tends to. But rather than go
into that area, because of time, I would just like to revert very briefly
to what Mr. Reuss has been pointing out. I think essentially our tariffs
are now down to a level where they don't amount to significant barriers
to trade. But these other items do. And if people will reread what the
GATT agreements are on the rules of the road on fair trade, they will
find that most of these-or what we refer to nontariff barriers-are in
the span of the GATT rules of the road, and most of the nontariff
barriers, except some nonconforming uses, have been in all of our
countries' laws for many, many years.
But moving in on one area, like antidumping, but getting a common
countervailing duty approach, healthfully getting something done on
buy domestic laws-buy America, buy French, and so on-moving
into this international area of international patents, or some concept
of international antitrust laws, and so forth.
But at any rate, I simply want to express my appreciation for Mr.
Rockefeller's emphasis on the nontariff barrier area. That is more or
less by itself a subject matter to be implemented through further
GATT negotiations.
And in this process I think we bring in the problem of the less-
developed countries. It is wrapped up more in the nontariff barriers
than it is in the tariff.
Representative BOGGS. Thank you very much, Mr. Curtis.
In concluding these hearings on the future of U.S. trade policy,
I wish to offer the subcommittee's thanks to our two distinguished
82-181-67-vol. I-20
PAGENO="0306"
302 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
witnesses of today. They have brought to a close the subcommittee's
preliminary survey of our trade policy problems.
As everybody realizes, we are only at the beginning of this study.
But already it seems clear that our choices of future action are going
to be difficult and more complex than in the past; for example, as Mr.
Ball has pointed out today, the open system, to which our trade policy
has been committed for a long time, is being subjected to increasing
strains.
Also, the negotiating process is likely to undergo great changes.
Nontariff barriers are of many kinds. Some of them are regarded as
matters of purely domestic concern within the national unit, and there-
fOre they are regarded by many people as not being negotiable. But
even if the pace of change will probably be slow, national policies will
accommodate to change. We must be sure that our bargaining is
flexible and that the idea of reciprocity, which is the essence of bargain-
ing, is not interpreted too narrowly. Trade policy touches many other
policy issues, political as well as economic; it should not be dealt with
as though it were entirely in a separate compartment. So, we must be
careful in choosing what to negotiate and how to do it..
But if the future course of our trade policies is less clear today than
it has been for many years, the opportunity for initiative is all the
better. I believe this subcommittee is one appropriate forum for the
study.
First, the legislative arm of government must make its full con-
tribution, in ideas and in open debate, to the formation of such impor-
tant decisions. Second, the Joint Economic Committee, removed a little
way from the legislative struggles of each day, can manage to take a
1on~er range of view in looking toward the future.
Finally, this very subcommittee played an important role in the
examination of trade policy that led to the passage of the Trade Expan-
sion Act of 1962. Therefore, what we have been doing is necessary, and
I believe it is timely. And what we propose to do will take time, too.
We are not going to rush to conclusions.
But we do have a sense of the great achievements of our policies in
the past, and a thankful appreciation of the efforts of our negotiators
in the Kennedy round, including Mr. Curtis, our Representative from
Congress. We remember, even in this subcommittee, the devotion of
men like Christian Herter and Will Clayton who were prepared to
examine new ideas and to recommend giant steps when they were
needed.
* Our witnesses in these six hearings have given us invaluable guid-
ance in maintaining that tradition.
We are particularly grateful to Mr. Rockefeller and Mr. Ball for the
very fine contributions they have made.
The subcommittee will adjourn.
(Whereupon, at 12:10 p.m. the subcommittee adjourned, subject to
the call of the Chair.)
PAGENO="0307"
APPENDIX
(The following material is included in the record at the request of
Eepresentative Thomas B. Curtis; see p. 288, this volume.)
QUANTITATIVE RESTRICTIONS AFFECTING U.S. EXPORTS (JANUARY 1962) *
The multilateral tariff conference just concluded in Geneva under the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) represents another important achieve-
ment in the lowering of tariff barriers to trade. These efforts would be of little
value, however, if participating countries were free to impose quantitative trade
restrictions without restraint to vitiate the benefits of tariff concessions. Coun-
tries party to GATT are therefore required to undertake a general obligation not
to impose quantitative restrictions on imports from other GATT countries.
An undertaking as broad as this must, of course, be subject to certain excep-
tions and a number of these are specified in the agreement itself. These include
controls necessary to protect human, animal, or plant life or health; controls
designed to prevent interferences with certain types of domestic programs relat-
ing to agriculture or fisheries products; and measures necessary for the protec-
tion of a country's security interests. In addition, obligations under the agree-
ment can be selectively suspended for individual countries in exceptional
circumstances.
By far the most important restrictions applied by GATT countries, from the
standpoint of their effect on U.S. exports, have been those permitted for balance-
of-payments reasons under articles XII and XVIII of the agreement and the
discriminatory application of these restrictions permitted under article XIV.
For a number of years after the war, most nondollar countries maintained fairly
extensive import control systems to conserve limited foreign exchange reserves
and to channel export earnings into the purchase of goods most needed to stimu-
late economic recovery. Dollar exchange was in almost universal short supply
so that most trade and exchange controls were applied more strictly against the
dollar area than against other currency areas. As financial conditions improved,
controls were relaxed, first on a regional basis. European countries established
trade and payments arrangements to facilitate trade among themselves while
generally maintaining strict controls vis-a-vis the dollar area so that a sizable
`~discriminatory gap" developed against United States and Canadian goods.
With rapid progress toward European recovery, however, currencies became
more stable and the need for controls diminished. By the mid-1950's, under
strong United States-Canadian pressure through the GATP, the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and other channels, European countries began to accel-
erate the relaxation and removal of controls against dollar goods and narrow
the "discriminatory gap." At the end of 1958, the currencies in which most
international trade is conducted became convertible and the financial justifica-
tion for discrimination virtually disappeared. Since then a dramatic relaxation
and elimination of quantitative import controls has taken place throughout the
world. This broad movement was described in considerable detail in the third,
fourth, and fifth reports by the President of the United States to the Congress
on the trade agreements program.
Developments were summarized on a quarterly basis in the Commerce Depart-
ment publication Foreign Commerce Weekly. Copies of these summaries covering
the period from mid-1959 through 1961 are attached to this memorandum.
CURRENT STATUS
Most industrial countries now have few effective quantitative import restric-
tions in the industrial sector, although there are some important residual con-
trols on agricultural goods. Many less developed countries still have rather
* SourceS House Ways and Means Committee: Trade Expansion Act of 1962, hearings.
303
PAGENO="0308"
304 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
extensive trade controls systems but these usually do not discriminate against
U.S. trade. Of the 40 contracting parties to the GATT, 15 still maintain restric-
tions on at least a part of their import trade for balance-of-payments reasons.
The countries are: Brazil, Burma. Ceylon, Chile, Denmark, Finland, Greece, India,
Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Pakistan, Republic of South Africa, Turkey, and
Uruguay. These countries are required. under the GATT, to remove their restric-
tions as rapidly as conditions permit and a regular consultation procedure is proW
vided to keep the controls under constant review. The GATT working party on.
balance-of-payments restrictions will examine the control systems of six coun--
tries in May 1962, and will hold consultations with additional countries in.
September.
During the period of accelerated decontrol following the European currency
convertibility moves in 1958. a substantial number of GATT countries ceased to.
invoke the provisions of article XII and XVIII of the agreement. While these-
- countries have removed most restrictions formerly applied for payments reasons,.
some residual controls still remain.
A current effort is therefore underway in the GATT to identify all residual
restrictions applied by GATT countries which are inconsistent with obligations:
under the agreement so that further progress can be made in their elimination.
A group of experts held an initial meeting on this project in Geneva during~
January 1962 and a second meeting will be held in May.
The articles of agreement of the International Monetary Fund (IMP) limit~
the use of exchange restrictions in much the same way that the GATT deals
with import restrictions. The IMP, in which the United States also partici--
pates, maintains a close working relationship with the GATT in this general~~
field, and the activities of these two groups reinforce each other in freeing trade.
from unnecessary administrative control.
Another international forum in which the United States is seeking to encour-.
age the removal of trade restrictions is the Organization for Economic Coopera- -
tion and Development (OECD). The OECD came into force in the fall of 1961 as
a result of a thorough revision and broadening of the former Organization for -
European Economic Cooperation (OEEC). The OEEC was set up in 1948 to
facilitate European postwar recovery and make the most effective use of Marshall
plan aid. With this mission accomplished, a reconstituted organization was set
up at the initiative of the United States, oriented to deal with present and future.
major world economic problems and with the United States and Canada as full
members. Its current work program includes plans for confrontations this year~
on trade restrictions applied by member countries.
Complementing and supported by the above international commitments and
activities for removal of restrictions affecting U.S. trade are the bilateral rep-
resentations constantly made through the many U.S. diplomatic posts abroad.
These representations permit prompt consideration of problems as they arise, or-
at a time when local conditions are most favorable to a solution. The importance
of trade liberalization is also stressed when high foreign officials visit Washing-.
ton or U.S. officials confer abroad.
Through a combination of activities, including representations in multilateral
forums and selective bilateral approaches to foreign governments, progress is.
being made in the removal of remaining quantitative import restrictions. A sum-.
mary table, showing the current status of licensing and exchange controls applied
by foreign countries, together with a more detailed statement covering the sys-
tems in force in over 50 of these countries, are attached to this memorandum.
[From the Foreign Commerce Weekly, Dec. 25, 1961]
SUMMARY OF FOREIGN CONTROL REGULATIONS APPLYING TO IMPORTS FROM THE -
UNITED STATES
The following tabulation of the import and exchange permit requirements of~
foreign countries, prepared by the Bureau of International Programs as an
aid to exporters, has been revised as of December 1, 1961.
The regulations apply primarily to goods of U.S. origin and to other goods pay-.
able in U.S. dollars.
Many countries do not permit import of foreign goods except under import
licenses, which must be obtained by the importer. In some cases an import license.
must be granted before the order for goods is placed, and some countries also..
PAGENO="0309"
305
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
require the importer to obtain an exchange permit before he may make payment
for the import.
U.S. exporters therefore are urged to make certain before shipping that the
foreign importer has obtained the required permit, and they should insist on
being furnished the identifying number or symbol of the permit.
More detailed information on licensing and exchange controls may be obtained
from the Field Offices of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Publications cover-
ing licensing and exchange controls of individual countries also are available
from the Field Offices at a nominal charge.
Country
Is import license necessary?
Is exchange permit required?
Afghanistan `
Arabian Peninsula areas:
Saudi Arabia
Aden
Bahrein, Qatar Trucial
States.
Muscat and Oman, Yemen_ -
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Bolivia
Brazil
British Colonies not specified
elsewhere.
Bulgaria
Burma
Cambodia
Cameroon, Federal Republic of_ -
Canada
Central African Republic
Ceylon
Chad
No, for most imports; but a declaration
or customs permit must be obtained
from Afghan border officials or trade
agents abroad.
No
No
No
No
No; but most imports are subject to ex-
change surcharges.
No, except for about 10 percent of im-
ports, including principally textiles,
toys, canned fish, aluminum products,
and other miscellaneous items of
minor importance.
No, except for a number of agricultural
and some industrial items s'ihich re-
quire an individually validated import
license. Most industrial and some agri-
cultural items may be imported freely
under generallicense.
No, except for specific items. Licenses
N usually freely granted if still required.
No, except for nonessential or luxury
goods and for items imported without
foreign exchange cover. Most com-
mercial imports require only a certifi-
cate of exchange cover.
No, except for certain items not under
open license and for the Bahama
Islands where the license requirement
is merely a formality.
Yes
Yes, except for imports by the Govern-
ment, or goods importable under open
general license.
Yes
Yes
No, except for butter; butter fat; ched-
dar cheese; dried skim milk; wheat,
oats, and barley and certain processed
products of these groins; turkeys;
natural gas; radioactive and fission-
able materials, isotopes, and equip-
ment for production, use, or applica-
tion of atomic energy. Import of
alcoholic beverages requires Provin-
cial licenses. Secondhand automobiles
manufactured before year in which im-
portation is sought, secondhand air-
craft, oleomargarine, and butter sub-
stitutes and spreads are prohibited
importation.
Yes
Yes, except for "essential" commodities
importable under open license.
Yes
No; but permission to remit foreign ex-
change to exporters abroad must be
obtained from Da Afghanistan Bank.
No. Import licenses carry right to foreign
exchange at official rate. Other goods
may be imported by purchase of fereign
exchange on free market.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No separate permit required.
No.
No. Foreign exchange for imports is pur-
chased in the free market. Certificates
of right to purchase exchange for non-
essentials are obtained at auction.
No. Import licenses assures release of
foreign exchange.
Import license automatically assures
foreign exchange.
Yes.
Yes; import license carries right to foreign
exchange.
Yes; import license carries right to foreign
exchange.
No.
Yes; import license carries right to foreign
exchange.
Yes.
Yes; import license carries right to foreign
exchange.
Footnotes at end of table, p. 310.
PAGENO="0310"
306
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Country
Is import license necessary?
Is exchange permit required?
Congo, Republic of (Brazzaville)_
Congo, Republic of the
(Leopoldville).
Costa Rica
Cuba
Cyprus
Czechoslovakia
Dahomey
Denmark
Dominican Republic
No; prior registration of imports is re-
quired, however, and many goods are
subject to prior import guarantee de-
posits which must be deposited at the
time of registration. The deposit is
returned 30 or 90 days after date of
deposit. Those goods not subject to
import guarantee deposits pay sur-
taxes in addition to usual import duties,
wh~ch range from 5 to 200 percent of
the c.i.f. value.
Yes; nearly all imports require an import
registration certificate, which is issued
upon payment of a deposit. Imports
included in the "prior license" list
also require a specific license from the
import-control authorities.
Yes
Yes
Yes; but no license is required for dollar
goods on extensive general free list.
Technically no; but submission and re-
turn of a "statistical form" which must
be submitted prior to ordering abroad
is utilized in such a manasr as to con-
stitute an import license. Special im-
port permits are required for highway
construction machinery, radio trans-
mitting equipment, railroad spikes,
firearms, milk and milk products rice,
fruits and vegetables, sends, tubers,
rendered pork fat, and confectionary
and other edible products in which
sugar or chocolate constitutes the
principal ingredient.
Yes, except for small shipments; one
copy must be presented to obtain con-
solar legalization of prescribed docu-
ments. Some items considered non-
essential are prohibited. Import quotas
are imposed on certain items to stimu-
late local production. An advance de-
posit is required on most items.
Yes
No, excopt for a few items such as chem-
ical and pharmaceutical products,
strong liquors, essences for making
liquor, cotton, and sugar.
No
Yes; but an extensive list of goads may
be imparted without import license
following action of Finland in placing
imports from the United States and
Csnada on some basis as Western
European countries participating in the
multilateral trade and payments agree-
ment. Commodities not on the import
free list are subject, with certain ox-
ception, to a system of global quotas.
Yes, but routinely issued upon approval of
impart license and for imparts under
"open impart license."
Impart license automatically provides for
allocation of necessary, foreign cx-
changa.
Yes; import license carries right to for-
eign exchange.
Yes; copy of license or importer's declara-
tion viith customs certification of import
takes place of exchange license.
No; but there are administrative controls
since all applications for foreign ex-
change require Central Bank approval.
Importer must show that his "statistical
form" has been approved when apply-
ing for foreign exchange to pay for
imports.
Chile
Colombia
No.
No; importer purchases foreign exchange
from the bank concerned upon sub-
mission of import registration and evi-
dence (customs manifests) that the
goods have entered Colombia.
Yes; import license carries right to foreign
exchange.
Yes.
No. Exchange regulations were lifted this
year but many items are subject to
import surcharges.
All payments are made by Government
Bank for Foreign Commerce of Cuba.
Yes
No, except for live animals and for live
plants, parts of plants, seeds, and the
like.
The state-owned Bank for Foreign Com-
merce of Cuba (BANEC) is solo im-
porter of all commercial commodities.
(U.S. expcrt regulat ass prohibit com-
mercial exports to Cuba, `,`iith excep-
tion of nossubsidized foodstufls for
immediate consampton, medicines,
aod med~caI supplies.)
Yes; exceptforapecisea items on the dol-
lar liberalization list, which are author-
ized imparts is any quantity under
"open impart license."
Yes
Ecuador
Egypt (United Arab Republic)___
El Salvador
Ethiopia
Finland
No; import license carries right to foreign
exchange.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes. Certain commodities considered to be
luxury items require prior deposit of
Ethiopian dollars up to 100 percent of
the valuo to be imported.
No separate permit required; import
license carries right to foreign exchange.
PAGENO="0311"
307
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Country
Is import license necessary?
Is exchange permit required?
French overseas territories not
elsewhere specified except
French Somaliland.
French Somaliland -
Gabon
Germany, Federal Republic of,
including West Berlin.
Yes, but only for a limited number of
products specifically enumerated which
are subject to quantitative import re-
strictions. All other products may enter
under a simplified procedure. Customs
authorities will allow imports of such
products upon presentation by the im-
porter of an import certificato or import
license, usually granted automatically,
and visaed by his bank, supported by
an invoice or commercial contract.
No, except for a limited number of prod-
ucts specifically enumerated which are
subject to quantitative import restric-
tions. These products include those
listed for metropolitan France plus
wood products and tractors. Beer is
subject to license in Martinique and
selected types of machinery in French
Guiana.
Yes, except on items on dollar liberaliza-
tion list.
No
Yes
France (including Algeria)
French Caribbean departments. -
No.
No.
No.
No.
Yes; import license carries right to foreign
exchange.
No.
Yes.
No; but applications for foreign exchange
must be registered with the authorities.
Bank of Greece approval is required for
goods imported under Agency for In-
ternational Development procurement
authorization.
No; but application for foreign exchange
must have the approval of the Bank of
Ghana or an authorized dealer.
No.
Yes.
No.
No.
No, except for few transactions financed
at official rate of exchange.
Yes.
Yes, except for "special conditional free
list" imports.
Yes; foreign exchange is automatically
released, however, upon presentation of
validated import license to exchange
bank.
No.
No; but an exchange sale certificate issued
to the importer when he purchases
foreign exchange represents approval of
foreign exchange transfers by author-
ized Iranian banks. This certificate and
the shipping documents are required
for clearance of imports through
customs.
Yes; permits are obtained through
licensed dealers unless otherwise
authorized by the Central Bank.
No, except for a number of agricultural
and some nonagricultural items which
require an individually validated im-
port license. Most industrial and a
number of agricultural products may
be imported freely under general
license.
Yes; Government monopolies for foreign
trade are the only importers.
No, except for rice, coffee, sugar, motor
vehicles, vehicular chassis and bodies,
lumber, coal and coke, except anthra-
cite, vehicular tires and tubes, iron and
steel bars, shapes, sheets, etc., in-
cluding tinplate, newsprint, specified
machinery and spare parts, and a few
luxury goods.
Yes, except for single copies of books and
periodicals, samples, personal or
household effects, certain gifts and
articles for reimportation.
No, except for maps of Guatemala, ex-
plosives, poultry, and wheat flour.
Yes
No, except for wheat-quota imports,
tobacco products, matches, rice, butter,
and shoe polish.
No, except for firearms, gunpowder,
munitions, explosives, alcohol, nar-
cotics, pharmaceutical specialties, ani-
mals, plants, and plant and animal
products.
Yes, for dutiable, strategic, or short-
supply goods. Relatively few items
affected.
Yes
Yes, except for items on "special con-
ditional free list" and a limited num-
ber of staples.
Yes, except for Government imports
Germany, Soviet zone, including
Soviet sector of Berlin.
Greece
Ghana
Guatemala
Guinea, Republic of
Haiti
Honduras
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
No, except for specific items such as
cement, dynamite, tobacco, and insecti-
cides.
Yes
PAGENO="0312"
:308
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Country
Is import license necessary?
Is exchange permit required?
Kuwait
Laos
Lebanon
liberia
tibya
Nepal
Netherlands
Netherlands Antilles
New Zealand
No, except for a limited number of items
listed on the Table A Import", for
which Foreign Trade Ministry license
is required (items not included on
this list are free of license).
Yes, except for imports from Arab League
States with which Jordan has agree-
ments.
Yes, Bank of Korea licenses more or less
tree~y astamaiic spprovai items in-
cluded in both the importable and the
speciflc import item iisls provided im-
porter spp!ies for a letter of credit and
complies with the "checkprico" system
established by the Ministry of Com-
merce and Industry. Other authorized
imports require special license from
MCI.
No, except for firearms, munitions, poi-
sonous substances, pork, pork products,
and alcoholic beverages.
No
Yes, for certain specified products
No, except for arms, ammunition, used
clothing, pharmaceuticals, and rice.
Yes. Licenses for goods which fall under
general importlicense classification (all
but a limited list) are granted auto-
matically.
No, except for specific items. Licenses
usually freely granted, if still required.
No, except for a few items not importable
under open general license for reasons
of health, safety, and morals.
Yes
Yes
Yes, for an extensive list of articles
Yes. A deposit of 25 percent of value of
import must be made is advance by
importer.
Yes
No, except for a few items
No, except for certain luxury items
Yes, except for a few items such as sugar,
sulfur, unmanufactured tobacco, and
most petroleum products.
Yes
Yes
Yes, but about 95 percent of all goods are
pnrmitted under open general license.
No, except for a limited list of nonilber-
alized products.
Yes, except for Government imports
No, except for arms, ammunition, wheat
flour quota imports, salt, edible oils
except olive oil, certain live animals,
plants, floss'ers, soil, hay, stras',, fertil-
izers, animal products except canned
meats, certain tanned hides, toiletries,
pharmaceuticals, and a limited num-
ber of agricultural commodities.
No, except for importations exceeding
£5,000 in any 12-month period.
Yes; import license carries authority
(exchange permit) to obtain foreign
exchange.
No, except with advance or delayed
payments for more than 180 days, and
in a fes'i other cases.
Yes; import license carries right to
foreign exchange.
Some commodities, announced by Japa.
nose Government from time to time,
require allocation certificate; for others,
import license carries right to foreign
exchange.
Yes, except Arab League States in some
cases.
No. Items on Government's importable
(essential) import list may be imported
with foreign exchange deposited in an
import account in the Bank of Korea,
purchased from the Bank, or purchased
at Government dollar sales. Items on
the specific (less essential) list are im-
portable only with exchange earned
from exports.
No.
No.
No.
No.
Yes; exchange pormit issued automatically
if import license has been issued.
No separate permit required.
No.
Yes; import license carries right to foreign
exchange.
Yes; import license carries right to foreign
exchange.
No.
Yes.
Yes; but the import license authorizes
purchase of foreign exchange.
No.
No.
No.
No; import permit authorizes purchase of
exchange.
Yes; import license carries right to foreign
exchange.
No; import license generally assures re~
lease of foreign exchange.
No.
Yes; foreign exchange is automatically
released, however, upon presentation of
validated import license to exchange
bank.
No.
No, except for a few products
Israel Yes.
`Italy
Ivory Coast Yes -
Japan Yes
Jordan
Korea, Republic of
Luxembourg
Malaya, Federation of
Mali
Mauritania
Mexico
Morocco
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
Norway
Pakistan
Panama
PAGENO="0313"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
309i
Country
Is Import license necessary?~
Is exchange permit required?
Poland
Portugal, including the Azores
and Madeira.
Portuguese Colonies
Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Fed.
eration of.
Rumania
Senegal
Sierra Leone
Singapore8
Somali Republic
South Africa, Republic of
No; most imports are subject .to prior
deposit in local currency before ship-
ment.
No, except for plants, roots, seeds,
cuttings, animals, medicinal cigarettes,
explosives, firearms and other weap-
ons, alcoholic beverages, salt, tobacco,
chemical and pharmaceutical products,
matches, hatching eggs, and dupli-
catiiig machines.
No permit as such; but most imports are
subject to exchange controls.
Yes, but all goods are freely importable
under open general license.
Yes
Yes
Yes; but only commodities such as cattle,
firearms, and explosives are not im-
ported under an open general license.
No, except for a few items not importable
under open general licenses for rea-
sons of health, safety, and morals.
Yes
Yes; exceptforgoods on the free list and
exempted list, most consumer goods
are licensed on basis of exchange
quotas established by the Government.
Motor vehicles of f.o.b. value over
1,600 rands (1 rand=US$1.40) are
prohibited. Other goods, including
capital goods and industrial raw ma-
terials, are licensed en basis of im-
porters' current needs; policy is to
grant license applications freely for
"reasonable requirements." Licenses
are valid for purchases in any country,
including the United States.
Yes, except for items on liberalized list_.
Yes
Yes, except for an extensive list of com-
modities that may be imported under
open general license from any source.
All imports must be registered with
the Ministry of Commerce, which may
deny registration because of com-
mercial policy or excessively high
prices.
Yes, except for certain goods paid for by
a confirmed bank credit against docu-
ments valid for a term not greater than
6 months, or by documentary drafts to
be collected through a bank with a
term not greater than 90 days.
No, for all goods imported from United
States except automobiles and certain
agricultural products. Import licenses
for automobiles are granted freely.
No, except for a few agricultural products
and a limited number of industrial
items such as special type trucks, etc.
No permit as such; but letter of credit
opened against exchange allocation is
considered as exchange license. Ex-
change allocated to importers quarterly
for one or more of six classes of imports.
A limited number of commodities des-
ignated "decontrolled" many be im-
ported without quota limitations at the
official or preferred rate. More essential
commodities may also be imported by
qualified importers in excess of their
quotas at the more expensive frea
market rate.
Yes.
Yes.
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
No.
No.
Yes
Yes, but granted automatically for must
products.
Yes
Yes. In Angola, however, import license
carries with it authorization to obtain
foreign exchange needed for payment
of goods to which license pertains.
Yes; import license carries right to foreign
exchange.
Yes.
Yes; import license carries right to foreign
exchange.
No; but application for exchange requires
clearance by `authorized dealers."
No.
Yes.
No; import license carries right to foreign
exchange from authorized banks to the
amount indicated in the license.
Yes, except for items on liberalized list.
Yes; import license carries right to foreign
exchange.
No. Exchange is automatically granted for
all permitted imports.
No; import license curries right to foreign
exchange.
No separate permit required. Foreign ex-
change, including dollar exchange, is
automatically made available if import
license specifies payment in such
currency and if license is registered
with a foreign exchange bank within 2
months after issuance.
No.
Spain, including, Canary Islands
Spanish Africa
Sudan
Surinam
Sweden
Switzerland
Footnotes at end of table, p. 310.
PAGENO="0314"
310
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Country
Is import license necessary?
Is exchajige permit required?
United Arab Republic (Egypt)___
United Kingdom
Yes
Yes
No, except for specified items
Yes
Yes
Yes, for items on global quota list under
provisions of the 7th import regula-
tions issued in July 1961. Import li-
censes for items on free list are issued
routinely.
Yes
No, except for a limited list of products;
for example, grapefruit and citrus
juices, fresh apples and pears, com-
mercial airplanes, pharmaceuticals,
cigars.
Yes
No. On Sept. 29, 1960, Uruguay abolished
all commodity prohibitions. The new
system establishes 4 classes of im-
ports: Those free of surcharge and
prior deposits; goods subject to a sur-
charge of 40 percent of the c.i.f. value;
goods subject to a surcharge of 75 per-
cent; and imports with a surcharge of
150 percent and a prior deposit of 100
percent. Prior deposits are repayable
after 9 or 12 months, depending upon
the product, from date of registration
with the Bank of the Republic of the
intention to import. Size of surcharge
depends upon essentiality of the
product.
Yes; importing Government agencies are
responsible for securing own permit.
Yes, for an extensive list of articles
Yes
No; but only licensed import firms are
permitted to carry on import opera-
tions.
Yes.
Yes, automatically granted with issuance
of import license.
No; but a "certificate of payment" issued
by Bank of Thailand or authorized ban
or company is required.
Yes; import license curries right to foreign
exchange.
Yes.
Yes; but one application suffices for both
import license and exchange-control
purposes.
Yes.
Yes, but issued automatically.
Yes; import license carries right to foreign
exchange.
No.
Yes; all exchange is allocated by U.S.S.R.
State Bank upon receipt of import
license.
Required for transactions at the official
rate. No permit needed for free market
exchange.
Yes; import license carries right to foreign
exchange.
No; but Government maintains strict con
trol over foreign exchange allocations.
Syria -
Taiwan (Formosa)
Thailand
Togo -
Tunisia
Turkey
Upper Volta
Uruguay
U.S.S.R
Venezuela
Viet-Nam
Yugoslavia
I As most shipments to Afghanistan from the free world countries are shipped via Pakistan, shippers should take note
that the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan is presently closed to all commercial imports and exports. U.S. ex-
porters should keep in touch with their fcr.varding agents for current information.
2 Includes Bahamas; Bermuda; The West Indies (Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad, Leeward Islands, and Windward Islands);
British East Africa; Gambia; British Guiana; British Honduras; and minor Colonies, Protectorates, and Trusteeship over
Territories.
British Borneo (Brunei, North Borneo, and Sarawak) regulations are the same as Singapore's.
QUANTITATIVE REsTRICTIoNs AGAINST U.S. EXPORTS, JANUARY 1962
COUNTRY SUMMARIES
Argentina
Argentina has no import or exchange licensing controls and exchange to pay
for imports may be obtained in the free market.
There is, however, a prohibition on the importation of passenger automobiles
weighing over 1,500 kilograms or with a factory cost of over S2,000, and tractors
of less than 85 horsepower. In addition, special ad valorem surcharges based
on the c.i.f. value of imports are levied on a wide range of goods. The rates
vary from 20 to 200 percent, depending on the essentiality of the product, and
in some cases constitute a formidable obstacle to imports from the United
States.
Exemptions from surcharges has been granted to certain goods, chiefly ma-
chinery officially approved for investment programs, to imports for certain vital
industries (steel, petrochemical, cellulose, etc.), to imports into Patagonia and
the imderdeveloped northwest region of Argentina and to machinery and machine
tools not manufactured in Argentina. Also, surcharge exemptions have been
granted for imports from neighboring countries and Peru. These regional ex-
emptions were superseded, however, by concessions granted by Argentina to other
members of the Latin American Free Trade Area (LAFTA) in January 1962.
PAGENO="0315"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 311
Australia
Australia ceased to apply import restrictions for balance-of-payments reasons
in the first part of 1960. However, about 10 percent of total imports continue
to be subject to import restrictions of several types. Global quotas are estab-
lished for some goods remaining under control for which licenses are issued
based on the applicant's imports during a designated base period. Individual
applications for import licenses are required for other goods under control.
These applications are considered on a case by case basis and, when approved,
importation is authorized from any source. The Australian Government, which
does not claim balance-of-payments justification for its remaining import re-
strictions, has announced that licensing of imports will `be abolished as soon as
practicable. Among restricted products of interest to U.S. suppliers are: roller
and ball bearings, certain textile goods and wearing apparel, toys and spectacle
frames.
Austria
During 1961, Aus'tria `became ineligible under the rules of the GA!PT and the
IMF to apply import restrictions for balance-of-payments reasons. Late in the
year the Austrian Government announced a modest liberalization action which
removed controls on a number of products. While most U.S. goods can be im-
`ported without quantitative restrictions, a substantial number remain subject to
individual licensing.
Restrictions are maintained on commodities which are not enumerated on
so-called liberalized lists. One such list is applicable to the former OEEC
countries; an almost identical list is applicable to the United States and Canada
except that licenses (which are granted automatically) are required for the
import of products on the latter list; a third and smaller list is applicable to
products originating in the other GATT countries. The modest liberalization
measures taken on January 1, 1962, apply to the United States and Canada
without discrimination as members of the OECD.
Among the products which are still under restriction are: poultry, canned
meat and offals, honey, many frozen fruits, wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn, cereal
flours, lard, soybean and cottonseed oil, tomato juice, tobacco many chemicals,
some pharmaceutical products, explosives, plastic materials and resins, card-
board, some paper and paper products, cotton and rayon yarns, transformers,
microphones, radio and television receiving sets, insulators, tractors, some motor-
cycles, aircraft, geodetic instruments, some electric and electronic instruments
and apparatus for measuring and testing purposes, and most musical instruments.
Importation of tobacco, tobacco products, salt, and spirits is carried out ex-
clusively by state monopolies, primarily for revenue purposes. All grain imports
are effected `by the Grain Board, which is responsible for the implementation of
the country's agricultural price stabilization policies.
J3elgiuni-Lua,embourg
Most goods may be imported into the Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union
(BLED) without quantitative restrictions. There are, however, 164 classifications
out of several thousand tariff positions and subpositions which are still wholly
or partly subject to import licensing. These include items under the so-called
Benelux global quotas and certain agricultural commodities for which temporary
waivers have been obtained by Belgium and Luxembourg under the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
In terms of commodity composition, two-thirds of the tariff positions still
under control consist of agricultural and food items. The remainder is composed
of items in the following categories: chemicals, penicillin, radioactive materials,
soaps, fertilizers, solid fuels, mineral products, petroleum products, bides, textiles,
glass, diamonds, precious metal alloys, automobiles, arms and ammunitions, and
furniture.
Global quotas for the whole of Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands, and
Luxembourg) are maintained on a small number of the above items. These
quotas are subdivided into two parts, one applying to imports from the other
Common Market countries and the other to imports from third countries includ-
ing the United States. The commodities on the latter quota list in 1961 were
castor oil other than crude, certain fatty acids, penicillin and preparations, and
new and used automobiles and chassis. The Benelux global quotas were relaxed
during 1961 when methyl chloride, wooden packing cases and fish nets were
dropped from the list and the size of remaining quotas increased.
As noted above, import quotas on some agricultural and food products are
maintained by the BLEU countries individually under waivers granted in GATT.
PAGENO="0316"
312 T~ FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
On January 1, 1961, Belgium removed 32 items covered by its GATT waiver from
quantitative import restriction and later scheduled another 12 for removal on
January 1, 1962. Imports of vegetables and fruits for industry, which represent
the greater part of imports in these sectors, had previously been liberalized.
Products still controlled include foals and foal flesh, certain vegetables and fruits
for the trade (subject to seasonal controls), sugarbeets, and hops.
Belgium assesses special import license fees when certain agricultural com-
modities are imported from any country except Luxembourg. Commodities in-
volved include some animals, certain meats and meat products, a few dairy
products, grains and milled products, and fodders. After having been succes-
sively increased over a period of years these licensing fees were lowered in
several stages during the latter part of 1961.
As a member of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), Belgium
maintains separate quotas on imports of coal from Community and non-Com-
munity countries. Although the 1961 Belgian coal quota authorized by the
ECSC of 620,000 metric tons, applicable to third countries, was increased for
1962 to 640,000 metric tons, access to Belgium for U.S. coal continues to be
quite restricted.
Luxembourg employs quantitative import restrictions on a number of agricul-
tural and food products under a GATT waiver including meat animals, meat
and meat preparations, some dairy products, potatoes, apples, wheat and rye
and their milled products, macaroni, spaghetti and other pastes, and ordinary
bakers' products. Few, if any, of the items under the waiver have been liberalized
although there have been indications of a willingness to liberalize eggs not in the
shell, macaroni, spaghetti and other pastes and to consider removing restrictions
on some other products. Luxembourg has, in general, taken the position that
because of its size and its agricultural problems, it could only remove the restric-
tions upon the establishment of a common agricultural policy within the EEC..
BELGIAN IMPORT RESTRICTIONS
AGRICULTURAL SECTOR
Tariff item No. Description of products
ex 01.01 Foals for slaughter; foals other.
ex 02.01 Foal flesh, fresh or chilled.
ex 03.01 Certain fresh sea fish.
ex 06.03 Cut flowers and flower buds for bouquets or ornamental purposes, fresh.
*ex 07.01 Various fresh vegetables.
ex 08.04 Fresh grapes.
ex 08.06A Fresh apples from July 16 to Mar. 15.
ex 08.06B Fresh pears from July 16 to Feb. 15.
ox 08.07B Fresh psaches, including nectarines and free-stone peaches from Aug. flo Sept. 9.
ox 08.07C1 Fresh cherries and morello cherries from June 1 to July 15.
ox 08.07D1 Plums from July 16 to Sept. 15.
ox 08.08A1 Strawberries from June 1 to June 30.
10.01 Wheat and muslin.
ox 10.03 Barley.
ex 10.04 Oats.
ex 11.01 Wheat flour for human consemption, muslin flour.
ox 11.02 Cereal groats and cereal meal, semolina.
ex 12.04 Sugar beet, whole or sliced, fresh, dried or powdered.
12.05 Chicory roots, fresh or dried, whole or cut, unroasted.
12.06 Hops, cones and lupulin.
ex 15.01 Lard and other rendered pig fat, rendered poultry fat.
ox 15.03 ox b Lard stearin, not emulsified.
ex 15.07 Costor oil, fluid or solid, crude, refined or purified.
ex 15.08 Castor oil, dehydrated.
ex 15.10 Fatty acids, excluding fatty acids from tall oil.
15.13 Margarine, imitation lard, and other prepared edible fats.
ox 16.05 Shrimp, cooked and prepared, but not preserved.
17.01 Beet sugar and cane sugar, solid.
ox 17.02 Syrups, liquid sugar sucrose.
INDUSTRIAL SECTOR 1
25.01
ox 29.44
ox 30.13
j31.02
Coal and agglomerates of coal.
Penicillin, salts, and preparations.
Medicaments (including veterinary medicaments) containing penicillin and its salts.
Mineral or chemical fertilizers, nitrogenous.
I Quotas have been established far most of the above items, which are subject to quantitative import restrictions. Belgium
has import licensing requirements for a number of additional products; licenses are issued automatically forthese products
and without quantitative restrictions.
Note: Liberalized to ECSC countries.
PAGENO="0317"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 313
Brazil
Brazil carried out a major revision of its exchange control system during
1961, eliminating the former multiple-rate structure and establishing a free
exchange market. However, in order to assure some uniformity of rate, the
Bank of Brazil quotes a free market rate for the cruziero which other banks and
exchange brokers are urged to use.
The two categOries of commodities for exchange purposes, the general and
the special, remain in effect. All imports require either a prior import license
or, in the case of goods in the general category for which exchange has been
obtained, a certificate of exchange cover.
Importers must make a 150-day prior deposit in Bank of Brazil notes bearing
interest at 6 percent. These notes are often discounted but at rates between
30 and 40 percent. The amount of deposit required at the end of 1961 was 150
percent of the value of the merchandise, but this requirement is to be reduced
in monthly stages of 10 percentage points beginning in January 1962 until com-
pletely eliminated in March 1962.
Imports in the special exchange category (luxury and other less essential
imports) also require the purchase of a "promise of license." These are offered
in very limited amounts at public auction.
British Garibbean territories
Imports from the United States and other dollar countries into British terri-
tories in the Caribbean are largely free from import licensing restrictions as a
`result of liberalization steps taken during 1959 and 1960. Exchange approval
is generally required by most of the territories for imports from outside the
Commonwealth, but this is usually granted freely for goods not subject to
licensing control. British Guiana's exchange controls cover transfers to all
countries, including those within the Commonwealth. Bermuda and the Bahamas
have no exchange controls.
Import licenses are required for only 30 commodity groupings in Trinidad and
`Tobago. Similarly, only 30 items remain on the controlled list of the British
-guiana Commodity Board. Goods subject to licensing generally fall into two
groups. Raw material imports are regulated in line with regional agreements
aimed at prohibiting importation from outside the area except when local sup-
~plies are inadequate. Licenses are also generally required for manufactures
having a high labor content, such as textiles and fabrics, metal wares, and
zfurniture.
Many of the territories have a strong interest in developing their local indus-
-tries. In pursuing this objective, however, they have largely avoided the use of
licensing and exchange controls, relying instead on preferential tariff treatment
of raw materials imports and concessions on income tax payments.
The Caribbean islands are organized, as follows: Bermuda, the Bahamas, the
~British Virgin Islands, British Honduras, and British Guiana are nonfederated
colonies; Antigua, St. Christopher-NeVis-AflgUilla, Monserrate, Dominica, St.
Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada, and Jamaica comprise the Federation of the West
~Indies; and the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Cayman Islands are dependen-
-des of Jamaica. The United Kingdom has accepted GATT obligations on behalf
of all these territorie.s with the exception of Jamaica and its dependencies.
Burma
Burma's import licensing policy continues to be highly restrictive to conserve
;scarce foreign exchange and to maximize imports of industrial development
-goods. Open general license imports account for only 5 to 10 percent of total
import trade and cover only the most essential consumer goods. Imports of
less essential goods are severly limited or prohibited. About 70 percent of
-total foreign exchange allocations for imports are reserved for the Government
or for Government-affiliated agencies.
Although all formal discrimination against dollar goods has ended, the obstacles
-to expanding sales of American goods in Burma are many. One obstacle is the
high percentage of Burmese imports, which are now restricted for procurement
PAGENO="0318"
314 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
under the Japanese reparations program. Another factor that will become in-
creasingly important is the S84 million loan extended by Communist China to
Burma in 1961 for the procurement by Burma of industrial plants and technical
assistance from that country. The recent requirement by the Burmese Govern-
ment that Burmese firms be appointed as commission agents with respect to all
but direct import transactions continues to present difficulties for some exporters.
However, a workable solution has now been achieved in regard to the distribution
of American films ill Burma, one of the largest items of trade.
Cambodia
All commercial imports into Cambodia are subject to licensing and exchange
controls. During 1961 Cambodia removed what amounted to discriminatory
treatment of dollar imports in exchange allocation. Funds are now allocated
semiannually for imports either from the French franc zone or the non-French
franc zone, which includes both the dollar and sterling areas. Payments for
imports from countries outside the franc area are paid for either in dollars or
pounds sterling, depending on the wishes of the supplier. Imports from the
French franc zone continue to be paid for in nonconvertible francs. Formerly,
exchange allocations were tied by product categories and value to the French
franc, sterling, and dollar zones, separated, and the bulk of the allocations were
earmarked for imports from the French frame and sterling zones.
Imports financed through U.S. aid funds administered by the Agency for In-
ternational Development (AID) represent a significant share of Cambodia's
total export trade. Procurement is on a worldwide basis, except for the exclusion
of 19 exporting countries under the new U.S. procurement rule.
Cambodia's imports are also based partly on bilateral trade and payments
agreements concluded with a number of countries, including those in the Sino-
Soviet bloc. Products which enter into the two-way trade are agreed upon by
the two parties and are usually denominated in pound sterling. To a very limited
extent, export-retention credits are also used to finance imports. Exporters
are permitted to retain a portion of their export proceeds for use in importing
goods on an approved list.
Canada
Most imports enter Canada without quantitative restrictions, and payments
abroad may be made freely. Import controls remain on only a few items,
mainly agricultural products. The Export and Import Permits Act, which was
extended indefinitely in May 1960, calls for special permits to import butter,
cheddar cheese, turkeys, dry skimmed milk, and butter fat. An annual import
quota of 4 million pounds is set for turkeys.
Wheat, wheat flour, and wheat starch; oats, ground oats, crimped oats,
crushed oats, rolled oats, and oat meal; and barley including ground, crimped,
meal, and flour are controlled by licensing under the Canadian Wheat Board
Act. The board is the Government pooled marketing agency for these grains pro-
duced in the Prairie Provinces.
The Customs Tariff Act prohibits the import of oleomargarine, butterine and
other butter substitutes. This act also prohibits the importation of secondhand
or used automobiles of all kinds manufactured prior to the year in which im-
portation is sought. Secondhand aircraft imports regardless of the year of
manufacture also are prohibited.
The importation of fissionable and radioactive materials and any equipment
which may be used for the production, use, or application of atomic energy is
controlled and requires an import permit under Canada's Atomic Energy Control
Act.
The Provinces maintain monopolistic controls on the sale of alcoholic bever-
ages. Licenses issued by the provincial authorities are required for their im-
portation. Hotels and clubs may import for private stock but not all Provinces
will carry U.S. products in Government-operated stores.
PAGENO="0319"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 315
CANADA-IMPORT RESTRICTIONS
AGRICULTURAL SECTOR
Tariff No.
Commodity description
9 ~
ex 17
Turkeys.
Cheddar cheese.
18
Batter.
ex 43 a
45 (milk foods n.o.p.)_ -
51
52
56
Dry skimmed milk.
Butterfat.
Berley ground or crimped, barley meal, and barley flour.5
Barley.2
Oats.2
57
57
Oats ground, crimped, crushed, or rolled.2
Oatmeal.s
60
Wheat.2
61
~ 1204
Wheat flour and wheat starch.2
Oleomargarine, butterine, or other similar substitutes for butter, and processed or renovated
butter.'
1 Applied under the terms of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
2 Appliod under the Canadian Wheat Board Act and Regulations.
INDUSTRIAL SECTOR
Certain used or second-hand automobiles and motor vehicles. Certain used or second-hand aircraft
Cerfain used or second-hand automobiles and motor vehicles.
Certain used or second-hand aircraft.
Certain used or second-hand perisdicals.
Fissi3nable and radioactive materials.
Alcoholic beverages (local import control).
Ceylon
Ceylon maintains a fairly restrictive import policy largely for balance-of-pay-
nsesots reasons but also for economic development purposes. The control system
provides for the admittance of imports under open general license, general im-
port license, individual isioport license, and state trading. General import li-
censes are issued only to registered Ceylonese traders and are, in effect, open
general licenses for imports of specified commodities from those countries which
have agreed to conduct their trade with Ceylon only through registered Ceylonese
traders. Countries involved comprise mainly the Soviet bloc, plus West Ger-
many, Japan, Formosa, and a few others.
Goods which may be imported only by the Government include rice, wheat,
flour other than corn flour, refined sugar, and red onions. These items account
for about 20-25 percent of the country's annual imports. The major discrimina-
tory practice against imports from the dollar area takes the form of a require-
ment for individual license for some goods (freely granted for certain consumer
items), which does not apply to imports of the same goods from other areas.
To cope with a continuing decline in its balance-of-payments positions, Ceylon
adopted further import restrictions in 1961 to reduce imports of nonessential
goods and to provide an incentive for the establishment of local manufacturing
facilities. These restrictions include: Prohibition of imports of' certain com-
modities; the addition of further items to the list of commodities requiring indi-
vidual licenses; and the announcement of quotas ranging from 10 to 50 percent
of average imports during 1958-60 for many restricted items.
Chile
The Government of Chile froze all foreign exchange transactions in December
1961 as a result of serious balance-of-payments difficulties. The temporary freeze
was lifted on January 15, 1962, and a greatly modified import control system
was established. Under this present system, an official list of permitted im-
ports has been introduced which is much more restricted than that in effect prior
to the freeze. Products on this list are subject, in addition to custom duties, to a
prior deposit requirement and a special ad valorem surcharge.
The prior import deposit, which is returned to the importer within 90 days,
ranges from 1 to 200 percent of c.i.f. (cost, insurance, and freight) value of the
goods, depending upon the essentiality of the product concerned. The special
surcharge also ranges from 1 to 200 percent of the c.i.f. value of the goods.
While the present system is quite restrictive, the Chilean Government expects
increased imports of capital goods and raw materials as the country's 10-year
(1961-70) economic development plan is implemented.
PAGENO="0320"
316 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
The Cuban Government maintains comprehensive import licensing controls.
The Government of the United States in late 1960 and early 1961 placed an
embargo on exports to Cuba with the exception of ready-to-eat food-stuffs and
medicines and medical and dental equipment and supplies. The Cuban Govern-
ment had earlier made foreign trade a monopoly of the state and was following
~ policy of not buying from the United States except when alternate sources
were not available. The result of these actions was that by the end of 1961 the
U.S. export trade to Cujia had disappeared except for very small shipments of
medicines and medical equipment and supplies.
Denmark
Following the lifting of quantitative import restrictions on a wide range of
goods in March 1960, Denmark removed additional commodities from such con-
trols in January and July 1961 in line with the timetable set up at that time for
further liberalization. Principal goods involved were fresh apricots and peaches,
tomato juice, olives, certain dried and canned fruits, rubber heels and soles,
electric generators of more than 4,000-kilowatt capacity, transformers and con-
verters, positive motion picture films with Danish text, sidecars, and parts for
bicycles and motorcycles. In addition, for goods still subject to import licensing,
global quotas were increased for imports from so-called free list countries.
Under Denmark's import control system, most goods may now be imported
without an import license from free list countries, which include the dollar area,
OEEC countries, and Finland. An import license is required for similar goods
when imported from other sources, but treatment essentially as liberal as that
extended to free list countries is applicable to goods from Israel, Brazil, Argen-
tina, Chile, Colombia, and Uruguay. A list of other countries, including many in
Africa and Asia, was added to this group in November 1961.
Other commodities are subject to licensing from all sources. Nondiscriminatory
regional quotas are established for most goods in this category when imported
from free list countries. A few commodities are subject to individual licensing.
including those imported under bilateral trading agreements.
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic requires importers to submit a "statistical form" for
all imports. An approved form is necessary to purchase foreign exchange and
later to clear goods through customs at the time of importation. This require-
ment has at times operated as an informal licensing procedure, since delays
in approving the form have been used to restrain imports. Formal import li-
censes are required, however, for rendered pork fat, lard, rice, sugar manu-
factures, and all other vegetable products.
Foreign exchange transfers abroad, which must be made through banks, re-
quire the administrative approval of the Central Bank.
El &zlva.dor
El Salvador ordinarily does not impose quantitative restrictions on imports
from any source. However, exchange controls were enacted, effective April 21,
1961, under which prior authorization from the Central Bank is required for
purchase of merchandise abroad valued at over $2,000. Permits are granted
within 48 hours.
Finland
Under present Finnish regulations imports from the United States enjoy the
same treatment as those from countries participating in a multilateral trade
and payments agreement wih Finland (most Western European countries),
Imports from virtualiy all non-Soviet Jloe countries receive this multilateral
treatment. Imports from Colombia, Greece, and Turkey, as well as from the
bloc countries, are subject to licensing under quotas established in bilateral
trade agreements.
Under the multilateral arrangements approximately 82 percent of Finland's
imports from countries affected by the arrangement are free of licensing and
exchange controls. Goods remaIning subject to import licensing requirements
are divided into two categories: (1) goods which are licensed under global
quotas and (2) goods sgbject to individual licensing.
The most notable actions taken by Finland in 1OG1 to relax import restric-
tions were a 10-percent increase in global quotas at the beginning of the year
PAGENO="0321"
317
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
and a second 10-percent increase as of July 1, 1961. Global quotas for 1902
are expected to be equal to about $125 million representing a 20-percent increase
over the 1961 quotas.
France
Early in 1960 France notified the contracting parties to the GATT that it was
no longer applying import restrictions for balance of payments reasons. Since
then, remaining controls have been progressively dismantled.
During 1961 France made further progress in trade liberalization by virtually
eliminating all quantitative import restrictions on dollar area industrial goods,
although with respect to a few items of interest to the United States the liberali-
zation will not become effective until October 1, 1962.
As a result of extensive liberalization measures decreed on January 1, and
April 1, 1961, the proportion of industrial commodities freed from controls when
imported from the dollar area rose to over 99 percent (based on 1953 imports)
compared with about 95 percent liberalized by the end of 1960. In addition, all
discrimination against the United States in the industrial sector has been
removed. On December 31, 1961, the list of goods subject to quantitative import
restrictions when imported from OECD countries, including the United States
was further reduced. In the agricultural sector, U.S. representations under
GATT procedures and those made through diplomatic channels contributed to
elimination of some discrimination in favor of former OEEO countries which
is presently limited to a few items such as eggs, pineapples, and certain vege-
tables. These items have been freed from quantitative restrictions to OEEC
but not to the United States.
After October 1, 1962, quantitative import restrictions in the nonagricultural
sector will continue to apply mainly to items in the following categories: energy
sources, most of which are state traded, certain chemicals (lubricating prepara-
tion, antiknock preparations, artificial waxes), newsprint, aircraft, and ocean-
going vessels.
Agricultural items still under restriction of particular interest to U.S. exporters
are: Poultry meat; canned fruits; dried plums (prunes) packaged for retail
sale; fresh and dried apples and pears; corn starch and potato starch; canned
vegetables (especially asparagus) ; canned fruit and vegetable juices (particu-
larly orange juice); pig and poulty fat, rendered; prepared animal feeds; and
grain sorghums.
French Import Restrictions
AGRICULTURAL RESTRICTIONS
Tariff No.
01-82 EX
01-03 EX
01-04 EX
01-05 EX
01-06 EX
02-01 EX
02-02 EX
02-05 EX
02-06 EX
03-01 EX
11
12
13
Ex 03-02
12
13
04-02
04-03
04-04
Product description
Live calves, cows, bulls, and oxen.
Live pigs.
Live sheep and goats.
Live poultry, fowl, ducks, geese, turkeys, and guinea fowl.
Other live animals, domestic rabbits and pigeons.
Meat and edible offals; fresh, chilled or frozen.
Horse, donkey, mule.
Beef bones.
Beef, not boned.
Pork (hams).
Pork (other).
Sheep.
Dead poultry, fowl, ducks, geese, turkeys, and guinea fowl, and edible offals thereof (except
liver) fresh, chilled, of frozen.
Unrendered pig fat free of lean meat and unrendered poultry fat, fresh, chilled, frozen,
salted, in brine, dried, or smoked.
Meat and edible offals, salted, in brine, dried, or smoked (except poultry liver).
Fish, fresh (live or dead), chilled, or frozen.
Trout.
Sea perches, soles, turbots, and brills.
Others.
Fish filets.
Fish, suited, in brine, dried, or smoked.
Other fishes, in filets.
Other fishes otherwise.
Milk and cream, preserved, concentrated, or sweetened.
Butter.
Cheese and curd.
82-1S1---67----vol. 1-21
PAGENO="0322"
318
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
French Import Restrictions-Continued
Bird's eggs and egg yolks, fresh, dried, or preserved.
Eggs for brooding.
Others.
Entire eggs, without shell
Egg yolks, other than for industry, sweetened.
Animal products not elsewhere specified.
Animal sperms.
Bulbs, tubers, tuber roots.
In growth, flowered, or not.
Otherlive plants and roots.
Wine plantations, grafter or rooted.
Hothouse pla nts, flowered or in buds.
Cut flowers and flowers buds.
Vegetables, fresh or chilled.
Mushrooms, edible.
Truffles.
Olives and capers.
Tomatoes.
Onions.
Shallot.
Garlic.
Potatoes (from July 1 to end of February).
Potatoes (dating from previous year).
Potatoes (early products).
Potatoes and others.
Cauliflowers.
Brussels sprouts.
Turnips, salad, beet, salsifies, and other edible roots.
Beans.
Cucumbers and gherkin.
Aubergines, gourds, marrows, and same.
Artichokes.
Vegetables (whether or not cooked), preserved by freezing.
Vegetables provisionally preserved, olives, and capers.
Dried dehydrated or evaporated vegetables.
Potatoes.
Others, even mixed.
Dates, bananas, ananos, coconuts, brazilnuts.
Dates.
Bananas, including dried bananas.
Dehydrated coconut pulps shown in packages of 60 kI. or less.
Dehydrated coconut puips shown in packages of more than 60 kI.
Dehydrated coconut pulps, others (except for flowers).
Other nuts.
Ananas.
Citrus fruit, fresh Or dried.
Oranges, shown between Mar.15 and June14
Orange export from the previous time.
Figs, fresh or dried.
Fresh.
Dried, for human consumption.
Dried, denatured for industrial use.
Grapes, fresh and dried.
Fresh from vintage.
Fresh, forced.
Nuts, fresh or dried.
Common nuts; in shell.
Common nuts; without shells.
Apples, pears, and quinces, fresh.
Table apples, presented between Feb. 15 to Mar. 31.
Table apples presented between Apr. 1 to May 31.
Table apples presented between June ito July 31.
Table apples, presented between apart from these periods.
Table pears, presented between Dec. 1 and June 30.
Table pears presented apart from this period (July 1-Nov. 30).
Stone fruit, fresh.
Apricots.
Peaches, not forced presented between May 1 and June 15.
Peaches, not forced presented between June 16 and Oct. 16.
Peaches apart from this period.
Prunes.
Others.
Berries fresh.
Other fruits, fresh.
r~elons and similars.
Fruit (whether or not ccoked) preserved by freezing, not containing sugar.
Fruit nrovisionally preserved in brine or other solution, but not immediate consumption,
except for cherries.
AGRICULTURAL RESTRICTIONS-Continued
Tariff No.
Product description
04-05 EX I
11
21
13°
04-05-2 EX `
25
05-15 EX
32
06-01 EX
11
06-02 EX
11
43
06-03
07-01 EX
3~
32
33
11
12
13
14
16
20
22
23
26
27
28
07-02
07-03 EX
07-04 EX
11
21
08~01 EX
11
21
22
23
24
31
08-02 EX
08-03 EX
ii
12
08-04 EX
08-05 EX
21
22
08-06 EX
08-06
ex 11
12
08-07 EX
11
12
13
22
23
08-08
08-09 EX
08-10
08-li EX
Footnote at end of table, p. 321.
PAGENO="0323"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 319
French Import Restrictions-Continued
AGRICULTURAL RESTRICTIONS-Continued
Product description
Fruit dried.
Fruits salad.
Apples and pears.
Peaches, including nectarines and prickly peaches.
Dried plums.
Others.
Coffee whether or not roasted.
Coffee substitutes containing coffee in any proportion.
Pepper.
Pepper crushed or ground.
Thyme, saffron, bayleaves, other spices.
Mixtures including products of previous items.
Wheat or maslin.
Rye.
Barley.
Oats.
Maize.
Rice.
Buckwheat, millet,canary seed and grain sorghum; other cereals.
Cereal flours.
Cereal groats and cereal meal; other worked cereal grains.
Flour, meat and flakes of potato.
Starches; inulin, flour for potato flour only.
Gluten and gluten flour, roasted or not.
Oil seeds and oleaginous fruit, whole or broken.
Peanuts not roasted, in shells.
Peanuts, not roasted, without shells.
Soya beans.
Other seeds.
Seeds of colza, rape, camelina, and other cruciferous.
Turnsole.
Oil poppy.
Hemp seeds.
Cotton seeds.
Sesame seeds.
Other.
Sugarbeet, whole or sliced, fresh, dried or powdered, sugarcane.
Chicory roots, fresh or dried, whole or cut, unroasted.
Hop cones and Iupulin.
Vegetable saps and extracts, pectin agar-agar and other natural mucilages and thickners.
From hop.
Pectic juice or extract.
Dried pectin.
Lard and other rendered pig fat, rendered poultry fat.
Lard stearin, oleostearin, and tallow stearin.
Lard oil.
Fats and oils of fish and marine mammals, whether or not refined.
Fats and oils of other varieties of fish, except unrefined oil other than herring liver oil and
fish liver oil.
Fixed vegetable oils, fluid or solid, crude refined or purified.
Linseed oil.
Soya oil.
Peanut oil.
Sesame oil.
Colza, rape,camelina, or other cruciferous oil.
Olive oil.
Castor oil.
Palm oil.
Other oils.
Peanut ojl.
Olive oil.
Palm oil.
Soya oil.
Animal or vegetable oils and fats hydrogenated whether or not refined and not further
prepared.
5 Fats and oils of sea mammals.
6 Others.
14 Fats and oils of sea mammals.
15 Others
15-13 Margarine imitation lard and other prepared edible fats.
16-01 Sausages and the like, of meat, meat offal, or animal blood.
16-02 Other prepared or preserved meat offal.
16-04 EX Prepared or preserved fish, including caviar and caviar substitutes.
12 Sardines.
16 Tuna fish.
xx 17-01 Bent sugar and cane sugar solid.
17-02 EX Other sugars, sugar syrups, artificial honey.
11 Glucose.
12 Sugarsyrups
41 Sugars and caramel mollasses, coloring caramels included.
42 Others (substitutes for honey, etc.).
Tariff No.
08-12 EX
11
31
41
51
09-01
09-04 EX
09-10 EX
11
10-01 (1) xx
10-02 (1) xx
10-03 (1) xx
10-04 (1)
10-05 (1) xx
10-06 (1) xx
10-07 (1) xx
11-01 xx
11-02
11-05 EX
11-08
11-09
12-01 EX
10
11
12
13
14
15
22
12-04
12-05
12-06
13-03 EX
17
21
22
15-01
15-03 EX
15-04 EX
22
15-07 EX
15-076
1~
18
22
23
21
25
26 others
15-12 EX
Footnote at end of table, p. 321.
PAGENO="0324"
320
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
French Import Restrictions-Continued
AGRI CULTURAL RESTRICTIONS-Continued
Tariff No.
Product description
17-03
17-04
17-05
18-06
19-03
19-05
19-07
19-08
20-21
20-02 EX
6'
9'
10'
11' -
12
21
22
23
27
28
25' -
26
20-03 -
20-04
20-05
20-06 EX
12
13
14
20-07 EX
43
44
45
46
51
52
53
541
55 1
20-01 EX
21-02 EX
21-07 EX
12
21
22
22-04
22-05 Ex
21
22'
22-08 EX -
22-10
23-02
23-07 EX
12
13
24-01 xx
24-02 xx
Molasses, whether or not decolourized.
Sugar confectionery, not containing cocoa.
Flovoured or coloured sugars, syrups and molasses, but not includingfrui~juices containing
added sugar in any proportion.
Chocolate and other food preparations containing cocoa.
Macaroni, spaghetti, and similar products.
Prepared foods obtained by the swelling or roasting of cereals or cereal products (puffed
rice, corn, etc.).
Bread, chips' biscuits and other ordinary sugar, honey, eggs, fats, cheese, or fruits.
Pastry, biscuits, and other ordinary bakers' wares, not containing cocoa in any proportion.
Vegetables or fruit prepared or preserved by vinegar or acetic acid.
Vegetables prepared or preserved otherwise than by vinegar or acetic acid.
Mushrooms (in sealed containers).
Less than 15 percent (is sealed containers).
From 15 to 30 percent (in sealed containers).
30 percent or more (in soaled containers).
Asparagus (in sealed containers).
Pickled cabbage (in scaled containers).
Olives and capers (in sealed containers).
Green peas (in sealed containero).
French beans (in snalod containers).
Others (in sealed containers).
Do.
Mushrooms (other containers).
Tomatoas (other containers).
Pickled cabbage (other containers).
Olives (other containers).
Capers (other containers).
Others (other containers).
10 Kg. or less (other containers).
Fruit preserved by freezing containing added sugar.
Fruit, fruit-peel, and parts of plants, preserved by sugar.
Jams, fruit, jellies, marmalades, fruit puree, and fruit pastes, cooked whether or not con-
taining sugar.
Fruit otherwise prepared or preserved, whether or not containing added sugar or spirit.
Without sugar or syrup.
Pineapples.
Others.
Fruit juices and vegetable juices, whether or not containing added sugar but unfermented
and not containing spirit.
Without addjng sugar.
With sugar.
Without adding sugar.
With sugar.
Of grapes must included.
Of tomato.
Of apple or pear.
Of apricots.
Of other fruits or vegeables.
Roasted chicory and other reasted coffee substitutes (extracts, essences, and concentrates
thereof).
Reasted chicory and other roasted coffee substitutes.
Extracts, essences, or concentrates of tea or coffee or mate or preparations with those extracts.
Liquids.
Others.
Food preparations not elsewhere specified.
Of saccharine.
With sugar.
Others.
Grape must in fermentation otherwise than by addition of alcohol.
V/ice of fresh grapes; grape must with fermentation by addition of alcohol.
Wines (other than shoes and similar and sparkling times).
Other than those of controlled name of origin.2
Other than liqueur v/lees and the like, of certified origin.
Ethyl alcohol or neutral spirits, undenatured of a strength of 80° or higher, denatured spirits
of any strength.
Vinegar and substitute.
Bran, sharps, and other residues derived from sifting, milling, or working of cereals or of
leguminous vegetables.
Sweetened forage; other preparations of a kind used in animal feeding.
Condiments, except for "fish soluble".
With molasses or sweetened.
Without molasses or unsweetened.
Unmanufactured tobacco, tobacco refuse.
Manufactured tobacco; tobacco extracts and essences.
Footnote at end of table, p. 321.
PAGENO="0325"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 321
French Import Restrictions-Continued
INDUSTRIAL RESTRICTIONS
Tariff No.
Product description
Coal.
Lignite.
Coke and semicoke.
Other coke.
Lignite cokes.
Coal gas.
Petroleum essence; other products of coal for distillation.
Petroleum and shale oils, crude.
Petroleum oils, other than crude.
Petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons.
Petroleum jelly.
Paraffin wax, microcrystalline wax, ozoberite, lignite wax, peat wax, and other mineral wax,
whether or not colored.
Petroleum bitumen, petroleum coke, and other petroleum and shale oil residues.
Bituminous mixtures.
Electric current.
Lubricating preparations consisting of mixtures of oils or fats of any kind containing petro-
leum or shale oils.
Artificial waxes.
Antiknock preparations, oxidation inhibitors.
Chemical products and preparations of the chemical or allied industries: mixed alkylenes
and other catalysts.
Paper for newspaper.
Radiotelegraphic and radiotelephonic transmission and reception apparatus; receiving equip~
ment assembling parts of radio.
Cathode tubes.
Diodes, enstal triodes meluding transistors.
Parts and spare parts.
Tanks and other armored fighting vehicles, motorized and parts of such vehicles.
Flying machines, gliders, and kites; rotochutes.
Aircraft parts.
Boats for maritime navigation.
Boats for interior navigation (lakes, rivers, canals) use for transportation of persons.
Engine boilers replacing articles, auxiliary equipment, furnilure.
Boats for interior navigation.
Engine boilers.
Others, replacement articles auxiliary equipment furniture.
Warships.
Tugs.
Pocket watches, wrist watches, and other watches.
Clocks with watch movements.
Instrument panel clocks and clocks of a similar type, for vehicles, aircraft, or vessels.
Other clocks.
Watch movement (including stop watch movements) assembled.
Clock movements assembled.
Watch cases and parts of watch cases including blanks.
Other clocks and parts of watch suppliers and parts.
1 Indicates those items which may be imported freely from OEEC countries but which are under quantitative restrictions
when imported from the United States.
xx Indicates that restrictions are maintained in order to implement State trading regulations.
2 Liberalization measures apply only to foreign liqueur wines assimulated to liqueur wines of certified origin under
French regulations and accompained by a certificate of origin recognized by French authorities.
French Caribbean territories
All the departments of the French Caribbean maintain virthally the same
licensing requirements as metropolitan France, and, therefore, import liberaliza-
tion in the French Caribbean closely followed France's pattern during 1961.
The only remaining restrictions in addition to those of metropolitan France
are those imposed by Guadeloupe on wood, by Martinique on wood and beer and
by French Guiana on wood and certain machinery.
Federal Republic of Germany
The Federal Republic is no longer entitled, under the rules of the GATT and
the IMF, to apply trade and payments restrictions on imports for balance-of-
payments reasons. However, in May 1959, a special GATT waiver was arranged
permitting restrictions to be retained temporarily on certain products and pro-
viding a timetable for the removal of most remaining controls. A number of
agricultural commodities are also still controlled in accordance with German
marketing laws.
Progress in eliminating restrictions since the adoption of the waiver has been
somewhat ahead of schedule. In addition, the German Government has agreed
to license freely all unliberalized nonagricultural products in which the United
States has a major export interest. As to some other commodities, in which the
United States has a miner trade interest, the German Government has agreed to
establish progressively more liberal quotas.
27-01 xx
27-02 xx
27-04 EX
L/N
L/N
27-05 xx
27-07 xx
27-09 xx
27-10 xx
27-11 xx
27-12
27-13 xx
27-14 xx
27-16 EX
27-17
34-03 EX
34-04 EX
38-14 EX
38-19 EX ~
48-01 xx
85-15
85-21C EX
H
87-08 xx
88-02 xx
88-03 EX xx
89-01 EXA
EXB
89-01 EX c
D
89-02
90-01
91-02
91-03
91-04
91-07
91-08
91-09
91-11
PAGENO="0326"
322 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
During 1061, import restrictions were removed from a number of products
including frozen and certain canned fruit and vegetables, a few items in the
textile sector, and toys. Also, in April 1961 the German Government began
issuing import licenses for chickens, without quantitative limitation.
For 1961 and 1962, the annual duty-free quota allotted to the United States
for coal was raised from 4,418,000 tons to 5,015,000 tons. Imports of coal in
excess of the country quota are subject to a duty of 20 German marks (about
$5) a ton which has proved prohibitive.
Products still not liberalized, either de jure or de facto, include 249 commodity
classifications in the agricultural sector, of which 160 are state traded. Special
arrangements have been made for jute fabrics, imitation pearls and a number of
neat leather items.
Calves, live.
Calves, for slaughter.
Young cattle, male, live.
Young cattle, female, live.
Young cattle, for slaughter.
Steers, for slaughter (bulls).
Cows, for general use.
Cows, for slaughter.
Oxen, for general use.
Oxen, for slaughter.
Hogs, live, weighing 35 kilos or less per head.
Other hogs, for slaughter.
Lambs, for general use.
Lambs, for slaughter.
Sheep other than lambs, for general use.
Sheep other than lambs, for slaughter.
Hog sides, fresh or chilled.
Part of loin (for rib pork chop), fresh or chilled.
Unrendered pig fat, fresh or chilled.
Other pork of domesticated hogs, fresh or chilled.
Hog sides, frozen.
Part of loin (for rib pork chop), frozen.
Unrendered pig fat, frozen.
Other pork of domesticated hogs, frozen.
Veal, fresh or chilled.
Halves and quarters of cattle, fresh or chilled.
Loin cuts, fresh or chilled.
Other beef, fresh or chilled.
Veal, frozen.
Halves and quarters of cattle, frozen.
Loin cuts, frozen.
Other beef, frozen.
Mutton, fresh or chilled.
Mutton, frozen
Edible offals of hsgs, fresh, chilled, or frozen.
Edible offals of cattle, fresh, chilled, or frozen.
Edible offalo of sheep and lambs, fresh, chi!led, or frozen.
Chicken, slaughtered.
Usrendered pig fat, not containing lean meat:
Fresh or chilled.
Frozen.
Salted only.
In brine, dried or smoked.
Lard, neither pressed nor rendered.
Ham of domesticated hogs, salted, in brine, dried, or smoked.
Pig fat, containing lean meat, salted only.
Pork, other than ham and bacon, of domesticated hogs, salted, in brine, dried, or smoked.
Beef and veal, salted, in brine, dried, or smoked.
Mutton and lamb, salted, in brine, dried, or smoked.
Edible offalo of domesticated hogs, salted, in brine, dried, or smoked.
Edible offals of cattle, calves, sheep, saltnd, in brine, dried, or smoked.
Carp, fresh or chilled.
Fillets of herring, only salted or in brine.
Herring, salted or in brine.
Whole milk and skim milk, fresh.
Butter milk, whey, sour milk, etc., fresh.
Cream, fresh.
Whole milk, powdered.
Skim milk, powdered.
Other milk, preserved, concentrated, or sweetened.
Other (e.g., condensed milk).
Butter.
Butter oil.
FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY IMPORT RESTRICTIONS
A. AGRICULTURAL SECTOR
Description of commodity
Foreign trade statistical
commodity code No.
0102 12
15
16
17
25
35
42
45
51
55
0103 10
95
exOlO4 21
25
ex3l
35
0201 11
12
13
exl9
21
22
23
ex 29
31
32
33
39
41
42
43
49
51
55
93
95
ex 99
ex0202 501
0205
11
13
15
17
30
ex0206 11
13
ex 19
20
ex 50
ox 91
ox 99
ex'0301 35
ex~0302 19
51
0401 10
20
50
0402 11'
13
19
90
0403 10
50
See footnotes at end of table, p. 328.
PAGENO="0327"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
A. AGRICULTURAL SECTOR-Continued
323
Foreign trade statistical
commodity code No.
0404 11
16 1
601
0515 10
20
ex 503
ex903
ex 0602 55
ex 57
0603 11
12
13
19
0701 14
25
26
ex 29
41
51
52
71
81
85
ex 0704 90
0705 11
21
22
0705 31
41
0806 19
39
1001 12
13
19
90
1002 01
09
1003 01
05
09
1004 01
09
1005 01
09
1006 10~
513
553
913
953
1007 203
40
1101 10
20
50
60
903
ex 1102
10
30
40
ex 903
1105 00 3 4
1107 00
1108 10
21
29
1203 11
19
1203 41
42
45
46 1
47
48'
53
54
1204 19
exl2lO 95'
1501 01
Description of commodity
Hard cheese.
Other cheese for cutting.
Processed cheese and cheesepreparations.
Small fish, up to a length of 6 centimeters, defacto dried, inedible.
Crabs, dried, inedible.
Animals, not live, inedible, other than dried small fish, crabs, and water fleas.
Other products of animal origin, except formic eggs.
Azalea indica, with flowers or buds.
Other azaleas, with flowers or buds.
Carnations, fresh.
Rose, fresh.
Flowers from bulbs, fresh.
Other flowers, fresh.
Tomatoes, fresh or chilled.
Potatoes for seed, fresh or chilled.
Potatoes for food.
Potatoes for industrial purposes, except for the manufacture of starch or potato flakes
under customs bond.
Cauliflower, fresh or chilled.
Head lettuce, fresh or chilled.
Endive salad, fresh or chilled.
Beans, fresh or chilled.
Small cucumbers, fresh or chilled.
Other types of cucumbers, fresh or chilled.
Potatoes, powdered, or otherwise chopped.
Garden beans(phaseolus species),for seed.
Other beans, for seed (vicia faba var. minor).
Other beans, for seed (vicia faba var. megalosperma).
Peas, for seed.
Fodder peas, for seed.
Apples, other than for must, fresh.
Pears, other than for must, fresh.
Spring wheat for seed.
Winter wheat for seed.
Other wheat.
Mixed grain.
Rye for seed.
Other rye.
Barley for seed.
Barley for brewing purposes.
Other barley.
Oats for seed.
Other oats.
Corn for seed.
Other corn.
Paddy.
Cargo rice.
Milled rice.
Broken rice, not polished.
Broken rice, polished.
Buckwheat.
Millet of all varieties.
Flour of wheat or mixed grain.
Flour of rye.
Flour of barley, oats, or corn.
Flour of rice.
Flour of other grain.
Grits (fine and coarse); grains, etc., of
wheat or mixed grain.
of barley.
of oats.
of other grain, e.g., other grains of rye, corn, buckwheat, or millet.
Flour, grits, and flakes of potatoes.
Malt (de facto liberalized).
Starch of wheat.
Cornstarch, made up for retail sale.
Cornstarch, not made up for retail sale.
Seeds of sugar beets.
Seeds of fodder beets.
Seeds of English Ray grass (lolium perenne).
Seeds of Italian Ray grass (lolium multiflorum italioum).
Seeds of Brazil Ray grass (lolium multiflorum var. brasilianum).
Seeds of French Ray grass (arrhenatherum elatius).
Seeds of timothy grass (phleum pratense).
Seeds of grass (dactylis glomerata).
Seeds of grass (festuca pratensis).
Seeds of grass (festica rubra).
Sugar beets, also chips, other than fresh.
Alfalfa, dried and ground.
Lard, for human consumption.
See footnotes at end of table, p. 328.
PAGENO="0328"
324
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
A. AGRICULTURAL SECTOR-Continued
Foreign trade statistical
commodity code No.
ex1502 103
21 3
31 3
1503 01 3
ex 1504 71
ex 91 s
1507 03
07
13
23
1507 27
ex 31 10
37
43
1507 47
53
57
63
67
97
1512 11
17
21
27
51
57
81
87
1513 10
90
1601
exl9
ex 90
ex 1602 19 1
ex 1602
50
61
69
ea 901
1603 003
1701 11
15
31
39
1702 10
91
ex99
1703 00
1705 10
ex 90
1902 10
30
50
91
1902 99
1903 00
ex 2001 10
ex 90
2002
55
56
ex 59
2004
51
59
2005 10
ex 95
2006
72
74
75
79
Description of commodity
Tallow, unrendered, of cattle, sheep, and lambs.
Tallow of cattle, sheep, and goats, rendered, premier jus, for human consumption.
Other tallow, rendered, for human consumption.
Lardstearin, oleostearin, lardoil, oleomargarine, and tallow oil, neither emulsified, mixed,
nor otherwise processed, for human consumption.
Whale oil and whale fat, for human consumption, refined.
Other marine fats and oils, for human consumption, refined.
Cotton seed oil, processed, for human consumption.
Oil of beechnut, corn, and poppy seed, processed, for human consumption.
Peanut oil, processed, for human consumption.
Coconut oil, processed, for human consumption.
Linseed oil, processed, for human consumption.
Olive oil, except sulforic and "lampantes" olive oil, processed, for human consumption.
Palmkernel oil, processed, for human consumption.
Palm oil, processed, for human consumption.
Rape and colzar oil, processed, for human consumption.
Safflower oil processed, for human consumption.
Sesame oil, processed, for human consumption.
Soya oil, processod, for human consumption.
Sunflowerseed oil, processed, for human consumption.
Other fatty vegetable oils, processed, for human consumption.
Whale oil, edible without further processing.
Whale oil, for human consumption, hydrogenated, also refined.
Fish oil, edible without further processing.
Fish oil, for human consumption, hydrogenated, also refined.
Other fats and oils, edible without further processing.
Other fats and oils of animals, for human consumption, hydrogenated, also refined.
Vegetable fats and oils, edible without further processing.
Other vegetable fats and oils, for human consumption, hydrogenated, also refined.
Margarine.
Shortening and other processed edible fats.
Sausages and the like of meat, offals or animal blood from cattle, hogs, sheep:
with liver;
without liver.
Meat and offals, otherwise prepared or preserved, of cattle, hogs, sheep; with liver.
Meat and offals, otherwise prepared or preserved; without liver:
of cattle.
of hogs; ham.
of hogs, other than ham.
of sheep and lambs.
Meat extracts and meat juices.
Cane sugar, raw, solid.
Beet sugar, raw, solid.
Candy sugar, and brown sugar.
Other sugar for human coesamption.
Artificial honey, also mixed with natural honey.
Juices and liquid residues from processing beet and cone sugar, syrups of beet and cane
sugar.
Other sugar and syrup (maltose, invert sugar, etc.).
Molasses, also decolorized.
Vanille sugar.
Aromatic or colored sugar, syrup and molasses, other than vanille sugar, v,'ith a purity of
more than 70 degrees.
Food preparatioss for infants based on flour or starch.
Special types of flour for food preparations (Quellmehle).
Powder for the preparation of pudding and the like, also containing cocoa.
Other food preparations viith sugar or cocoa added.
Other food preparations without sugar or cocoa.
Macaronis, noodles, and the like.
Cucumbers, preserved in vinegar, canned.
Other vegetables preserved in vinegar, in airtight containers, except olives.
Vegetables and pot-herbs, preserved without vinegar, in containers weighing less than 5
kilos:
Peas.
Beans.
Other vegotables and pot-herbs, also mixed (except artichokes and spinace).
Fruits and plants, and parts thereof, preserved with sugar:
Cherries.
Other fruits, plants and ports thereof.
Applesauce.
Jams, jellies, marmalades, etc., with sugar or syrup, but otherthan of apples, plums, quinces,
and bitter orange marmalade. .
Fruits, prepared or preserved otherwise, also with sugar or alcohol, in containers weighing
less than 5 kilos:
Apricots.
Peaches.5
Strawberries.
Other fruits (than citrus and aforementioned fruits).a
See footnotes at end of table, p. 328.
PAGENO="0329"
TIlE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
A. AGRICULTURAL SECTOR-Continued
325
Foreign trade statistical
commodity code No.
2007 13
23
ex2105 105
ex2107 00
2205 10
23
2205 51
59
61
2205 69
90
2210 00
2301 10 3
20~
9Q3
2302 103
20
903
ex 2303 10
ex 903
2304
11 3
123
133
143
153
163
173
18~
195
ex 513
ex 523
ex 533
ex 543
ex 553
ex 563
ox 573
ex 583
ex 593
ex 903
2307 10
303
ex9137
99
2943 10
20'
30
3501 11'
3505 10'
Description of commodity
Fruit juice concentrates of apples or pears, without sugar, also mixtures thereof.
Fruit juices of apples or pears, without sugar, also mixtures thereof.
Preparations on the basis of meat or meat extracts of cattle, hogs, or sheep, for the produc.
tion of soups and broths.°
Ice cream and ice cream powder.
Champagne.
Wine for the production of champagne.
Red wine in containers of more than 2 liters.
Red wine in containers up to 2 liters.
White wine in containers of more than 2 liters.
White wine in containers up to 2 liters.
Wine, other than red and white wine (e.g., dessert wine).
Vinegar for food.
Fish meal, including fish liver meal, inedible.
Greaves and greave cake and similar residues from whale-oil boiling, inedible.
Other residues of fish, and meat meal, inedible.
Rice meal for feed.
Bran.
Other residues from the processing of grains or pulses.
Beet puips and other residues from the production of sugar.
Residues from the production of starch, beer, and malt.
Meals from extraction of oilseeds, also pressed in forms:
Of peanuts.
Of coconuts or copra.
Of linseed.
Of palm kernels.
Of sunflower kernels.
Of soybeans.
Of rapeseeds.
Of cottonseeds.
Of other oilseeds or oil-containing fruits.
Oilcake, including expellers, also pressed in forms, except those for the production of oil;
with a content of fat up to 8 percent.
Of pesnuts.
Qf coconuts or copra.
Of linseed.
Of palm kernels.
Of sunflower kernels.
Of soybeans.
Of rapeseeds.
Of cottonseeds.
Of other oilseeds or oil-containing fruits.
Other residues from the manufacture of vegetable oils, except those for the production of
oil; containing fat up to 8 percent; and except mustard flower.
Fodder, containing molasses or sugar.
Solubles.
Other fodder, mainly of organic substances, except fodder yeast.
Fodder preparations, mainly of inorganic substances (e.g., mixtures of feed lime and mineral
salts).
Dextrose, chemically pure.
Lactose, chemically pore.
Levulose, maltose, chemically pure.
Casein, not hardened, for food and feed.
Dextrine, soluble or roasted starch.
B. INDUSTRIAL SECTOR
3706
ox 41 8
ox 498
3707
ex 418
ox 438
ex 498
4102 31
39
51
52
57
59
5104
01
050
11
210
25 °
26 0
28 `
29 °
Movie films consisting only of sound track, exposed and developed:
Negatives and lavender copies for feature films screened in the Federal Republic.
Positives for feature films as above.
Other movie films, exposed and developed:
Negatives of feature films screened in the Federal Republic.
Colored positive films of feature films, as above.
Other positive films of feature films, as above.
Bottom leather of cattle, undressed.
Other leather of cattle, undressed.
Bottom leather of cattle, undressed.
Upper leather of cattle, undressed.
Dressed neat's leather.
Other leather of cattle, undressed.
Fabrics of synthetic or artificial filament:
Tire cord fabrics.
Fabrics for furniture and interior decoration weighing more than 250 grams per square meter.
Fabrics for curtains or draperies of synthetic filaments.
Other fabrics of synthetic filaments:
Gray or bleached.
Dyed.
Printed.
Woven of dyed yarn-
s a width of more than 55 up to 75 centimeters;
Other widths.
See footnotes at end of table, p. 328.
PAGENO="0330"
326
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
B. INDUSTRIAL SECTOR-Continued
Foreign trade statistical
commodity code No.
5104 41
51
520
540
559
569
579
589
619
fl59
71
72°
749
759
76 9
779
789
5307
exll°
ex 15°
ex 19~
51 0
559
59.0
5310
10 1
21 9
29 9
5311
01
210
2510
5010
6010
701°
3010
9110
9510
9610
9710
5507 10
90
5509
0110
1010
2110
2410
25 10
26 8
271
28 ~
29 1
40
518
521
53 8
58~
Description of commodity
Fabrics other than crepe, of artificial filaments:
Gray or bleached.
Dyed, with a width-
Up to 55 cm.;
Exceeding 55 up to 75 cm.;
Exceeding 75 up to 115 cm., without design;
Exceeding 75 up to 115 cm., with design;
Exceeding 115 up to 135 cm.;
Exceeding 135 up to 145 cm.;
Exceeding 145 cm.
Printed, with a width-
Up to 115 cm.;
Exceeding 115 cm.
Woven of dyed yarn, with a width-
Up to 55 cm.;
Exceeding 55 up to 75 cm;
Exceeding 75 up to 115 cm., without design;
Esceeding 75 up to 115 cm., with design;
Exceeding 115 up to 135 cm.;
Exceeding 135 up to 145 cm.;
Exceeding 145 cm.
Worsted yarn of wool, not made up for retail sale:
Unbleached:
Single, other than hard worsted yarn.
Double, other than hard worsted yarn.
Triple or multiple, other than hard worsted yarn.
Bleached, dyed, or printed:
Single.
Double.
Triple or multiple.
Yarns of wool, fine or coarse animal or horse hair, made up for retail sale:
Hand-knitting and similar yarns of wool.
Worsted yarns of wool, in skeins, unbleached.
Other worsted yarns of wool.
Fabrics of wool or fine animal hair:
For furniture and interior decoration, with a weight exceeding 250 grams per squars
meter.
Fabrics with warp-
Of synthetic filaments;
Of artificial filaments.
Other fabrics, with a weight per square meter-
Exceeding 700 grams;
Exceeding 500 up to 700 grams;
Exceeding 300 up to 500 grams;
Exceeding 200 up to 300 grams;
200 grams or less-
Unbleached;
Bleached or dyed;
Printed;
Woven of dyed yarn.
Cotton gauze for curtains or draperies.
Other cotton gauze.
Other fabrics of cotton:
For furniture and interior decoration, with a weight per square meter exceedng -
grams.
Fabrics with warp-
Of synthetic filaments;
Of artificial filaments;
Unbleached or bleached dye;
Dyed, with a width-
Up to 115 cm.;
Exceeding 115 cm.
Printed with a width-
Up to 115 cm.,
Exceeding 115 cm.
Woven of dyed yarn, with a width-
Up to 115 cm.,
Exceeding 115 cm.
Other fabrics containing flax or ramie:
Linings for outer garments (padding).
Other:
Unbleached, with a weight-
Up to 450 grams per square meter;
Exceeding 450 grams per square meter.
Bleached.
Dyed, printed, or woven of dyed yarn.
Other fabrics nst containing flax or ramie:
See footnotes at end of table, p. 328.
PAGENO="0331"
327
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
B. INDUSTRIAL SECTOR-Continued
Foreign trade statistical
commodity code No.
Description of commodity
5509 60
71 0
729
73 9
759
760
779
5607
019
05
110
15°
189
21 °
249 -
259 -
26 °
27°
29°
29 °
51°
559
56 °
579
5710 00
5802 759
5804 05
559
59 9
5905 10°
6004
21
50
6005
02
21°
239
6101
exO5
50°
6102
exO5
2110
25
30'°
5010
601~
6103 5010
6104 5010
610501
02
5110
5510
6106 10
6202
0110
ex 0510
5190
5510
6~03 51
6909 51
Other fabrics of cotton -Continued
Other fabrics not containing flax or ramie:-Continued
Linings for outer garments (padding).
Other:
Unbleached, with a weight-
Up to 450 grams per square meter;
Exceeding 450 grams per square meter.
Bleached.
Dyed.
Printed.
Woven of dyed yarn.
Fabrics of synthetic or artificial textile filaments:
for furniture and interior decoration, with a_weight exceeding 250 grams per square
meter.
Linings for outer garments (padding).
Other fabrics of synthetic fibers:
With warp of synthetic or artificial filaments.
Others of synthetic fibers.
Other fabrics of artificial fibers:
With warp:
Of synthetic filaments.
Of artificial filaments:
Unbleached or bleached.
Dyed, with a width:
Up to 115 cm.
Exceeding 115 cm.
Printed, with a width:
Up to 115 cm.
Exceeding 115 cm.
Woven of dyed yarn, with a width:
Up to 115 cm.
Exceeding 115 cm.
Other fabrics of artificial fibers:
Unbleached or bleached.
Dyed.
printed.
woven of dyed yarn.
Woven fabrics of jute.
Rugs woven of coir fibers.
Epinglé or Frist of cotton, with a weight exceeding400 gramsper square meter.
Other velvet and plush:
cotton cord.
other velvet and plush of cotton.
Fishing nets of synthetic textiles.
Knitted underwear, neither elastic nor rubberized:
of synthetic textiles.
of cotton.
Knitted bathing suits, neither elastic nor rubberized:
of snythetic textiles.
Knitted outer garments, neither elastic nor rubberized:
of synthetic textiles.
of wool or fine animal hair.
Outer garments for men and boys:
of cotton terry towelling.
of cotton fabrics.
Outer garments for women, girls, and infants:
Of cotton terry towelling.
Other garments for women, girls, and infants of:
Synthetic textiles, except kimonos;
Artificial filaments, except kimonos;
Wool or fine animal hair, except kimonos;
Cotton, except kimonos;
Artificial fibers, except kimonos;
Underwear for men and boys, of cotton.
Underwear for women, girls, and infants, of cotton.
Handkerchiefs, wholly or partly of tulle, laces, or embroideries, etc.
Silk scarves and the like, nearly square shaped, with no side measuring more than 60 cm.
Handkerchief:
Of cotton, containing flax or ramie.
Wholly of cotton, or mixed with textiles other than flax or ramie.
Silk shawls, scarves, etc.
Household linen:
Wholly or partly of tulle, laces, or embroideries;
Of cotton terry towelling (e.g., bathing towels);
Of cotton, mixed with flax or ramie;
Wholly of cotton, or mixed with textiles, other than flax or ramie.
Sacks and bags of jute, new. .
Laboratory supply of porcelain or other ceramic materials.
See footnotes at end of table, p. 328.
PAGENO="0332"
328 THE FUTURE OF TJ.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
B. INDUSTR{AL SECTOR-Continued
Foreign trade statistical Description of commodity
commodity code No.
6911 Tableware and kitchenware:
Plain white or of one color:
110 Restaurant, hotel, and hospital ware.
19 e Other.
Decorated:
51 Restaurant, hotel, and hospital ware.
59 0 Other.
6912 49 Tableware, kitchenware, and toilet articles, of fine earthenware.
Tableware and kitchenware of other ceramic materials (e.g. stoneware, semiporcelain):
71 0 Plain white or of one color.
75 0 Decorated.
6913 Statuettes and other ornaments, fancy articles, articles of furniture, etc.:
Of fine earthenware.
70 0 Of porcelain.
90 Of other ceramic materials.
6914 70 Patent stoppers for bottles with a metal wire mechanism and buttons thereto.
7019 11 Imitation pearls.
8441 11 Household sewing machines.
19 Special household sewing machines (e.g., zigzag, automatic sewing machines).
90 Parts thereof.
8525 Insulators of ceramics:
21 Without metal parts.
29 e With metal parts, except insulators for appliances.
8526 20 Insulating fittings of ceramic materials (e.g., porcelain, steatit).
9005 20 Binoculars, for manual use, with prisms.
9703 97 Toys (other than weapons, projectors and musical toys), of base metals.
9110 29 Pocket lighters of base metals, neither gold- nor silver-plated.
59 Table lighters of base metals, neither gold- nor silver-plated.
90 Parts thereof.
I Liberalized to OEEC countries.
2 Import restrictions relaxed April 1961.
3 De facto liberalized as of July 1, 1959.
Potato flakes only.
o Canned poaches and canned fruit cocktail to be liberalized July 1, 1961.
De facto liberalized as of Apr. 20, 1961.
Only dog biscuits de facto liberalized.
O De facto liberalized toward the United States since Mar. 7, 1960.
O De facto liberalized toward the United States since May 31, 1960.
10 De facto liberalized toward the United States since May 31, 1951.
Ghana
Ghana established new import controls on December 1, 1961, placing virtually
all imports under licensing. Since then, only a few commodities have been
allowed to enter free of restriction. These include cocoa, confectionery and
beverages, animal feeds, seeds, and live chicks. Selected items, such as live
animals and certain agricultural products including rice, corn, and millet, may
also be imported freely from West Africa territories.
In addition, a new National Trading Corporation was established during the
latter part of 1901. At present, the corporation imports only nondurable con-
sumer goods but its operations are expected to expand to include building
materials, particularly cement. So far it has not exercised monopoly control
over any commodities.
Greece
Although most goods may be imported into Greece without quantitative im-
port restrictions, a number of products require import licenses or are subject
to special regulations, various consumption taxes, and advance deposit require-
ments. The list of controlled products was extended somewhat during 1961.
Items requiring an import license are divided into two groups: List A includes
commodities for which import licenses are issued, although not very liberally.
Products falling into this group comprise rice, lumber, newsprint, coal, tires and
tubes, motor vehicles. List B, which is more extensive, covers farm equipment,
mechanical equipment and machinery, for which licenses are very seldom issued.
Another restraining influence on imports are Greek regulations requiring ad-
vance cash deposits. These measures are more severe for luxury items and less
stringent for products considered necessary to the economy. Credit controls
range from payment terms of 24 months for the purchase of machinery in ex-
cess of $5,000 in value, to cash deposit requirements of 280 percent of the cost,
insurance, and freight value of certain textiles.
PAGENO="0333"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 329
High consumption taxes, with rates varying from 20 to 45 percent, based on the
cost, insurance, and freight duty-paid value of imports also adversely affect
imports.
In addition to the above-listed measures special regulations apply to imports
of motion pictures, commercial shipments of wheat and flour, and on govern-
ment monopoly items such as cigarette paper and kerosene. In some instances
governmental efforts to dispose of agricultural surpluses through bilateral trade
agreements have restricted market possibilities in Greece for third countries.:
Haiti
Haiti maintains import licensing restrictions on a few products such a~
rice and shoe polish. In addition, tobacco, tobacco products, matches, soap,
soap products, edible oils, cement, sugar, and some agricultural chemicals,
although not requiring import licenses, are subject to state monopoly dis-
tribution. Also, a single private firm has been granted the exclusive right
to import and sell television sets.
A Presidential decree of September 9, 1960, authorizes the establishment of
an import quota system for the promotion and protection of domestic industry.
However, no restrictions have been imposed to date under this authority.
Honduras
Honduras does not ordinarily impose quantitative restrictions on imports
from any source.
Icela~nd
In June 1960, as part of an overall economic stabilization plan, Iceland
freed from import licensing control commodities which represented approxi-
mately 430 percent of her total imports prior to the liberalization action.
The goods affected may be imported from countries with which Iceland does
not have bilateral trade and/or payments agreements; i.e., the United States
and most non-Soviet bloc countries. In addition, 10-15 percent of imports
(based on 1958 trade patterns) from these multilateral trade and payment
sources are licensed under global quotas. These quotas cover commodities the
greater part of which are obtained from the European Soviet bloc countries
under bilateral trade and payments agreements. The quotas are mainly to
provide for residual import needs or to facilitate importation of items which
cannot be obtained satisfactorily from bilateral trading sources.
Commodities not falling under the categories mentioned above are, by and
large, reserved for import from the Soviet bloc countries. This portion of Iceland's
import trade is also subject to licensing requirements, mainly of a bookkeeping
character, established to facilitate compliance with existing bilateral trade and
payments commitments.
Effective September 15, 1961, new motor vehicles were freed from licensing
requirements when imported from Iceland's multilateral trading partners.
However, special taxes and fees levied according to vehicle weight and/or length
place U.S.-produced vehicles at a competitive disadvantage since most U.S.
exports fall into the heavier taxed weight and length categories.
Among commodities of interest to the United States which are still restricted
are: pork, milk products, rye meal, hops, sausages, meat preparations, fruit and
vegetable juices, coal and coke, petroleum and petroleum products, leather gloves
and many articles of leather, tires and tubes, panels of fir and pine, cardboard
containers, cotton carpets and floormats, cotton hosiery and tablecloths, rubber
footwear, iron and steel bars and sheets, iron and steel galvanized pipes, barbed
wire, some automobiles, motorcycles, phonographs and parts, transformers, and
electrical motors.
India
India's import policy continues to be highly restrictive, and quantitative import
restrictions apply to all but a few commodities of limited commercial importance.
This situation is attributable mainly to the adverse balance-of-payments position
stemming from heavy external expenditures for economic development purposes.
Quota limitations are placed on a wide range of goods, and imports of less es-
sential products or those produced in adequate quantity in India are severely
limited or entirely prohibited. However, imports of plant and machinery of sub-
PAGENO="0334"
B3D
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE~ POLICY
~tantial value are permitted if covered by long-term foreign loans or investments.
private or governmental: financed by the National Small Industries Corporation
of India, a Government institution; or provided under a bilateral trade and pay-
ments agreement. A period of approximately 10 years is considered long term.
Virtually all foreign aid granted bilaterally to India is tied to purchases in the
donor country. Special payments agreements with Soviet bloc countries permit
payment in rupees.
During 1961 there was a pronounced shift in import policy favoring actual user
industrial units rather than established importers. Established importers now
account for about 25 percent of India's import trade; the remaining 75 percent
consists of imports of capital goods by actual users which are tied to foreign
credits, iron and steel products licensed by the iron and steel controller, and
food grains imported on Government account. To ease the supply situation of
some scarce commodities and reduce procedural delays in issuance of import
licenses; basic quota periods were extended and "repeat" licenses were again
permitted for esablished importers. Raw materials needs of actual users were
given priority consideration and special import licenses were granted for raw
materials to be used in the manufacture of commodities for export.
Indonesia
Imports remain under strict control and may be effected only by officially
recognized importers. All commercial imports require prior licenses from the
Government's Commercial Foreign Exchange Bureau in the form of combined
import-exchange premits. License applications must be accompanied by evidence
that the required amount of prior deposit (currently 100 percent of the import's
entrepôt cost and freight value) has been made to an authorized foreign ex-
change bank. The purposes of the controls are to permit the efficient utilization
of foreign exchange and, to a lesser extent, to protect and promote domestic
industries.
Indonesia's current system of controls does not provide for formal discrimi-
nation by currency areas. However, license applications are continuously sub-
ject to administrative screening with a view toward fulfilling bilateral trade
agreement aims and budgeting the overall expenditure of foreign exchange.
A new series of finnacial measures, largely revising the country's exchange
rate and import system, w-as announced in August 1960. The new measures
effected a slight devaluation of the rupiah, simplified the multiple exchange
rate structure and widened the spread in the selling rates. (Whereas previously
there were in effect seven selling rates for foreign exchange ranging from 36
rupiah per dollar to 135 rupiah, under the new and current system the number
of effective rates was reduced to five. Imports and invisible payments now are
subject to the selling rates of 45, 56.25, 72, 90, and 200 rupiah per dollar.) The
major effect of the change was a sharp depreciation for about one-third of the
imports, mostly so-called less essential goods. Attention focused on the so-called
free-list rate (200 rupiah) after the change since for the first time in several
years importers were permitted to bring in a wide range of "luxury type" con-
sumer articles.
The easing of import restrictions in 1960 caused a sharp increase in Indonesia's
imports in 1961 in which the United States shared substantially as its major
trading partner. On April 4, 1961, to reduce the rising volume of imports of
less essential goods and check the worsening of its balance-of-payments position
the Government shifted certain less essential commodities to more depreciated
effective rates, raising the overall effective rate for imports. This reclassification
and the accompanying movement of some commodities to a higher duty
category were expected also to raise tax revenues. Subsequent tightening of
import licensing in June still failed to reduce imports sufficiently and in Novem-
ber the Government stopped the licensing of all "free list" imports (at the 200
rupiah rate) and further reduced licensing of less essential imports.
The move toward increased state trading, which had picked up momentum in
1959, remains strong despite some disillusionment with the performance of the 10
state trading companies. These companies have monopoly responsibility for im-
porting the country's most essential items, including rice, cloves, cambrics,
fertilizer, raw cotton, weaving yarn and threads, textiles and textile machinery,
PAGENO="0335"
TIlE FUTURE OF.U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 331.
tinpiate, paper and paper products (including newsprint), cement, concrete re-
inforcing rods, and w)~eat flour. Including other import cOmmoditie~ which are
not reserved for them, it is estimated that state enterprises handle as much as 80
percent of the total import trade.
Ireland
Approximately 90 percent of Ireland's dollar imports is now free of import
restrictions. An extensive list of raw materials and foodstuffs comprising a large
percentage of Irish imports may be imported freely from the dollar area and all
other areas without regard to exchange control restrictions. All other dollar goods
may be imported up to a limit in value of $14,000 for any one item in any
12-month period. Exchange permits are generally issued freely for goods in
excess of this amount when such products are not available from domestic sources.
About 16 industrial items require licensing, including electric light bulbs, motor-
cars, trucks, tires and tubes, and wearing apparel. Most grains and flours are
also under licensing control. Many meat and poultry products may not be
imported for hygenic reasons. There is no import discrimination except in the
case of apples, tomatoes, seed wheat, and private motor cars of a cost,insurance,
and freight value of not less than £1,300. The United Kingdom receives pre-
ferential treatment with respect to apples, tomatoes, and seed wheat. Imports
of large motorcars are admitted free of quantitative restrictions from the United
Kingdom and Canada, but are subject to global quotas when imported from
other countries.
Israel
Israel requires an import license for all imports. The license is automatically
granted for an estimated 60 percent of Israel's total imports, while the remain-
ing 40 percent are licensed at the discretion of the licensing authorities based on
such factors as the needs of importers, prices and quality, availability from local
or alternative sources. Part of Israel's imports are linked to bilateral arrange-
nients, which are restrictive with respect to specific imports such as sugar and
certain types of lumber and wood.
Israeli restrictions on imports were eased in 1961 to free certain imports from
quantitative limitations, including tobacco pipes, electric dishwashers and driers,
and wax paper, but heavy levies have been imposed on these items to discourage
imports. Also, quota limitations were removed from books, periodicals, and news-
papers, but importers must finance these imports with freely acquired currency at
a higher rate of exchange than the official rate.
The recent trend in Israel's import restrictions is toward higher purchase taxes,
and surcharges rather than licensing controls. In some cases Israel has fostered
domestic industry adjusting tariff rates commensurate with the domestic indus-
try's abiltiy to produce for local consumption. Most of Israel's restrictive trade
measures have an across-the-board effect and do not discriminate against the
United States.
Italy is no longer entitled under the rules of GATT and the IMP to apply
import restrictions for balance-of-payments reasons and has made considerable
progress in dismantling remaining controls.
At present, Italy maintains five separate systems of import restrictions: table
A, applicable to dollar-area countries, including the United States; table B, appli-
cable to former OEEC countries and a number of other countries; table C, appli-
cable to the Sino-Soviet bloc and a few other countries; an individual list for
Japan; and an individual list for Yugoslavia.
At the start of 1961, only 264 of the 6,785 statistical classifications in the
Italian tariff remained under licensing restriction to the dollar area. In June,
a liberalization move was made, mainly in agriculture products, reducing this
number to 209. Thus, the percentage of classifications free from control is close
to 97 percent at the present time.
Of these 209 classifications still restricted to the United States, almost half are
agricultural products, including poultry, dairy products, honey, raisins, cereals
and flour, lard, linseed and soya oil, sugar, vegetable juices, and some fruit
PAGENO="0336"
332
TEE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
juices. The only two industrial items of importance are printing machinery and
motor vehicles. Annual quotas, however, have been established for the bulk of
these items and it is expected that in many cases these quotas will be gradually
increased until complete liberalization is achieved.
There are 133 classifications on the table B list resulting in a certain amount
of discriminatory treatment toward the United States vis-a-vis the former OEEC
countries, but it is concentrated in agricultural products. The table C list and
the individual lists for Japan and Yugoslavia are considerably longer than the
table A and table B lists. Effective January 1, 1962, quotas on imports of in-
dustrial products from other Common Market countries were removed and
replaced by a system of automatic licensing.
A new restriction has developed with respect to some livestock products
whereby their importation is prohibited at less than minimum prices. Com-
modities presently affected include live~ slaughter cattle, beef, veal, bacon, and
lard. These restrictions are applicable on a worldwide basis. Moreover, cer-
tain items have been put on the table A and table B lists on a temporary basis.
Presently, live hogs and pork products are restricted in this way.
State trading represents another restrictive practice. The importation of
bananas, tobacco and tobacco products, salt, and wheat, e.g., is handled ex-
clusively by state monopolies. These control systems, however, do not contain
features that discriminate against U.S. products. Italian imports of wheat from
the United States, e.g., in 1960, were valued at approximately $14.2 million and in
the first 9 months of 1961, at approximately $70 million.
ITALY IMPORT RESTRICTIONS
AGRICULTURAL SECTOR
Tariff item No.
02.02 1
04.01
04.02
04.03
04.04 1
04.06 1
08.01 b ex 1
ex 08.03 b 2
08.04 b 1
ex 10.02 1
ex 10.03 1
10.05 1
ex 10.07 1
ex 11.01
ex 11.02 a
12.04 a ex 2
ex 12.08 a
15.01
15.07 a I
15.09'
15.10 a
15.17 a
15.17 ex b
17.01
17.02 a
cx 17.03
ex 17.05
cx 19.02 a 3 beta
19.03 1
ex 20.05
ex 20.07 `
22.04
22.05
Description of product
Dead poultry and edible offals thereof (except liver), fresh, chilled, or frozen.
Milk and cream, fresh.
Milk and cream, preserved, concentrated, or sweetened.
Butter.
Cheese and curd.
Natural honey.
Dates in packages of more than 500 grammes.
Figs, dried, except those in packages weighing 500 grammes or more.
Fresh grapes, wine.
Dried grapes (raisins).
Rye, other than that used for fodder.
Barley, excluding two-row barley (liberalized Nov. 1-Apr. 30).
Maize (liberalized Jan. 1-June 30).
Grain sorghum.
Sorghum flour; rye flour not intended as cattle feed.
Cereal meal and cereal groats.
Sugarbeet, whole or sliced, dried or powdered.
Locust beans, a'ihole, kibbled or ground.
Lard and other rendered pig fat; rendered fat of geese and other poultry.
Crude linseed oill
Soya oil.
Degras.
Acid oils from refining, etc.
Oil foots and dregs; decolourizing earths and carbons containing fats.
Soap stocks.
Beet sugar and cane sugar, solid.
Saccharose syrup.
Molasses.
Preparation of flour of any kind and sugar.
Macaroni, spaghetti, and similar products.
Date paste, paste of dried figs or raisins.
Fruit juices (including grape must) and vegetable juices, whether or not containing added
sugar, but usfermented and not containing spirit, except grapefruit and pineapple juice.
Grape must in fermentation, etc.
Wine of fresh grapes; grape must with fermentation arrested by the addition of alcohol.
PAGENO="0337"
333
TIlE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
INDUSTRIAL SECTOR
Tariff No.
Commodity description
Sulphur of all kinds, other than sublined sulphur, precipitated sulphur, and colloidal sulphur,
other.
Iodine.
Sulphur, sublimed or precipitated; colloidal sulphur.
lodides, oxyiodides, iodates, and periodates.
Methyl iodides, etc.
Citric acid and crude calcium citrate.
Tetraethyl lead.
Essential oils, concrete or absolute, from citrus fruit.
Mixtures of two or more odoriferous substances, with a basis of citrus essence.
Propellent powders, excluding those used for hunting purposes.
Prepared explosives.
Antiknock preparations based on totraethyl lead.
Natural cork, unworked, crushed, granulated or ground; waste cork; blocks, plates, sheets,
etc.
Tulle and other net fabrics (but not including woven, knitted, or crocheted fabrics), plain.
Tulle, bobbin-net and knotted net fabrics, lace.
Articles of tulle, bobbin-net and other net fabrics (but not including woven, knitted, or
crocheted fabrics), figured or of mechanically made lace.
1 Semifinished gold alloys (excluding platinum-plated gold), except gold sheet in special
alloys for dental work and gold foil strip for hot gilding, laminated with film rolls. Articles
of jewelry and parts thereof, articles of goldsmiths' wares, and parts thereof, and other
articles of gold, including platinum-plated gold with covering layer not thicker than 30
microns.
Other printing machinery; machines for uses ancillary to printing.
Machinery for printing wallpaper and wrapping paper and parts of such machinery except
cutting cylinders for engraving wallpapers and wrapping paper.
Motor vehicles for passengers, etc. and special purpose motor lorries and vans, etc.
Chassis fitted with engines, and bodies (including cabs) for the motor vehicles falling within
headings Nos. 87.02 and 87.03.
Trucks for the transport of goods driven by electric motors or by internal combustion engines
and fitted with a device for lifting their load-carrying platform.
Motorcycles, sidecars, motor scooters, excluding motorcycles weighing more than 170 kgs.
net each; sidecars for motorcycles.
Parts and accessories of motorcycles, sidecars and scooters.
Parts of projectiles and munitions.
1 Liberalized to list B countries, but under restriction to list A countries, including the U.S. quotas were opened for these
products for list A countries beginning 1961.
List A includes: Brazil Canada, Chile, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Nicaragua, Peru, United States, Uruguay,
Republic of China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Lebanon, Mexico, Paraguay, El Salvador, and Syria.
List B includes: Austria, Benelux, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United
Kingdom, Spain, Iceland, Portugal, Australia, Burma, Ceylon Ghana, India, Indonesia, Federation of Malaya, New Zea-
land, Pakistan, Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, South Africa, and Finland, Afghanistan, Iraq, Ireland, Morocco,
somali, Tunisia, Egypt, Vietnam, and Yemen.
2 Automatic licensing in effect from Jan. 1, 1962.
Note: The following items are also subject to import license when used, rebuilt or reconditioned with obvious changes,
or new but in poor condition: iron and steel containers for compressed or liquified gases, musical instruments, sound
recordings and reproducing devices and related equipment: ball bearings; tractors; parts, spares, and accessories for
motor vohicles; objects for parlor games, e.g., mechanical games, billiard tables, roulette tables, and the like; used
machinery and apparatus in general.
ITALIAN CIRCULATION TAX ON AUTOMOBILES
25.03 b
28.01 d I
28.02
28.34 1
29.02 1 a (5)(6)(11X12)
b 3.
29.16 a 4 (alpha and
beta) I.
29.34 a
33.01 a 1 and b 1
ex 33.04 1
ex 36.01 1
36.02 °
36.14 a
45.01 and 45.02
58.08
58.09 a and b 1
61.03 ex a; 61.04 box 1_
61.05 exa; 61.06 exa___
61.07 ex a; 61.08 ex a__
61.09 ex a; 61.10 ex a__
61.11 ox a; 62.01 ex a_
62.02 ox a; 62.05 ex a__
ex 71.12
ex 71.13
ex 71.14
84.35 a, b, and d;
ox 1; ex 2; ex f;
ox g.
84.40f 2; exh
37.022 and 37.032
ox 87.042 and ox 87.052...._
87.072 ox a and ox b_ -- -
87.O9exa;cl
87.12 a
93.07' b
The present formula for computing the circulation tax effectively penalizes
automobiles imported from the United States, which have a cylinder displace-
ment generally larger than that of automobiles produced in Italy. The dis-
advantage to American cars is compounded by the fact that the high tax con-
tinues undiminished for the life of the car while its resale value diminishes
sharply. This makes it virtually impossible to develop a used car market for
U.S. automobiles or, for that matter, for any automobiles of larger cylinder
displacement.
Import quotas for U.S. automobiles were abolished January 1962 and replaced
with a nondiscriminatory automatic licensing system. However, as is shown
by the persistently low volume of imports, the circulation tax, in addition to the
relatively high Italian tariff, is a serious obstacle to the sale of American auto-
mobiles in Italy. Of some 33,800 foreign automobiles imported and registered
in Italy in 1961, only 583 were manufactured in the United States.
82-181-67-vol. 1-22
PAGENO="0338"
334 THE :FUT1RE. OF ~ FOREIGN TRADE. POLICY
ITALIAN STATE TRADING
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS SUBJECT TO STATE TRADING
Wheat and Meslin.
Wheat flour.
Semolina and Groats.
Manufactured tobacco products and tobacco extracts and essence.
All types of salt and pure sodium chloride.
Sulphur.
Phosphorous (white, yellow, and red).
Suiphide of phosphorous (including phosphorous trisuiphide).
Paraethoxphenylurea (dulcin) and similar substances.
Orthobenzoicsulphimide (saccharin).
Vegetable alkaloids of cinchona, natural or reproduced by synthesis and their
salts, others, and esters.
Nicotine and its salts.
Watches.
Ferro-cerium and other pyrophoric alloys in all forms (includes films).
Cigarette paper.
Gold or gold alloys, unwrought.
Mechanical lighters and similar lighters, including chemical and electrical
lighters, and parts thereof.
Japan
All imports into Japan are subject to licensing. The three basic systems of
licensing, in tile order of increasing restrictiveness, are: the automatic approval
(AA) system, the automatic fund allocation (APA) system, and the exchange
fund allocation (EPA) system. A semiannual foreign exchange budget allocates
exchange among the three systems.
Import licenses for commodities on *the AA list are issued automatically to
importers at any foreign exchange bank. The import of commodities on the
AFA list requires application to the Ministry of International Trade and In-
dustry (MITI) but licenses, although normally issued automatically, are under
closer control of MITI and funds are much more limited than in the case of AA
commodities. LTnder the EPA system, which is the most restrictive, MITI indi-
cates through notices the items for which exchange is available as well as the
opening and closing dates for the filing of applications. For the Japanese fiscal
year 1961 (ending March 1962) more than half of the allocations were for com-
modities on the AA list.
Japan maintains a number of bilateral trade agreements with various coun-
tries. Those agreements deal with specific commodities w-hich the Government
regards as "target" arrangements, representing the enlargement of global quotas.
The administrative discretion in the licensing system. particularly in the EPA
system, how-ever, raises the possibility of less favorable treatment against third
countries as a consequence of efforts to fulfill bilateral "targets."
Considerable progress w-as made in 1961 in the relaxation of trade and ex-
change restrictions, although Japan continues to maintain a relatively high de-
gree of control over imports. The foreign exchange budgets for imports have
been enlarged and allocations for items under the EPA system have increased.
The liberalization program anilounced by the Japanese in June 1960 for the
relaxation of import restrictions by transferring items from the EPA system to
either the AA or the AFA systems had made substantial progress. In April of
1960 commodities which represented about 40 percent of Japan's total imports
in 1959 were unrestricted in that they could be imported under either the AA or
AFA systems. Since then, restrictions have been removed on other items so that
by the end of 1961 70 percent of Japan's trade had been liberalized. U.S. ex-
ports to Japan in 1961 reached the unprecedented value of over S1.7 billion.
Japan has committed itself to proceed with liberalization so that 90 percent of
its trade w-ill be free of restrictions by October 1962.
Despite the deterioration in Japan's balance of payments in 1961, Japan con-
tinues to liberalize its trade. The liberalization program. however, is being
cushioned to some extent by tariff increases on a number of commodities as a
PAGENO="0339"
THE~:F5TTJRE OF U.S. FOREIGN'TRADE POLICY 335:
protection to domestic industries and byincreased prior deposit rates on imports
to discourage excessive or speculative imports. Although liberalization is of
benefit to the United States, it has yet to be expanded to cover a significant por-
tion of manufactured and consumer goods of American origin which have
potential in the Japanese market.
Malaya
In July 1960, the Government of the Federation of Malaya and Singapore elim-
inated specific import licensing requirements for the importation of watches,
radios, and automobiles from the dollar area, thereby completing the relaxation
of restrictions which began in the previous year. Except for a few items which
are restricted for health, morals, and security reasons, all products from the
dollar area may now be imported under open general license.
Mewieo
Mexico made additions to the list of products subject to quantitative import
restrictions during 1961, further intensifying its restricive system, which covers
a wide range of goods. About one-half of annual imports are subject to import
controls. A prior permit, issued by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, is
required before such goods may be imported. Moreover, all agricultural, live-
stock, and forestry products, whether or not requiring a license from the Ministry
of Industry and Commerce, require a prior import license from the Ministry of
Agriculture. These controls do not discriminate against imports from the
United States.
The import restrictions have a dual purpose; namely, to channel available
foreign exchange into purchases of good deemed essential to the economy and
to protect domestic industries. Accordingly, the criteria in passing on import
applications are essentality of the product and whether or not satisfactory
domestic substitutes are available. Import licensing is most restrictive on luxury
goods and those which compete with domestic products.
Netherlands
The Netherlands undertook to further ease remaining import restrictions by
eliminating quotas established for licensing methylchloride, wooden packing
cases, and fishing nets imports. Similar steps were taken earlier in January
and July 1960 respecting other goods subject to quota limitations.
Goods requiring an import license are now limited to slightly over 100 items,
about evenly divided between agricultural and industrial products. Import li-
censes, w-here required, are usually granted liberally. Some of the products for
which import licenses are required also are subject to quotas. For 38 tariff items,
quotas are set for imports into the Netherlands from Belgium-Luxembourg and
other EEC countries. For 13 tariff items, quotas are set for import into the Bene-
lux area on a basis which differentiates between two source groupings; that is,
the Common Market countries vis-a-vis all other countries, including the United
States. In general, these quotas have not significantly impeded the flow of U.S.
exports to the Netherlands.
The economic union of the Benelux countries came into existence on November
1, 1960, based on the Benelux Treaty signed in February 1948. With respect to
import regulations, the three countries may be considered as a unit. Bilateral
trade agreements between the Netherlands and other countries are being re-
placed upon their expiration by joint Benelux instruments establishing common
commitments for the Benelux territory as a whole.
Wheat imports are regulated by mixing regulations, which specify the amount
of domestic wheat to be used in the production of flour. Also, a special levy
(monopoly fee) applied to flour imports serves to increase the price of the im-
ported product.
Netherlands Antilles
Most imports from the United States do not require import licenses, although
certain products, primarily high-priced luxury items, are still controlled. There
were no changes in the Netherlands Antilles licensing policy in 1961.
New Zealand
All imports into New Zealand, except a small number of items specifically cx-
emnpted, require import licenses. The licensing treatment for all imports is out-
PAGENO="0340"
336 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
lined in the yearly import licensing schedules. The schedule for the licensing pe-
riod 1961 covering calendar year 1961 and revised later to include in addition
the first 6 months of 1962, provides for five main licensing categories: (1) items
for which import licenses were allocated on a basis of previous import history of
the applicant (basic allocation) ; (2) items for which applications are considered
individually; (3) items for which licenses are granted freely for the full amounts
applied for; (4) items which may be imported from any source without the re-
quirement of an import license; and (5) items for which no allocations were
made for licenses.
Except for motor vehicles, all licenses are issued on a global basis and are
available for imports from all sources. For motor vehicles, licenses are issued
separately for imports from dollar and nondollar sources and are nontransferable.
By a series of liberalization measures in 1958, 1959, and 1960, the New Zealand
Government relaxed import controls and virtually eliminated discriminatory li-
censing treatment of all dollar goods except motor vehicles and parts. Although
some moderate increase in imports was provided for in the 1961 import licensing
schedule when it was issued in September 1960, the New Zealand Government
later felt compelled to make some adjustments in view of a deterioration in its
balance-of-payments position. The first move in April suspended the "replace-
ment" scheme of licensing on approximately 200 import categories, and a little
more than half of the items were shifted to individual licensing procedures while
the remainder were removed from any further licensing consideration for the
remainder of the year. The second step, only a month later, involved extending
the validity period of the 1961 licensing schedule to cover the first 6 months of
1962, resulting in a saving of £50 mifflon on the 1961 allocation.
New Zealand is taking a cautious approach in the relaxation of import controls.
The Government has stated that the controls will be liberalized or removed when
the balance-of-payments situation indicates that such action may be taken, and
that needed protection for essential domestic industries will be provided through
tariffs or other measures but not through import licensing controls.
Nicaragua
Licensing of imports into Nicaragua is required in connection with exchange
control regulations. Under the licensing system, there are no quotas, nor is
there discrimination against dollar imports. Import licenses are granted so
long as importers meet deposit requirements.
Nicaragua classifies imports into three categories or lists: list 1, essentials;
list 2, less essentials; and list 3 nonessentials. There is no deposit requirement
for items in list 1. For lists 2 and 3, importers must deposit in a Nicaraguan
bank 100 percent of the cost, insurance, and freight value of the proposed import
in order to obtain necessary import permits. In the case of list 2 goods, licenses
are issued within 48 hours after the deposit has been made; for list 3 items,
licenses are issued 30 days after deposit is made.
During 1960, the importation of cotton ginning plants, industrial plants for
pasturizing and sterilizing milk, equipment for the slaughter of cattle and hogs,
and other slaughterhouse equipment was made subject to approval by the Minis-
ter of Economy. In addition, all footwear imports except boots were prohibited.
Nigeria
Nigeria has removed quantitative import restrictions on most imports, allow-
ing their importation under open general license for most sources, including the
dollar area. Goods requiring specific import licenses are now limited to coal,
petroleum products, and secondhand clothing. Licenses are usually granted for
petroleum products and (to importers who are Nigerian nationals) for second-
hand clothing. All imports from certain countries, mainly those in the Sino-
Soviet bloc, require an import license.
Norway
Norway ceased to apply import restrictions for balance-of-payments reasons in
1961 and the Government announced that practically all nonagricultural com-
modities would be freed from control by the beginning of 1963.
PAGENO="0341"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
337
A large number of goods was liberalized on January 1, 1962. Somewhat less
than 100 products still require import licenses but most of these commodities
may be imported under global quotas. In some cases bilateral quotas are pro-
vided for countries with which Norway has bilateral trade arrangements. A few
commodities are subject to discretionary licensing and a few goods are pro-
hibited on medical or veterinary grounds.
No liberalization schedule has yet been announced for a number of commodities
of interest to the United States, such as canned and other variety meats, pre-
pared baby food, fresh apples and pears, canned pears and plums, cheese, beef
liver, and other offals.
NORWAY IMPORT RESTRICTIONS
AGRiCULTURAL SECTOR
Tariff No.
01.01
01.02
01.03
exOl.06
01.04
01.05
02.0l;ex 02. 04 and ex
02.06.
02.02, 02.03 and ex
02.06.
ex 02.04 and exO2.06____
04.01
04. 03
04.04
04.05
04.06
07.01 A
exO7.01
cx 07.03, ex2O.02
ex 08. 04
ex 08. 06
cx 08.07
cx 08.08
exO8.09
cx 08. 11, ex2O.06
09.01
09.02
09. 02
09.04
09.06
09.07
09.08
cx 09.10
10.06
cx 11.01
ex 11.05
cx 11.06
ex 11.08
11.09
12.07
15.01
ex 15.07
15.12
16.02 and 16.03
17.01
cx 17.02
19.02
19.04
cx 19.07
19.08
ex2l.07
Commodity description
Horse, live.
Cattle, live.
Swine, live.
Reindeer, live.
Sheep and goats, live.
Chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, and guinea fowl, live.
Meat and offals from horses, cattle, calves, swine, sheep, lambs and other domestic animals,
fresh, cooled, frozen, dried, or smoked.
Meat and offals, including liver, from poultry, fresh, cooled, salted, or frozen.
Reindeer, fresh, cooled, frozen, salted, dried or smoked.
Milk and cream, fresh, dried, evaporated and sweetened, condensed.
Butter.
Cheese and curd.
Eggs and egg yolks.
Honey.
Potatoes.
Vegetables, fresh.
Canned vegetables.
Black currants and red currants.
Apples and pears, fresh.
Cherries, plums and peaches.
Raspberries, gooseberries, and strawberries.
Melons.
Canned fruits.
Coffee.
Tea.
Maté.
Pepper.
Cinnamon.
Cloves.
Nutmeg, mace, and cardamoms.
Other spices.
Husked and broken rice.
Wheat flour.
Flour and grits of potatoes.
Tapioca, manioc, arrowroot, milled.
Potato starch.
Gluten and gluten flour.
Live plants and parts of live plants.
Leaf fat and lard.
Vegetable oils, crude and refined (soya oil, cottonseed oil, groundnut oil, and coconut oil)
Animal or vegetable fats and oils, hydrogenated, whether or not refined, but not further
prepared.
Preparations from meat and offal, including canned meat, extracts, etc.
Beet and cane sugar, solid.
Glucose.
Preparations of flour, starch or malt extract, of a kind used as infant food or for dietetic or
culinary purposes, containing less than 50 percent by weight of cocoa.
Tapioca and sago; tapioca and sage substitutes obtained from potato or other starches.
Crisp bread.
Cakes, biscuits, and other fine bakers wares, also containing cocoa, irrespective of quantity.
Ice cream, ice cream powder, pudding powder, and other food preparations.
PAGENO="0342"
338 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
INDUSTRIAL SECTOR
Tariff item No.
Description of products
3401 201 1
Soap powder.
3401 209 1
Do.
3402 210 1
3402 221 1
3402 229 1
3502 100
Surface active preparations and washing and cleaning preparations:
Containing surface active agents, but not containing soap.
Perfumed, containing soap.
Other, containing soap.
Egg albumin.
3809 100
Wood tar.
3809 200
Wood tar oils; wood creosote.
Vlosd and articles of wood; wood charcoal:
4402
4418 2
4423
4423 300 1
Wood charcoal, agglomerated or not.
Reconstituted wood, being wood shavings, wood chips, sawdust, wood flour or other
igneous waste, agglomerated with natural or artificial resins or other organic binding
substances, in sheets, blocks or the like.
Builders carpentry and joinery:
Doors and door frames.
4814 200 1
5701 201
Boxes, pouches, wallets, and writing compendiums, containing only an assortment of
paper stationery.
Dakum of true hemp (cannabis sativa).
5703 002
7338 910 2
Oakum of jute.
Enamel bathtubs other than cast bathtubs.
en 8415
8415 112 2
8415 1422
Refrigerators and refrigerating equipment
Refrigerators (excluding freezers) incorporating a refrigerating unit, for domestic use, with
a capacity of not more than 0.284 cubic metre.
Do.
8415 3102
8515 500 2
8515 600 2
8515 981 2
Deep freezers, incorporating a refrigerating unit, for domestic use.
Receiving apparatus for television.
Receiving apparatus combined for radio broadcasting and television, including those in-
corporating gramophones and/or tape recorders.
Parts for radio-broadcasting and television reception apparatus, with a f.s.b. value over
N.kr.i00 ea.
I Will be liberalized on July 1, 1962.
2 Will be liberalized on Jan. 1, 1963.
Pakistan
Although Pakistan maintains a fairly restrictive import control system for
balance-of-payments reasons, with the notable exception of imports financed
under foreign aid agreements, including those with the United States, the system
is essentially nondiscriminatory.
The steady improvement of Pakistan's foreign exchange position in 1961 al-
lowed the Government to continue the liberalization policy instituted in January
1900. In the January-June 1961 period, the automatic licensing list was ex-
panded by 33 items, making a total of 62 items which were virtually freed from
import quotas. The regular licensable list for the same period remained sub-
stantially the same, numbering 186 items which could be imported under an
individual import license. In March 1961, the Government of Pakistan placed
13 items under "open general license" to encourage the entry of more Pakistani
firms into the foreign trade field.
Pakistan's import policy for the second half of 1981 incorporated two signifi-
cant policy changes affecting a large portion of the country's import trade. The
most important was the provision to liberalize the import of raw materials and
spare parts necessary for the full utilization of existing industrial capacity in
173 industries. The other notable change was the increase in the number of items
importable under open general license from 13 to 49 items. In the case of the
new- items, however, all w-ere restricted to newcomers outside of Karachi.
Paraguay
Paraguay maintains no licensing restrictions on imports. However, many
goods are subject to advance deposit requirements and special exchange sur-
charges are also applied.
During 1961, the advance deposit requirement for goods in one of the three
categories into which imports are classified for exchange purposes w'as eliminated
and the 110- and 200-percent deposit requirements for the other tw-o categories
were reduced to 100 percent of the c.i.f. value of the goods. On the other hand,
the exchange surcharge was raised from 20 to 24 percent of the c.i.f. value for
goods from other than neighboring countries, and a tax of 20 percent was imposed
on goods from the latter which were formerly exempt.
Peru
Apart from the prior authorization requirement on imports which could affect
public health or safety and the ban on goods from the Soviet bloc, there are
PAGENO="0343"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 339
virtually no nontariff restrictions on imports entering Peru. Prior authorization
is required in order to import such items as pharmaceuticals, livestock, plants,
seeds, firearms, explosives and similar items.
Portugal
All imports' into Portugal require advance import registration certificates.
However, most nonagricultural and some agricultural commodities are included
in "liberalization lists" and certificates for commodities on these lists are issued
automatically. The certificates have the effect of licenses in the case of items riot
included on the "liberalization lists."
In January 1960 the Portuguese removed most discriminations against the
dollar area. However, there are' still 19 tariff positions, covering chiefly agri-
cultural goods such as cotton, edible oils, wheat, feed grains, rice, fresh citrus
fruit, milk, and butter which are liberalized for the former OEEC countries but
not for the United States. Among commodities which Portugal restricts from
all sources are : bacon, meat offals, honey, canned and frozen fruits, some vege-
table oils, some plastic materials and resins, some electrical apparatus and
automobiles.
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland
The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland permits most goods to enter freely
under open general licensing from all sources. Remaining restrictions affecting
U.S. goods are those which apply to a few agricultural commodities. Licenses are
granted for these on a nondiscriminatory basis wheir domestic production is not
adequate to satisfy local needs.
Republic of South Africa
Except for goods on a "free list," imports from all countries into the Republic
of South Africa are subject to the prior issuance of an import license. Such import
licenses are valid for purchases in any country or currency area without
distinction.
Licensed goods fall into two categories depending upon whether or not they
are licensed on the basis of exchange allocations (quotas). Nonquota goods are
licensed on the basis of the importer's reasonable requirements, and include such
items as capital equipment, industrial raw materials and specified consumer
goods. Quota goods are licensed on the basis of exchange allocations to registered
importers and include mainly consumer goods and luxury items.
In 1961, lower import quotas were part of an effort on the part of the South
African Government to reduce imports and improve its foreign reserve holdings
which had been deteriorating since the beginning of 1960 due to persisting
capital outflows. In May of 1961, further trade restrictions were imposed through
additional licensing controls. For example, certain goods-i.e., woven and knitted
piece goods, were removed from the free list and subjected to an import license.
A restricted list reportedly including only nonessential and luxury goods was
created, but the composition of the list would seem to indicate that protection
for local industry was also a consideration involved. Among the items covered by
this list are mining machinery, household refrigerators, electrical appliances,
wood and wooden products and certain dairy products.
Spain
Commodities which represent about 40 percent of all Spanish imports have
been liberalized and may be imported without restriction from most countries
with which Spain has no bilateral payments agreement. The liberalized area
includes OECD and about 18 other countries. Liberalized goods consist largely of
raw materials, chemicals, and machinery. Two lists of goods were added to this
group during 1961 `and another was published early in 1952.
Other goods are imported under global quotas applicable to liberalized area
countries, under bilateral trading arrangements or under state trading. The state
traded list consists of about 33 items including grains, flours, tobacco, coffee,
meats, milk, several other food items, certain types of coal, petroleum and
derivatives, cotton, newsprint, sulfur, wool, hemp, and jute fibers. A number of
items which were state traded in 1960 were transferred to the global quotas or
liberalized lists in 1961. Additional transfers are expected when the 1962 lists
are announced.
Surinani
Surinam maintains quotas for only a few articles of minor importance. No
licenses are required for foreign exchange payments for imports made through
banks either by a confirmed bank credit against documents, valid for a term not
PAGENO="0344"
340
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
greater than 6 months, or by documentary drafts with a term not greater than
90 days. An import license is required for importation of all goods payable under
other terms, including those made on open account.
Sweden.
Sweden ceased to apply import restrictions for balance-of-payments reasons
in June 1960 and has now eliminated nearly all remaining controls.
Only three or four industrial items and about five agricultural items are under
restritcion when imported from all areas. Included in this list are some fish
products and fresh apples and pears. An additional 11 agricultural items are
liberalized when imported from the former OEEC countries and several less-
developed countries, but are under restriction from all other areas, including
the United States and Canada. In this latter category are pork, hog fat, poultry
meat, eggs, ice cream powder, and sausage.
The importation of sugar, tobacco, alcoholic beverages, almanacs, and calendars
Is restricted to state-owned, state-controlled or state-authorized organizations
or firms.
Switzerland
Almost all nonagricultural commodities may be imported into Switzerland
without quantitative restrictions front all sources. Only motor buses and trucks
require licenses for economic defense reasons. There is no indication that this
restriction has been detrimental to U.S. trade.
Approximately 50 agricultural items require import licenses; however, many
of these are licensed liberally. Commodities under control of interest to the
United States include wheat, feed grafts, edible oils, oilseeds, oilseed cake and
meals, rice, poultry meat, certain canned fruit and vegetables, fresh and proc-
essed meat, lard, butter, dried whole milk, and fresh fruit.
Tariff No.
10.01
10.02
10.03
10.04
10.05
11.01
12.03.20
01.01
01.02
01.03
01.04
02.01
16.01, 16.02, 16.03
04.03
ex 04.02.10
04.05.10
ex 07.01
07.01.40, 42
08.06, 08.07, 08.08
ex 08. ex 13.03 (pectin),
ex 20.07 (juice)
ex 22.05
22.04.01
ex 20.07
15.01.10
15.02.01
ex 06.03
ex 06.02
SWITZERLAND IMPORT RESTRICTIONS
AGRICULTURAL SECTOR
Commodity description
Cereals and feeding stuff:
Bread grains.
Wheat and meslin.
Rye.
Coarse grains, feeding stuff, and seed grains.
Barley.
Oats.
Corn (maize).
Cereal flours.
Other seeds for sowing.
Animals and meat:
Cattle, horses and foals; pigs, goats, and lambs and meat of these animals.
Live horses sod foals.
Live cattle.
Live swine.
Live sheep and goats.
Meat and edible offals of the above animals, fresh, chilled, or frozen.
Canned meat and meat preparations of the above animals.
Dairy products.
Butter.
FulImilk powder and casein.
Eggs:
Fresh eggs.
Vegetable and pulses (of kinds growing in Switzerland):
Fresh vegetables.
Potatoes, for food and for seed.
Fruits and fruit preparations (of kinds growing in Switzerland):
Fresh apples and pears, stone fruits, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and
currants.
Apples and pears for cider manufacture, juices of apples, and pears, fruit pectin.
Wine and grape juices:
Ordinary white wine, white wine, specialites and red wine in casks.
Wine must.
Grape juices.
Animals oils and fats:
Lard for food.
Tallow for food.
Fresh cut flowers.
Young plants of fruit trees and wine stock.
Note: Industrial sector: Except for restrictions on heavy tricks and buses, Switzerland applies no quantitative import
restrictions to industrial imports. Import licenses are required for a few products; such licenses are issued automatically
and without quantitative retrictions.
PAGENO="0345"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 341
Tunisia
Foreign trade policies announced in 1959 continue to govern Tunisian foreign
trade. U.S. products can be imported under three categories: Liberalized prod-
ucts, on which there are no quota restrictions and for w'hich import licenses are
granted automatically; rionliberalized products subject to global quotas; and
nonliberalized products listed in annual dollar import quota programs.
In line with the Tunisian Government's policy of encouraging and protecting
domestic industries, the importation of some goods, including certain aluminum
and iron products, battery parts, and men's and children's socks and stockings,
is prohibited. A few additional items such as leather, wood furniture, and shoes
were added to the list in 1961.
At the end of 1961 Tunisia had bilateral trade agreements with 28 countries,
mostly European and Soviet bloc.
Tn~rkey
Under Turkey's current import control system, all imports are subject to
licensing. However, a list of "liberalized" `products has been issued for which
licenses are granted freely on application. There is a further list of commodities
for which global quotas are established. In addition, certain goods are imported
under bilateral arrangements', principally from the Soviet bloc. This trade repre-
sents only a small percentage of total imports. Goods not in any of the above
categories are not ordinarily imported. These include semiluxury products, such
as refrigerators and household appliances, and state monopoly items, such as
tobacco products. AID-financed goods are subject to the policy of limited world-
wide procurement which favors U.S. suppliers.
Although Turkey's balance-of-payments position remains precarious, the im-
port control system, while still restrictive, has undergone a marked liberalization
and simplification since its inception in September 1958. The import programs
issued during 1961 continued the trend toward administrative simplification and
of emphasizing imports of essential productive goods such as construction, mining,
and industrial equipment, while curtailing or banning those of nonessential or
luxury items.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom has removed controls on all but a very limited number
of goods. During 1961 a number of additional products including canned fruit,
other than apples and citrus; wine; beer; and gin were liberalized.
Only six categories of goods-large aircraft; rum; pharmaceuticals; cigars;
fresh, chilled or frozen pork; and fruits of various kinds-remain under control
when imported from the dollar area while being liberalized to former OEEC
countries. Most of these commodities can be imported under quotas specifically
provided for imports from the dollar area. An annual quota of over $2 million
is provided for grapefruit and orange juices, and canned grapefruit; a quota
of 25,000 long tons for fresh, chilled, or frozen pork; a quota of $560,000 for
pharmaceuticals; and a quota of $84,000 for cigars, other than Cuban.
In addition to controls applied specifically on imports from the dollar area,
some 16 categories of goods are still subject to restrictions from most countries
including the United States. These are: arms and ammunition; baskets and
basketware; coal, coke and solid fuels manufactured from coal or coke; feathers
of certain birds; fresh apples and pears; bottled or canned fruit; whole hams;
fresh, frozen, evaporated, condensed, dried, or preserved milk and animal feed-
ing stuffs containing milk solids; fresh potatoes; radioactive substances; clover
and grass seeds; sugar; jute manufactures; cotton woven fabrics; watches and
parts. Of these goods, global quotas are in effect for baskets and basketware,
fresh apples and pears, canned and bottled apples, and inexpensive watches.
UNITED KINGDOM IMPORT RESTRICTIONS
AGRICULTURAL SECTOR
Canned grapefruit segments.'
Grapefruit and orange juice.'
Fresh winter grapefruit.'
Pork and preparations containing pork.12
Bananas.'
Restricted to dollar area, incloding Canada.
`Imports prohibited from United States under sanitary regulations.
PAGENO="0346"
342 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
AGRICFLTTJRAL SECTOR-CONTINUED
Fresh apples.3
Fresh pears.3
Canned and bottled apples.3
Whole hams.3
Milk and milk products.3
Potatoes.
Sugar.
INDUSTRIAL SECTOR
Airplanes over 4,500 pounds.1
Rum.1
Cigars.1
Coal, coke, and solid fuels manufactured from coal or coke.3
Dyestuffs.3
Certain arms and ammunition.
Certain feathers of birds and articles of feathers.
Radioactive substances.
Certain jute manufacturers.
Watches and parts thereof (with certain exceptions).
Uruguay
Aside from the customs tariff, Uruguay regulates imports through a system
of surcharges and prior deposit requirements according to the essentiality of the
product. Four classes of imports are established: (1) Those free of surcharges
and prior deposits: (2) those subject to a 40-percent surcharge based on the c.i.f.
value; (3) those subject to a 75-percent surcharge; and (4) those subject to a
150-percent surcharge and a prior deposit of 100 percent. The Government has
indicated its intention of dispensing with the application of surcharges and prior
deposits as soon as the balance-of-payments position of the country improves
sufficiently to warrant 6uch action.
Venezuela
Venezuela placed further restrictions on imports during 1981 for balance-of-
payments reasons and in some cases to protect domestic industries, continuing
the trend in evidence since July 1959. Commodities added to the list requiring a
prior import license included canned meats and meat preparations, textile ma-
chinery, selected bathroom fixtures, fumigants in compressed form, soups in
many forms. and building materials of refractory earth.
In addition, the exchange rate for financing selected imports were changed
during the year. A list was issued on March 20 of approximately 2,000 essential
consumer goods; raw materials, machinery, and related items for which un-
limited dollars would be available at the controlled rate of exchange. This rate
is the more favorable of two rates at which imports are financed. How-ever, a
subsequent list issued on June 15 eliminated a considerable number of items eli-
gible for importation at this rate.
All imports at the controlled rate of 3.35 Venezuelan bolivares to the dollar
require both an import and an exchange license. All other imports are financed at
the controlled "free" rate which has been quoted at 4.58 Venezuelan bolivares per
U.S. dollar since June 1001. Imports at this less favorable rate may require li-
censes, at the discretion of the Central Bank. Certain goods are either prohibited
or may be imported only by the Government.
EUROPEAN RESTRICTIONS ON U.S. COAL
Among the major European countries, only Italy admits American coal w-ithout
restrictions.
Import restrictions against imported coal from all sources are maintained by
the United Kingdom and Belgium. The Netherlands admits coal freely from the
ECSC. but restricts the entry of coal from the United States and other third
countries. The Federal Republic of Germany admits coal freely from ECSC
countries, but maintains a strict tariff quota against imports from the United
States. the United Kingdom, Poland, and other third countries.
1 Restrioted to dollar area. Including Canada.
3 Tmports prohibited from United States under sanitary regulations.
Restricted from nonsterling area.
PAGENO="0347"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 343
Germany has a 2-year tariff quota system under which some 12 million metric
tons are admitted free of duty over the 2-year period, but all imports from non-
ECSC countries outside of the tariff quota are subject to a prohibitive duty of
about $5 a ton. The United States receives about 10 of the 12 million ton tariff
quota. However, the Federal Government has stated it may deduct from the
commercial quota for future years the amount of coal brought in from the United
States under U.S. military procurement.
Belgium has been given permission by the High Authority to restrict the entry
of coal both from the ECSC and `third countries. Out of an approximate annual
quota of 620,000 metric tons established for non-ECSC countries, the United
States receives about 400,000 tons.
The restrictions maintained by the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and
Belgium are not considered to be consistent with the GATT obligations of the
countries concerned.
Coal is subject to state trading in France and Luxembourg. Coal is imported
duty free.
OTHER RESTRICTIONS AFFECTING U.S. EXPORTS
In addition to tariffs and quantitative import restrictions, U.S. exports may,
on occasion, be hindered by technical, fiscal, and administrative obstacles to
trade. Exports may be hindered, or even barred, from markets by regulations
concerning health and sanitary requirements, customs valuation, marks of origin,
grading standards, minimum quality, and fees and formalities connected with
imports. Internal taxes may be nominally nondiscriminatory, but bear particu-
larly heavily on imports.
Such technical and fiscal regulations affecting trade are common to all coun-
tries, including the United States. 1~ecause of the wide diversity of regulations,
and the opportunity for administrative interpretation of Such regulations, the
U.S. Government must rely heavily on information supplied by U.S. exporters
in treating with such obstacles to trade. The listing below of nontariff, nonquota
restrictions is, therefore, no more than illustrative.
Benelua~
The Benelux countries follow the policy of most Western European countries
by not admitting items for the reasons of health, morals, or national security.
Examples are' absinthes, narcotics (except for medicinal use), pornographic liter-
ature, and abortive devices. The Benelux countries have employed variable levies
on designated products to equalize prices of imports with domestic production.
Such levies have only been applied on items where the duties have not been bound
in tariff schedules or applied within the limits specified in the schedules. The
Benelux countries also apply a levy transmission or sales tax, both on domestic
transactions as well as on imports.
France
France prohibits the import of only those nonagricultural goods considered
potentially injurious to public health or morals. These are specifically certain
wines and liquors of exceptionally high alcoholic content, parathyoxyphenylurea,
absinthe extract, pinball games, slot machines, pornographic material, publications
for youth deemed to glorify immorality, and contraceptives. The French tax
automobiles by European classifications of horsepower, and this tax bears
heavily on U.S. automobiles.
The Federal Republic of Germa'ny
Germany bans the importation of firearms and munitions, explosives, nuclear
and radioactive material, narcotics, certain matches, paper used in the manu-
facture of banknotes, obscene written and graphic matter, written and graphic
material which are politically subversive, and publications of products endanger-
ing the security of the Allied armed forces. Germany also applies health and
sanitary regulations against certain imports of fruits with the result that im-
ports from the United States are adversely affected. Exports of U.S. lemons have
suffered particularly, and other products may be affected.
Italy
Italy applies safety, sanitary, and marking regulations to numerous items
in commodity sectors such as munitions, drugs, etc. In general, such regulations
are comparable to those in force in other trading countries, including the United
States. The present formula for computing the circulation tax on automobiles
PAGENO="0348"
344 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
effectively penalizes automobiles imported from the United States which have a
cylinder displacement generally larger than that of automobiles produced in
Europe. The disadvantage to American cars is compounded by the fact that the
high tax continues undiminished for the life of the car while its resale value
diminishes sharply.
[From the Foreign Commerce Weekly, Nov. 9, 1959]
TRADE LIBERALIZATION PATTERN MAINTAINED
The pattern of dollar liberalization established in the first 6 months of the
year was maintained in the third quarter as countries of the British Common-
wealth and Western Europe continued to reduce discrimination against dollar
imports.
The move to convertibility of major European currencies in December 1958
dramatically emphasized the improved foreign exchange position of European
nations, and with the rationale for dollar discrimination eliminated, liberaliza-
tion has proceeded at a rapid rate. Today many U.S. products can be sold in
markets which had been restricted or closed since World War II. Further im-
provement is anticipated.
In countries of Latin America. Asia, and Africa, foreign Government actions
have tended to be a mixture of liberalizing and restrictive moves, though with-
out discrimination against the dollar. No clear trend or pattern is apparent except
that members of the sterling area are following the examples of the United
Kingdom in eliminating discriminatory restrictions.
OEEC DOLLAR MARKET EXPANDS
Western Europe in the third quarter improved as a market for American
goods as France, Turkey, Spain and the United Kingdom removed discriminatory
restrictions and France, Norway, and the Netherlands simplified import
procedures.
France, on September 26 continued liberalization of dollar imports by free-
ing from quantity limitations a wide variety of products. These include certain
plunes, dried apricots, passenger automobiles of a cylinder capacity of 3,000 cubic
centimeters or over (the $3 million 1059 quota remains in effect for smaller U.S.
automobiles), outboard motors, carbon black (tunnel process), monosodium
glutamate, terramycin, sensitized plates and film, rolling mills, electric junction
boxes, some cinematographic films, products of polymerization of styrene without
added material and polymerized chloroacete. In addition, the Government has
announced that quantitative restrictions will be removed on January 1, on edible
offals, medicines and vaccines for human and veterinary use, and synthetic
rubber.
This latest move brings the French level of dollar trade liberalization up to
about 80 percent, based on 1953 private trade, and follows the liberalization of
certain industrial products at the end of July. France also introduced a sim-
pltfied procedure for importation of liberalized products.
One of the most important developments in the quarter was the inclusion
of Spain in the Organization for Economic Cooperation. In joining OEEO, Spain
accepted a stabilization program agreed to by other OEEC members and the In-
ternational Monetary Fund. Although special charges and duties on imports
were generally increased, the 25-percent ad valorem exchange tax was abolished
and the Spanish Government liberalized about 50 percent of 1950 private imports
both from OEEC and the dollar area. Spain on August 7, announced its first
nondiscriminatory global quotas to a total of $75 million.
The United Kingdom in August freed import or butter from the dollar area.
The freeing of butter was hastened by a decline in U.K. production as a result
of dry weather arid poor pasture conditions. Import of other dollar dairy prod-
acts were freed in June.
Turkey on August 3, removed from quota control an additional 110 groups of
items, mostly raw materials for the chemical and drug industry. Demand for
these goods was officially estimated at US$25 million. The newly freed items,
together with items freed from quota controls in the second global list issued in
mid-May-raw materials, machinery, spare parts-make a total of 270 groups of
ftems now liberalized for import into Turkey from the dollar area.
PAGENO="0349"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 345
Norway on July 1 removed from import-licensing control cement, organic
chemicals, plastics, air-conditioning equipment, packing machinery, coin-oper-
ated dispensers, machinery for the food industry, and phonograph records and
tapes. These items had previously been licensed liberally.
The Netherlands, in July, simplified its import procedures by eliminating
licensing for most imports from all sources as well as the requirement that per-
mits be obtained for the foreign exchange for current payment transactions
between the Netherlands and most other countries, including the United States.
Also, Finland expanded its list of imports freed from quantitative restrictions
in April by adding roasted and unroasted coffee from the dollar area.
COMMONWEALTH AREAS RELAX CONTROLS
Sterling convertibility has permitted many British Commonwealth areas to
follow the United Kingdom's lead in reducing dollar discrimination. Australia,
the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Malaya, Singapore, British West
Indies, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Cyprus, Ceylon and British East Africa, relaxed dis-
crimination in the third quarter.
Australia, effective August 1, increased its authorization for annual imports
from AE800 to M850 and further removed dollar restrictions so that 90 percent
of Australian imports will now be licensed without discrimination. Most imports
remaining subject to discriminatory licensing are made up of motor vehicles and
timber. This move will permit importation of U.S. goods not imported into
Australia for many years.
The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland announced on September 11 further
liberalization of dollar imports. Among the newly decontrolled items are aircraft,
refrigerators, stoves, heating appliances, washing machines, firearms, hardware,
lamps, playing cards, hairclippers and scissors, quilts, cocoa and drinking choco-
late, carbon and blotting paper, and military band instruments. In addition,
the quota established in August of $28,000 for ladies' silk and nylon stockings was
increased to $56,000. The newly decontrolled items are significant in that Ameri-
can trade possibilities appear promising even with a comparatively high rate of
duty for some items.
* * * * .* *
NONTARIFF TRADE BAmIIER5 OF THE UNITED STATES'
(By Noel Hemmendinger, Counsel, United States-Japan Trade Council)
INTRODUCTION
As the United States and its trading partners prepare for the Kennedy round
of negotiations on tariffs, the subject of non-tariff trade barriers looms large.
It has been agreed that steps to reduce and eliminate such barriers are an im-
portant part of the negotiations now to take place. It is not easy to elaborate
principles to govern this negotiation. There is, however, a very considerable
measure of agreement among the leading trading nations: first, that non-tariff
trade obstacles are very important; second, that they should be reduced or abol-
ished; and third, that the other fellow's obstacles are much more serious than
one's own.
Despite some excellent studies, most recently that of the Canadian-American
Committee, the subject is obscured by legal technicalities and remains nearly
impenetrable to the general public. This paper is an attempt to explain U.S.
barriers, with emphasis upon the vexations, uncertainties, and additional costs
that they entail. It is focused upon the barriers of the United States not because
they are necessarily greater or more odious than those of other nations but be-
cause they are here. If something is going to be done about them, it must be done
by the United States Government; and the American public must understand
the need. While general in nature, the paper emphasizes trade with Japan be-
cause that Is the special concern of the United States-Japan Trade Council.
1 Study submitted as part of the presentation of the United States-Japan Trade Council
before the Trade Information Committee established pursuant to the Trade Expansion Act
of 1962 in connection with its hearings on non-tariff trade barriers.
PAGENO="0350"
346 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
It should be recognized at the outset that we are discussing mainly govern-
mental trade barriers. There are many other barriers of geography, language,
history, and culture that place foreign suppliers at an inherent disadvantage
compared with domestic sources. While not removable by government decree,
these natural, political, and anthropological factors remain an important facet
of the problem. They sometimes represent an advantage for the import-as in the
case of Scotch whiskey and French perfume; but for most imported goods in the
American market, they represent a built-in, invisible tariff that is just as real
as a customs duty. Quality for quality, there must exist a definite price differ-
ential to overcome buyer resistance to a foreign source as compared with a
domestic source of supply. The reasons for the domestic preference vary widely;
but most of it is explained by greater difficulties in communication, delivery, and
service where imported goods are involved.
Governmental barriers are many and varied in character, from sanitary regu-
lations to internal taxes. This paper treats at length five that appear the most
important in the United States: quantitative restrictions, Buy-American policies,
marking requiremens, antidumping legislation, and customs practices.
ADMINISTRATIVE SWORDS or DAMOCLES
It is necessary to observe that, apart from the particular restrictions that
may be put into effect, there are statutory provisions for the upw-ard revision
of tariffs or the impostion of restrictions on the complaint of an affected Ameri-
can industry whose very existence has an inhibiting influence upon trade. These
administrative swords of Damocles are: the escape clause, the national security
clause, equalization of cost of production (Section 336 of the Tariff Act of
1930), and embargo for unfair acts (Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930
Section 336 and Section 337 are obsolete and should be repealed. Recent cases
have show-n that they retain considerable nuisance power. The national security
clause has actually been invoked by the President, only in the case of oil imports,
but the threat of its use is always there.
The obstacles to trade which have resulted from application of the escape
clause are perhaps less significant than the discouragement of potential trade
that results from the fear that it may be invoked. The possibility of abuse of
the escape clause has been somewhat diminished by the Trade Expansion Act
of 1962, since it is now explicit that, for the clause to be invoked, any increased
imports must be found to have a direct causal connection with previous tariff
concessions. Moreover, by providing alternative remedies of a domestic character
in the form of adjustment assistance. the 1962 Act has gone a long way tow-ard
recognition of the fact that some domestic readjustments from a general reduc-
tion of tariffs must be accepted. It is to be hoped that adjustment assistance will
eventually supersede import restrictions as the normal remedy for injury that
can be traced to tariff concessions.
NOTES
At the GATT meeting of May 21, 1963, the Ministers agreed that the trade negotiations
to start May 4, 1964, should "deal not only with tariffs but alsO with non-tariff barriers."
The Trade Negotiations Committee charged with elaborating the trade negotiation plan
was Instructed to consider:
"The rules to govern and the methods to be employed in the treatment of non-tariff
barriers, including inter alia discriminatory treatment applied to products of certain
countries and the means of assuring that the value of tariff reductions will not be im-
paired or nullified by non-tariff barriers." (GATT Press Release No. 794, May 29, 1963.)
The classic study of U.S. barriers is Percy Bidwell's THE INVISIBLE TARIFF pub-
lished in 1939. The outstanding recent study is INVISiBLE TRADE BARRIERS
BETWEEN CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES (1963) by Francis Masson and H.
Edward English, for the Canadian-American Committee, sponsored by the National Plan-
ning Association (USA.) and the Private Planning Association of Canada. That study
contains valuable background and statistics on applications of the U.S. escape clause.
arbitrary valuation, antidumping act, and marking requirements. It is long on facts but
tries not to draw policy conclusions. The present paper is not so inhibited.
The escape clause is now embodied in Sections 301(b) and 351 of the Trade Expansion
Act of 1962, 19 U.S.C.A. §~ 1901, 1981 (Supp. 1964) ; the national security clause in
Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, 19 U.S.C.A. I 1862 (Supp. 1964). Sec-
tions 336 and 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, 19 U.S.C.A. §~ 1336, 1337 (1960),
are not changed by the 1962 Act.
Section 336 is obsolete because it embodies the theory that tariffs should equalize costs
of production at home and abroad, which would stifle all trade in competitive products. It
has been inapplicable for twenty-nine years to articles that are the subject of trade
agreement concessions (Section 2(a) of Act of June 12, 1934; 19 U.S.C.A. 1352 (1960),
as amended 19 U.S.C.A. 1352 (Supp. 1964) and therefore can be applied to very few
products. However, in the case of Brooms Made of Broomcorn, Investigation No. 336-121,
January 17, 1962. the Tariff Commission found that the present duty does not equalize the
differences in costs of production and that, to do so to the fullest extent permissible under
PAGENO="0351"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 347
Section 336, it is necessary to apply the duty on the basis of the selling price of American-
made brooms. The President refused to do so, without further explanation, on the ground
that the Commission's report did not show need for the duty to be so applied. White House
announcement of February 15, 1963.
Section 337 is obsolete because it has been applied almost exclusively in patent cases.
for which it is peculiarly unsuitable, since the Tariff Commission cannot adjudicate the
validity of the patent or the issue of infringement. The Tariff Commission has repeatedly
requested repeal; and in 1962, the Supreme Court handed down a decision that casts
considerable doubt upon its constitutionality. Section 337 provides that the importer may
appeal on questions of law from the Tariff Commission to the Court of Customs and Patent
Appeals and that the mntter then goes to the President for decision. Glidden v. Zdanok,
370 U.S. 530 (1962), indicates that the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals may not
constitutionally render such an advisory opinion. Nevertheless, the Tariff Commission
considered another case in 1963: Folding Doors, Investigation No. 337-22, June 7, 1963
(dismissed).
The first seven petitions, five by workers and two by firms, under the Trade Readjust-
ment provisions of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, were turned down by the Tariff Com-
mission on various grounds, principally the lack of a causal connection between increased
imports and trade agreement concessions.
QUANTITATIVE RESTRICTIONS
The United States has never imposed quantitative limitations upon imports
in order to protect its balance of payments-the most common reason for such
restrictions in the post-war world. Rather, it has used import quotas as adjuncts
to agricultural policies and for protectionist reasons. They fall into four cate-
gories: absolute quotas, tariff quotas, quotas established by internatiosial agree-
ment, and foreign, so-called "voluntary" quotas on exports to tile United States.
The GATT forbids quantitative restrictions as a general principle but contains
elaborate exceptions for agricultural products under domestic controls, for
conservation of natural resources, and for restrictions imposed to safeguard the
balance of payments.
The inherent vice of all quotas, of course, is that they distort tile normal
patterns of trade and do not permit market forces to operate freely. In this
respect, they are worse than customs duties. A limit on the quantity of any
particular commodity that may come in either creates a chaotic struggle for
priority-distorting normal business decisions in the interest of participation
in the limited supply-or, like a cartel, involves some mechanism for allocation
of the quota among exporters or importers or both. The disturbance to trade
resulting from such restrictions can hardly be exaggerated. Because of them,
importers have been unable to gain access to a source of supply, have had to pay
premiums for quotas assigned to others, or have made. their purchases when they
were able to get the goods at the additional cost of higher prices or storage
charges to keep them until needed. These handicaps to importers have been re-
flected in damage to consumers, in terms either of higher prices or limted supply
or both.
U.S. a~sO~ute quotas
Absolute quotas are presently in effect by virtue of agricultural legislation
designed to set a high domestic price level for the following farm products and
to protect that price by limiting the quantity of imports: raw cotton and cotton
wastes, wheat and rye, cheese, butter substitutes, dried milk and cream, and
peanuts. In addition, under the Sugar Act, there is a quota on sugar imports.
By virtue of the national security clause and a Presidential finding that imports
of residual oil threaten the security of the United States, there are quotas on
petroleum and products; and under the escape clause, there are quotas on lead
and zinc.
A recent study by the United States-Japan Trade Council indicates that in the
years 1959-1961 these various quotas (including cotton textiles, discussed below)
affected approximately 14 per cent of all U.S. imports.
U.S. tariff quotas
Tariff quotas are higher tariffs on imports, which come into effect only after a
certain quantity has been reached. Like absolute quotas, they may be global or
country by country. They have aspects of both tariffs and quotas. If the post
"break-point" duty is prohibitive, they operate exactly like absolute quotas; if the
higher duty is one that can be surmounted, then they seriously distort the
patterns of trade and invite cartel-like controls.
U.S. tariff quotas are in effect on tuna canned in brine, ground flsll fillets (fresh
or frozen), cattle, potatoes, fresh butter, milk and cream, walnuts, and stainless
steel flatware.
PAGENO="0352"
348 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
InternaUonaZ agreements and voluntary quotas
There are three general types of so-called voluntary quotas imposed by the
exporting country. The fiist type results from an explicit international agreement,
such as the multilateral and bilateral agreements on cotton textiles. The second
is unilateral in form but results from diplomatic negotiations or other types of
pressures at the governmental level. The third is a]1so unilaterally imposed by the
exporting country, but as a result of an evaluation of the market situation in the
importing country and without any commitment with respect to the amount or
duration of the quota. It is estimated that from 30 to 40 per cent of Japan's
exports to the United States are subject to restrictions of these three types.
The international agreements by which other countries limit their exports
to the United States are the results of strong diplomatic pressures by the United
States. Where there is an international agreement, U.S. law provides also for
enforcement through U.S. import controls.
"The United States and Canada are forcing Japan to restrict exports volun-
tarily." This comment in the news columns of the Japan Times (September 22,
1963) speaks volumes. The pressur~s may be direct or subtle. Quotas have been
found expedient in Japan in some instances where extreme competition has led
to undesirable marketing practices, such as multiple offers of the ~ame product
of the same manufacturer by many different exporters or importers. It is rarely
possible, however, to distinguish such a motive from the fear of import
r~strictions.
It is not enough to say that most of these restrictions are made by Japan and
can be altered by Japan. As a matter of law, this is true; but it does not accurately
describe the relationship between the United States and Japan. The Japanese
have shown great sensitivity to U.S. views; and leading U.S. officials have
frequently praised and endorsed Japan's "self-restraint". In some cases, the
unilateral abrogation by Japan of self-imposed export restrictions would be
regarded here as breach of a moral obligation by Japan. It can be said with good
grace that such restrictious by Japan are truly voluntary only when the United
States Government ceases to endorse them and make clear that they are in-
consistent with fundamental U.S. trade policies.
It should be noted that Section 352 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 pro-
vides for the negotiation by the President of "orderly marketing agreements" a~s
one form of remedy, if the Tariff Commission has found that increased imports
resulting from tariff concessions have caused or are threatening seriou~s injury to
an American industry. This statutory provision obviously embodies a policy that
such agreements ~hould be negotiated only after such a finding has been made
by the Tariff Commission. Adherence to that policy will eliminate the political
pressures for extra-legal restrictions on imports imposed without impartial
scrutiny by any official U.S. fact-finding body. Such pressures are strong right
now in the fields of woolens and footwear.
NOTES
Agricultural quotas are based mainly on Section 22 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act
as amended, 7 IJ.S.C.A. § 624 (1952), as amended, 7 U.S.C.A § 624 (Supp. 1963). Sugar
quotas are based on the Sugar Act of 1948 as amended, 7 U.S.C.A. §~ 1150-60, as
amended, 7 U.S.C.A. §~ 1154-55, 1157-58, 1161 (Supp. 1963). The legislative authority for
U.S. enforcement of the Geneva Agreement on Cotton Textiles of. February 9, 1962, and
other cotton textile agreements is Section 204 of the Agricultural Act of 1956 as amended,
7 U.S.C.A. § 1854 (Supp. 1963), which applies even to countries~ not parties to the
agreement.
Citations to the national security clause and escape clause are in notes to introduction.
Some U.S. tariff quotas are negotiated duties under the Trade Agreements Act of 1934,
as amended. 19 ILS.C.A. § 1351 (1960).
An unpublished study of the U.S-Japan Trade Council of May 21, 1963, calculates the
percentage of actual U.S. imports which were subject to quantitative restrictions. In 1961,
14.3 per cent were under absolute quotas. 0.5 per cent under tariff quotas, and 1.5 per cent
under the Geneva cotton textile quotas. Of course, these figures do not reveal the restrictive
effect.
American Embassy, Tokyo, Dispatch No. 549 of December 26, 1961, listed forty-one
commodity greups that were under voluntary export controls to various destinations, all
but five to the United States.
BUY-AMERICAN POLICIES
Federal
The term "Buy-American" refers in its broadest seiise to purchasing practices
and consumer attitudes which favor American-made goo~s at the expense of or
to the exclusion of foreign-made goods. More specifically, the term refers to
PAGENO="0353"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 349
policies pursued by Federal, state, and local governments with respect to procure-
ment for their own use. Governmental Buy-American policies are based in part
upon chauvini1stic preferences, in part upon obsolete economic theory, in part
upon special concessions to favored industries, and in part upon genuine balance
of payments problems.
The Federal Buy-American Act became law during the last days of the Hoover
Administration. It was adopted during the depression a1s a means of assisting
depressed domestic industries and also, apparently, as a means of minimizing
potential German competition on Hoover Dam contracts for heavy electrical
equipment. Its usefuln~ss as an anti-depression measure proved to be illusory;
and the theory on which it was based (that we should have high tariffs to protect
and stimulate our own industries (has been overwhelmingly rejected, most
recently in the Trade Expansion Act of 1902.
The Buy-American Act applies to Government procurement of articles, ma-
terial1s, and supplies for public use within the United States and to contracts
growing out of appropriated funds for the construction, alteration, or repair of
public buildings or works within the United States. Since the Buy-American
statute itself is either vague or silent on practical questions which a procurement
officer must ask, it has been implemented through admini1stratively developed
percentage preferences and definitions of country of origin. The basic Executive
Order now in effect under this Act provides that a foreign bid can be accepted
only if 6 per cent below the lowest domestic bid. By administrative prac~tice,
another 6 per cent is added if the American supplier obtains his materials in an
area of labor surplus. The basic Executive Order also requires that some procure-
ment be reserved for U.S. small businesses. Finally, the Executive Order defines
items as foreign in origin when 50 per cent of the cost of their constituent
materials is foreign in origin.
By its terms, the Executive Order in question applies to "all executive depart-
ments, independent establishments, and other instrumentalities of the executive
branch of the government". However, for balance of payments reasons, the 1)e-
partment of Defense and the military services have virtually stopped buying
foreign-made goods in significant amounts. The Executive Order's percentage
requirements have been abandoned through exercise of "administrative discre-
tion" provisions of the Order.
The Buy-American Act does not apply to procurement of items or to con-
struction for use overseas. However, for balance of payments reasons, procure-
ment for such use overseas in the world market has been sharply curtailed since
1960 under presidential directives. For overseas use, the Department of Defense
usually applies a 50 per cent preference. The Agency for International Develop-
ment requires that its loans be used to buy American-made goods. AID. grant
money can be used for procurement outside the United States provided that the
items are bought in one of the nations receiving assistance and not in the princi-
pal industrial countries of the world.
In deference, in part, to the existence of the American law, the General Agree-
ment on Tariffs and Trade recognizes that governments may grant preferences
to domestic products in their purchases for governmental purposes. It is manifest,
however, that Buy-American governmental policies are simply a variety of
protectionism and are as unjustified as other varieties of protectionism. Govern-
mental purchases loom extremely large today in the United States: for roads,' for
schools, for defense, for postal communications, for research and countless other
things. In many other free countries, these governmental expenditures exteiid to
railroads, airlines, telephone, and telegraph systems and, in France, England and
Germany, for instance, to certain government-owned industries. Governmental
purchases are thus an important part of the world's commerce, and there is no
reason in principle to except them from non-discriminatory trading policies.
Buy-American laws are simply a special type of protectionism which is
justifiable only when applied with restraint in the interest of the nation's
balance of payments or security. The spurious, protectionist grounds are difficult
to exclude from policy-making and tend to lead to a much greater rigidity in the
application of Buy-American principles than is called for. Offshore procurement
apart, the dollar savings from the Federal Buy-American policies have been esti-
mated at less than $40 million a year, perhaps 1 per cent of the U.S. procure-
ment involved. Such savings must be weighed against the losses-the weakeiiing
of the U.S. bargaining position in trade matters vis-a-vis the rest of the world;
the absence of the spur of foreign competition to domestic quality and price; the
82-4S1-67-vol. I-23
PAGENO="0354"
350 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
distortion (particularly in foreign aid) of normal trade patterns; and of course,
the fact that the available funds can accomplish less. When these factors are
fully considered, no increase of the 6 to 12 per cent differential appears justified
for domestic U.S. procurement; and it is unlikely that the much larger clifferen-
tials for offshore procurement can be justified.
State and local
Apart from the Federal Goveimment, there is a vast, scarcely charted area of
Buy-American laws, regulations, and undeclared policies in the states and local
governments. There has never been a thorough study of the limitations on pur-
chase of foreign goods that prevail in this area. It seems clear that the relevant
policy consideration should be at most the same as apply to the Federal Govern-
ment. As a matter of law, a state may be constitutionally able to give preference
in its purchases to the domestic industries of that state. But, when it comes to
legislation and practices giving preference to American-made products as dis-
tinguished from imports, then the state is invading the area of regulation of
foreign commerce which is reserved by the Constitution to the Government of
the United States. There is no occasion for the states to enter this field; and if
national interests require, the Federal Government should take steps, legislatively
or administratively, to insure that state measures are compatible with the policy
of the Federal Government. Since most state programs of any magnitude involve
substantial Federal contributions, notably those for roads, this is not a difficult
thing to accomplish. Indeed, such an order was formulated by the Bureau of
Public Roads of the Department of Commerce several years ago but has never
been put into effect. It is time this order was revived and state policies made
conformable to the national policy.
Non-governmental
Non-government Buy-American policies-for instance, of large companies-
represent an even larger uncharted area than the policies of states and local
governments. Perhaps it can be assumed that the great American corporations,
which on the whole have supported a liberal U.S. trade policy in recent years,
apply the same liberal trade policy in their own purchase-but this is by no means
clear. Manufacturing companies frequently use foreign-made components, but
other purchasing areas appear to be relatively untouched by foreign competi-
tion-for instance, basic equipment of power companies and office supplies. There
is need for study as to how far such purchasing decisions reflect well-considered
corporate policies.
NOTES
The Buy-American Act is the Act of March 3, 1933, 41 U.S.C.A. 10a-d (1957). Differen-
tials and definitions are set forth In Executive Order No. 10582. 19 Fed. Reg. 8723 (:1954).
For the Department of Defense's practices, see Hearings on the Impact of Military Supply
and Service Activities on the Economy Before the Subcommittee on Defense Procurement
of the Joint Economic Committee, 88th Cong., 1st Sess., 356-60 (1963). For offshore pro-
curement under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, see Section 604 (a), 22 U.S.C.A.
2354(a) (Supp. 1963). and Presidential Memorandum of October 18, 1961, 26 Fed. Reg.
10543, and Presidential Memorandum of August 1, 1962, 27 Fed. Reg. 7603. For DOD Regu-
lations on procurement of supplies, see 32 CFR Sec. 6.100-105 (1961) ; special provisions
excepting Canadian goods are set out at 32 CFR Sec. 6.103-5 and Sec. 6.103-5 (1961)
(Supp. 1963) ; for DOD regulations on construction, see 32 CFR Sec. 6.200-206 (1961).
For the General Services Administration Buy-American regulations on supplies, see 41
CFR Sec. 7.101-14, 9-7.5004-16 (1963) ; on construction, 41 CFR Sees. 1-6.200-206,
9-7.5004-17 (1963).
Various pieces of miscellaneous legislation supplement the Buy-American Act. Thus,
Federal funds made available to state, county, municipal, or other agencies for low rent
hcusing are subject to the Buy-American Act's restrictions. 42 U.S.C.A. § 1406(c) (1957).
The Berry Amendment, an annual rider to the Department of Defense's Appropriation Acts,
directs the armed services to buy "no articles of food, clothing, cotton, woven silk or woven
silk blends, spun silk yarn for cartridge cloth, or wool" unless the item is grown, reproc-
essed, reused, or produced in the United States, subject to certain exceptions. Eg., Sec. 523
of the Department of Defense's Appropriations Act. 1963, 76 Stat. 318, 332 (1962) 32
CFR Sec. 6.300-305 (1961). Several pieces of legislation establish Buy-American restric-
tions on shipping of Government or military supplies, and the shipment of U.S. agricultural
or other products by an instrumentality of the Government. 15 U.S.C.A. § 616a (1963)
(shipments of agricultural products financed by Government on United States vessels)
46 U.S.C.A. § 1241(a) (1958) (transportation of U.S. Government personnel on American
vessels) 46 U.S.C.A. § 1241(b) (Supp. 1963) (provisions with respect to shipment of
cargoes procured, furnished, or financed by the United States Government; 10 U.S.C.A.
§ 2631 (1959) (preference for United States vessels in transportation by sea if supplies
bought for Army, Navy, Air Force or Marine Corps). Since 1844, American goods have been
preferred In purchases for the Senate and House of Representatives. 2 U.S.C.A. § 109
(1927). The Buy-American Act applies to purchases of strategic and critical materials for
stockpile purposes. 50 U.S.C-A-. § 9Sb (a) (1951). The Buy-American restriction, however,
does not apply to purchase of stockpile materials with funds raised under the Agricultural
Trade Development and Assistance Act, 7 U.S.C.A. § 1704(b) (Supp. 1963).
PAGENO="0355"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 351
The War and Navy Departments and the U.S. Maritime Commission were exempted
from the provisions of the Buy-American Act shortly after the declaration of the Second
World War. Executive Order 9001, 6 Fed. Reg. 6787 (1941). The President Is empowered
by law to authorize any department or agency exercising functions connected, with the
national defense to dispense with other provisions of law (eg., the Buy-American Act)
when he deems that such action would assist the national defense. National Defense Con-
tracts Act, 50 U.S.C.A. § 1431 (Supp. 1963).
For a general review of procurement under the Federal Buy-American Act, see Van
Cleve, The Use of Federal Procurement to Achieve National Goals, 1961 WIS. L. REV. 566,
577-92; Knapp, Buy-American Act: A Review and Assessment, 61 COLTJM. L. REV. 430
(1961) ; Gantt and Speck, Domestic v. Foreign Trade Problems in Federal Government
Contracting: Buy-American Act and Executive Order, J. PUB. L. 378 (1958). See also
Note, National Power to Control State Discrimination Against Foreign Goods and Persons:
A Study in Federalism, 12 STAN. L. REV. 355 (1960).
A 1959 survey by the Council of State Governments reveals that fifteen states-Includ-
ing California, Inuiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Ohio and Pennsylvania-had restric-
tions against purchase of foreign-made goods by public agencies. A 1961 survey by the
Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Utah showed that nine-
teen states had established preferences for goods originating in the state.
The Attorney General of California has ruled that California Buy-American laws are
inapplicable to the purchase of Swiss turbine generator units by the city of Los Angeles
because such exclusion of foreign goods is contrary to the National Treatment Clause
of the Trade Agreement with Switzerland read in the light of GATT. The GATT provision
making the national treatment clause inapplicable to governmental purchases (GATT,
Pt. II, Art. III, Paras. 5, 8(a)) was found to be inapplicable because this purchase was
for "use in the production of goods for sale." Calif. Atty. Gen. Op. No. 59/164 (1959)
Calif. Atty. Gen. Op. No. 60/141 (1960). The California Superior Court for the City of
San Francisco held that the California Buy-American Act cannot be applied in connection
with power equipment procurement by the city of San Francisco because of the National
Treatment Clause of GATT and because of the National Treatment Provision in the Treaty
of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation with Japan. Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton Corp. v.
Superior Court, 208 Cal. Ap. 2nd 803, 25 Cal. Rep. 798 (1962).
The Texas Supreme Court has held an order of the Texas Highway Commission
requiring use of U.S. made steel in the construction and maintenance of the Texas high-
way system to be contrary to the Texas Competitive Bidding Law and without legal justi-
fication. Texas Association of Steel Importers v. Texas Highway Commission, Docket No.
A-9515, Supreme Court of Texas, November 6, 1963, rehearing denied, December 11, 1963.
COUNTRY-OF-ORIGIN MARKING
At the individual level, the right to indulge a whim or prejudice-for or against
the import-ought to be protected. But there is an important question as to how
far importers or distributors should be required by law to insure that the
purchaser cannot overlook the country of origin, thus encouraging whatever
prejudices he may harbor. Under the U.S. customs laws, the country of origin
of imported goods must be legibly marked, where this is practical. The fact that,
for some products and some markets, obstrusive marking is a serious commercial
handicap makes the marking requirement a definite trade obstacle. Cases may be
cited where an importer has abandoned a line of goods because the prominence de-
manded by customs for the country-of-origin mark made them usaleable.
After customs has been satisfied, the importer or distributor can still run
afoul of the Federal Trade Commission, which. has construed its mandate to pur-
sue deceptive practices as requiring it practically to insure that the purchaser
knows the goods are imported. This is based on the unchanging assumption that
there is a preference for domestic goods-which, of course, may or may not be
true in a given situation- and that, unless otherwise noted, the customer will
assume all goods to be of American origin.
That the customer should know the truth appears at first blush unchallengeably
right and good; but there is an important distinction to be made between legible
and obtrusive. The distinction is illustrated by the ingredients of candy as stated
on the wrapper, which is there for those who look, and the label "poison" which
is too prominent to overlook. There is no national policy requiring that the cus-
tomer know the national origin before he buys; there is simply a public interest
that the facts be available if he cares. Questions of public health apart, the basic
premise of laws protecting the consumer's right to choose is that he cares to
choose. Public policy favors unfettered international trade, but there lurk in
the background passions and prejudices which often influence actions without
rising to the level of considered decisions.
History shows-most recently in the case of the vetoed Canadian lumber-
marking bill-that country-of-origin marking can be a potent tool for protection-
ism. This is not always true, of course. For many products and many consumers,
it is helpful. However, the marking problem, by definition, arises only in those
few market sectors where the country of origin is regarded in the trade as a bad
sign. If the distributor thinks it is good or neutral, he is glad to feature it. In
addition to questions of consumer attitudes, the actual marking required is fre-
quently onerus and expensive.
PAGENO="0356"
352 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
Where the problem arises, it is important that country-of-origin marking be
narrowly confined to the genuine public policy that is served.
NOTES
The basic country-of-origin marking law is Section 304 of the Tariff Act of 1930 as
amended, 19 U.S.C.A. § 1304 (1960)
every article of foreign origin . . . imported into the United States shall
be marked in a conspicuous place as legibly, indelibly, and permanently as the
nature of the article (or container) will permit in such manner as to indicate to
ultimate purchaser in the United States the English name of the country of
origin of the article
The Secretary of the Treasury is given wide powers to determine the precise marking
and to grant exceptions. There are specific statutory requirements for timekeeping mech-
anisms. The regulations and exceptions are summarized in a pamphlet published by the
Bureau of Customs, Exporting to the United. States, at pages 33-37. Marking require-
ments and decisions of the Customs Bureau are collected in another Customs publication,
CIE 1600/59 Digest of Decisions for the Marking of imports.
Acting under Section 5, the Federal Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S. Code, Section 45,
the Federal Trade Commission has required country-of-origin marking in cases where
Customs did not so require and has even required that it be shown on display cards as
well as the merchandise itself. In the Matter of Baldwin Bracelet Corp., Docket 8316
(1962), appeal pending.
By virtue of a 1938 trade agreement with Canada, TD 49690, lumber is unmarked. On
December 31, 1963, President Johnson announced that he was vetoing H.R. 2513, a bill
urged by the U.S. lumber industry, which among other things would have required that
lumber be stamped with the country of origin.
ANTIDUMPING LEGIsLATIoN
United States law, in common with that of many other trading countries and in
common with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, forbids the sale of
imported goods in the American market at prices lower, after appropriate ad-
justments, than the prices in the domestic markets of the supplying country,
where the effect is to injure an American industry. There exists a wide consensus
that such practices are undesirable; but beneath this apparent simplicity, there
lurk many difficult questions, both conceptually and administratively. There
arises, in fact, a serious conflict between a justifiable objective and the accom-
plishment of that objective without undue interference with normal commerce.
The law actually refers to sales at less than fair value, which is interpreted
to mean at prices lower than prices in the domestic market or, if such sales are
insubstantial, than prices for third country sales or, failing such data, than cost
of production. This determination was once characterized as purely a matter of
arithmetic; but elaborate regulations have been developed for the determination
of what adjustments are to be allowed and what are not to be allowed. The de-
terminated of whether sales are below fair value has, therefor, become a com-
plex exercise involving many questions of judgment.
It has always been recognized that different prices for one market as against
another are not necessarily to be condemned and that there may well be good
economic and business reasons for them. Hence, the United States, along with
GATT and most trading nations, applies some further test of injury; and this
requires an examination of what actually happens in the market place and the
reasons for it. This determination of injury was formerly made by the Treasury
Department along with the determination of fair value; but since 1954, the
question of injury has been passed upon by the Tariff Commission if the Treasury
Department has found sales below fair value.
The cases decided by the Tariff Commission have been without elaborate dis-
cussion and have defied any rationalization. They may all be consistent with one
another, but it is difficult to tell from the facts and reasons given. Recently, in
the case of Titanium Dioxide from France, a step has been taken toward a con-
sistent exposition of a doctrine of injury. This decision held that the injury con-
templated by the Act must be material. It also indicated that the intent must
be predatory: "unfair competition" in the sense of the Federal Trade Commis-
sion Act. What this means in concrete situations remains to be developed as the
cases arise. It would appear, however, that a defense would be allowed that a
lower price was necessary to meet competition-a defense which is permissible
in domestic price-determination cases under the United States Robinson-Patman
Act. It is hoped that the Tariff Commission will reexamine, if it should become
necessary, its decisions in some earlier cases finding injury to an entire United
States industry because of a purely regional impact on a few producers.
PAGENO="0357"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 353
In the period January 1, 1955, to November 1, 1963, Treasury acted on 282
dumping complaints. In six cases, dumping duties were assessed. Of the other 276,
sixty-two were terminated because the supplier voluntarily adjusted his prices;.
in 187, absence of price discrimination was found; and 27 cases, there was absence
of injury. Thus, there were results favorable to complainants in 68 cases out of
282-or about one-fourth---although the price adjustments did not all result
from the dumping complaints. However, appraisement was withheld in many
more than a quarter of the cases, with considerable injury to the imports.
In fact, the great threat to the import trade from the Antidumping Act comes
not so much from findings of injury and the consequent imposition of dumping
duties since these actions have actually been infrequent, as from the withholding
of appraisement when Treasury finds a suspicion of dumping. Withholding of
appraisement means simply that the importers cannot know for an indefinite
period what duties will be assessed and have great difficulty in completing their
sales and entering into new contracts without undue risks. There are times when
it simply puts a stop to all business. The evil is compounded by the fact that
under the law the dumping duty, when assessed, is retroactive to entries 120
days prior to the date of the complaint In actual fact, the Treasury Department
has in recent years usually required more than a faint suspicion of dumping
before withholding appraisement. Nevertheless, the record shows that in the great
majority of cases where appraisement is withheld, in the end there is no assess-
`ment of dumping duties. The withholding of appraisement is itself a severe sanc-
tion that should be imposed oniy where the evidence strongly indicates sales at
less than the home market price and that, under the principles and precedents
laid down by the Tariff Commission, injury to an American industry is resulting.
Legislation is pending in the Congress, at the instance of United States steel,
cement, and other industries, that would put a highly protectionist stamp on the
Antidumping Act. Presented in the guise of plausible measures to improve
procedures and close loopholes, the proposed amendments would give the United
States industry access to the confidential data of the foreign supplier and give
it virtually unlimited opportunities for harassment and delay, through withhold-
ing of appraisements and court proceedings. Fortunately, the Federal executive
agencies are opposed to the bills and hearings, if held, will disclose the bias of
the proposed changes.
If changes are to be made in the Antidumping Act, they should be in the
other direction. For instance, the retroactive provision, found in the laws of only
one other country, applying dumping duties to entries within one hundred twenty
days before the complaint should `be abolished; and the President should be
given the right to veto or modify dumping findings in the United States nationaL
interest. Other desirable steps can probably be effected by the Treasury Depart--
ment and the Tariff Commission through changes in regulations or practice:
permit the exporter to reimburse the importer for the dumping duty; permit
inclusion of deductions for selling and advertising costs in determining home
market expenses; define the United States industry affected as nationwide, at
least so long a~ dumping duties are nationwide.
NOTss
The U.S. law is the Antidumping Act of 1924 as amended, 19 U.S.C.A. §~ 100-173 (1960).
The GATT provision is Article VI, which recognizes that imports at "less than the
normal value" are to be condemned if they cause or threaten "material injury" or mate-
rially retard the establishment of a domestic industry and which defines normal value in
terms of the home market price.
The fullest statement of actual practice under the Antidumping Act is in Background
Material for Remarks To Be Made at Georgetown University Law Center Forum, November
8, 1963, on the Antsdumping Act, by James Pomeroy Hendrick, Deputy Assistant Secretary
of the Treasury. See also Masson and English, Supra, at 44; legislative history of the 1921
Act and 1954 and 1958 amendments; Viner, Dumping: A Problem in International Trade
(1923) Ehrenhaft, Protection Against International Price Discrimination, 58 COLUM. L.
REV. 44 (1958) ; Kohn. The Anticlumping Act, 60 MICH. L. REV. 407 (1962) Hendrick,
The Future of the Antidumping Act, address before the National Council of American'
Importers, May 22, 1963.
The case of Titanium Dioride from France is P. C. Publication 109, September 24, 1963.
The California soil pipe decision was Cast Iron Soil Pipe from the United Kingdom, October
26, 1955; see T.D. 53934.
The pending amendments referred to are contained in the Humphrey-Scott bill (5. 1318),
Walter bill (H.R. .5692), and similar bills, sponsored at this writing by twenty-seven
Senators and forty-eight Congressmen. A number of these bills, H.R. 6033, 0116, 6214, and
6517, would grant relief not only if an industry was injured but also if "the sales of a
product of a member of such industry" were injured. The Humphrey-Walter bills would
not affect the definitions of "injury" and "industry", but S. 2241 (Senators' Allott and
Dominick) would provide a conclusive presumption of injury if the imports complained of
PAGENO="0358"
354 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
were more than 10 per cent and less than 90 per cent of domestic production. The Pillion
bill (HR. 7362) is unique. It would make labor a party before the Tariff Commissiou and
shift the burden of proof to the importer.
The United States-Japan Trade Council distributed a critical analysis dated July 9,
1963, of S. 1318. H.R. 5692. and similar bills. Copies are available upon request.
On January 23. 1964 the Treasury Department conducted hearings to hear proposals for
changes in the regulations under the Antidumping Act.
CUSTOMS PRAC~IOES
Suppose that, in the internal trade of the United States, rail freight rates
were rarely known for certain in advance of shipment and that many months later
shippers were met with demands for payments greatly exceeding deposits made
in good faith at the time of shipment. Were this the case, there would be an
obviously intolerable burden on commerce.
Nevertheless, this is a fair description of the kind of burden that international
commerce has to bear. A tremendous uncertainty hanges over the amount of
customs duties that must be paid on goods imported into the United States,
despite the Customs Simplification Acts of 1938, 1953, 1954, and 1956 and many
additional steps taken by the Customs Service itself to improve matters. A survey
of possible improvements is being made by the Bureau right now.
A substantial part of the problem lies in the unnecessary complexity of the
system and the administrative steps that are required to clear goods through
customs and resolve doubtful questions. A few illustrations will suffice. Most of
the U.S. duties are ad valorem and have two parts: the rate and the valuation.
Applying one to the other yields the duty. Selecting the applicable rate of duty
is called classification. The key man in the determination of duties is the
examiner at the port, who, under the supervision of the appraiser, makes an
advisory classification and determines value. But, if the importer wishes to
challenge the value, he has one set of procedures prior to "liquidation", the word
used for the final determination of the duty by the Collector. If he wishes to
challenge classification he has a different set of procedures, after liquidation.
The collector and the appraiser are independent officials with separate staffs
and, in New York, the principal port of entry, are in buildings two miles apart.
Legally, the collectors and appraisers at the various ports are also quite
independent of the Customs Bureau in Washington. Practically, however, steps
have been taken to try to make this archaic system work; and there is an elab-
orate network of communications and advice flowing between the ports and
the Bureau and among the ports themselves. This actual system is not fully
described in the regulations or any document available to the general public.
The people who understand how this system works have become so used to it
that they scarcely notice how outlandish it is. It is high time that collectors
and appraisers a the various ports were merged, under centralized control of the
Bureau, and review procedures combined into a single method of challenging
a duty, whatever the reason.
Problems of classification have been somewhat eased by the entry into force
on August 30, 1963, of the revised Tariff Schedules of the United States, prepared
by the Tariff Commission pursuant to the mandate of the Customs Simplification
Act of 1954. The new schedules eliminate many anomalies (such as the charging
of duty on synthetic rubber automobile tires as articles in part of carbon because
they contain more than 2 per cent carbon) and introduce a greater certainty and
ease in the determination of the applicable rates. Temporarily, of course, there
are many new questions of interpretation and some untoward results that call for
legislative authority to correct.
While the new schedules represent a big accomplishment, they have only
scratched the surface of simplification of the U.S. tariff schedules, which remain
an incredible thicket. There is still no sense whatever to the proliferation of
commodity descriptions and rates. There are reasons, of course, how they got
the way they are, but few if any of those reasons are valid reasons today, if they
ever were. Protectionists and liberal traders alike have to take responsibility for
the present maze-almost every item and rate represents a victory for one or the
other in some historic battle or forgotten skirmish. The inriff paragraphs as
enacted (most recently in 1930) reflect the notorious log-rolling of the tariff
acts, creating a hodge-podge of product descriptions and rates. The 1930 Act is
simplicity itself, however. compared with the descriptions and rates that result
from a series of presidential proclamations-some under the flexible tariff, escape
clause etc., but mostly implementing duty reductions on specific commodities
under the trade agreements acts.
PAGENO="0359"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 355
* In the 1963 revision the Tariff Commission was greatly limited by the Congres-
sional injunction not to change rates of duty. What is needed is a thorough revi-
sion that does change rates of duty where this is necessary to drastically reduce
the number of categories. To take just one example, there should be one rate for
footwear instead of the 20 items found in the new schedules, which is a reduction
of only 4 from the old.
The Trade Expansion Act of 1962 represents an important break away from
product-by-product negotiations of tariff reductions, but it does not establish
the means for further simplification of the schedules. For this, a new legislative
approach is required, inspired by the bold thinking of the Trade Expansion Act
of 1962 rather than the timidity of the 1954 Act that authorized the new sched-
ules. Perhaps reciprocal reductions through international negotiations can be
combined with further reduction of dutiable categories. In any case it is necessary
to recognize that we reduce and simplify tariffs mainly because of the U.S.
national interest in an unrestricted flow of Imports. The process of simplification
of schedules should not be shackled by fear of changing existing rates, nor the
process of rate reductions by failure to obtain exactly equal concessions from
other countries.
Many of the uncertainties and vexations in the process of customs administra-
tion reside in valuation. In the long run, of course, the best cure is the enlarge-
ment of the list of articles that enter free of duty through the exercise of the
bargaining authority granted in the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. In the short
run, attention must be given to improvements of procedure and the introduction
of certain overdue substantive reforms.
These are: (1) the elimination of the American Selling Price (ASP) basis for
valuation of certain products and (2) the elimination of the so-called "final list"
of products to which the new valuation procedures of the Customs Simplification
Act of 1956 do not apply. The first reform was recommended to the Congress by
the Administration in 1950 but was thereafter abandoned because of protectionist
opposition. The need for the second arises from a compromise made in Congress
when the Customs Simplification Act of 1956 was finally enacted after many
years of deliberation-a compromise which, instead of simplifying valuation,
saddled the trade with two parallel systems.
American selling price valuation
A favorite objective of American protectionists for many years was the estab-
lishment as a basis for valuation not the value of the imported articles themselves
but the value of like or similar domestic products. Since imports are normally
cheaper, the "American valuation" would normally be higher. By increasing the
valuatiOn, protection could be achieved just as effectively as by increasing the
rate of duty and much less obviously. So-called "American valuation" was de-
cisively rejected by the Congress in 1922 after an elaborate investigation of how
it would actually work. However, pieces of the system were adopted at that time
in consequence of the concern over competition that might come from the re-
vived German chemical industry.
American selling price valuation was incorporated in two provisions of law.
The selling prices of competitive American-made articles were made the basis
for valuation in the case of coal tar chemicals; and authority was given to the
Tariff Commission and the President to put American selling price valuation
into effect under certain circumstances under the so-called flexible tariff. The
flexible tariff was first enacted in 1922 and is presently found in the virtually
obsolete Section 336 of the Tariff Act of 1930 which empowers the Tariff Com-
mission to investigate costs of production at home and abroad and to recommend
to the President rates of duty designed to equalize such costs. If an increase in
the rate by 50 percent will not accomplish such equalization, then the President
is to establish the American selling price as the basis for valuation rather than
the normal value.
This American selling price provision was invoked five times under the 1922
Act; but these special valuations were abolished when the Tariff Act of 1930 was
adopted. There have been three cases under Section 336 of the Tariff Act of 1930;
these ASP bases for valuation remain in effect. They apply to rubber footwear,
canned clams, and certain wool knit gloves of an obsolete value bracket. There are
significant imports of canned clams, and the rubber footwear has become quite
important. The amount of rubber footwear and of coal tar chemicals to which
American selling price valuation has been applied are about equal-around
$20-25 million each; but of course, this does not indicate the quantities excluded.
PAGENO="0360"
356 THE FUT1JRE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
In recent years, the vexations for the customs service and the trade attendant
upon the enforcement of the American selling price valuation have probably
equalled those caused by any other single problem in tariff administration.
To grasp the inequity of this method of valuation, it is necessary to go back
to first principles. The only reasonable basis for valuing imports is their actual
transaction value, which is normally reflected in the invoice. This is the only true
value that the importer knows. and it is the only realistic value. The Customs
Service of the United States has long recognized this, and the vast majority
of all import valuations are actually based on the invoices. It has been thought
necessary, however, to have some kind of theoretical value which will give the
appraiser the right to reject an entered value that seems out of line without
having to prove that it was not the actual transactionvalue. This is the reason
that actual transaction value is not used in principle in customs administration,
although the method adopted permits the customs service to use actual transac-
tion value most of the time.
However, when resort is had, not to the value of the imported article, but to
the value of some American-made product that is "like", "similar", or "competi-
tive" of which the importer has no knowledge, then the results are highly arbi-
trary and unfair. In many cases, the duty is increased by five or six times over
what it would be on the transaction value; and moreover, great uncertainties are
introduced. It is even possible for the basis of valuation to change between the
time the order is placed and the time of shipment, through circumstances of
which the importer has no knowledge or control. This method of valuation is
contrary to basic principle as set forth in the General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade, which provides that the value of imported merchandise for customs pur-
poses should be based on the actual value of the imported merchandise on which
duty is assessed and not on the value of merchandise of national origin or on
arbitrary or fictitious values.
It is high time the American selling price method of valuation was removed
from U.S. customs practice and products subject thereto valued on the same basis
as other items in the schedules. This can be done by legislation or through trade
negotiations under the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.
The final list
One of the cardinal reforms of the Customs Simplification Act of 1956, orig-
inally proposed by the Administration in 1950, was the abolition of "foreign
value" and the establishment of "export value" as the first and principal basis
for customs valuation. Foreign value is the value of such or similar goods sold
in the home market. Export value is the value of such or similar goods sold for
export to the United States. The same law made important changes in the value
definitions to permit Customs to select realistic prices at which most goods were
actually moving in commerce. The basic language-"freely offered to all pur-
chasers in the usual wholesale quantities in the usual course of trade"-had
become so restricted by court decisions that it often required the selection of
transactions at which few goods moved.
Under protectionist pressures, the Senate Finance Committee balked at adopt-
ing the new standards until Treasury came up with a compromise to except
articles whose duties would be affected by 5 per cent or more. The bill aimed at
customs simplification thus ended up by producing two parallel systems of
valuation (Section 402 and 402a of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended). The
Treasury proposal was intended to be temporary; but somehow in the shuffle
of legislation, the final list of articles not subject to the new standards became
firmly imbedded where only another act of Congress is likely to dislodge it.
It is estimated that less than 15 per cent of dutiable imports fall within the
"final list"; and of these, many are actually valued upon the invoices, whether
denominated foreign value or export value. However, the new definitions, which
cannot be applied to articles on the "final list", are of critical importance. In-
terestingly, these definitions are important for many of the articles subject to
American selling price valuation. It was the opposition of the American chemical
industry that caused the Congress to create exceptions in approving the Customs
Simplication Act of 1956; and this opposition was based largely upon the new
definition of "freely sold" as applied to the American selling prices of coal tar
chemicals. The inequity of ASP valuation is thus compounded by the inability
of the Customs Service, as it construes the law, to select the most realistic
American transactions as the basis for valuation.
PAGENO="0361"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 357
Examination of the actual workings of the final list will certainly reveal that
it gives very little protection to American industry except where it leads to
unconscionably unrealistic valuations. The basic concept adopted by the Con~
gress, in refusing to apply the Customs Simplification Act of 1956 where it
would lead to lower duties by more than 5 per cent, was erroneous because it
assumed that American industry was somehow entitled to the precise level of
protection that was then in effect. The. protection actually afforded came about
accidentally rather than by design. If there is any basis to the claim for such
protection, then it is the rate itself that should be adjusted and defended.
Both ASP valuation and the "final list" are under attack by America's trading
partners. The impending negotiations offer a splendid opportunity to rectify
these arbitrary methods of valuation not only in the interest of successful nego-
tiation but also in the interest Of U.S. import trade.
CONCLUSION
Problems in international trade are inevitable as long as we have separate
economies, languages, legal systems, currencies, balance of payments problems-
in short, separate sovereignties. But trade is the life blood through which greater
freedom and well-being can be achieved for all peoples. The barriers are being
broken down through a multitude of efforts and international arrangements. It
is hoped that this paper may make a contribution to an understanding of some
of the U.S. barriers that require attention.
NOTES
The valuation provisions of the Tariff Act are §~ 402 and 402a,, 19 U.S. Code §1 1401a
and 1402. They are conveniently reprinted with explanations in a pamphlet published by
the National Council of American importers, United States Customs Valuation Procedure,
which also contains the "Final List" (T.D. 54521). Valuation invoicing etc. are explained
in the Customs publication, Exporting to the United States, cited above, and the Final List
is set forth here also. For historical background, prior to 1956, see H. Elbertoa Smith,
Customs Valuation in the United States (19.48).
The legislative history of American selling price valuation and other details are set
forth at length in an address by Noel Hemmendinger before the National Council of
American Importers, The Need for a New Customs Simplification Act, February 7, 1963.
Copies are available from the United States-Japan Trade Council.
The elimination of American selling price duties by converting to the equivalent duties
on the usual valuation basis was proposed by the Administration in HR. 1.535, 82nd Cong.,
1st Seas., See Ways & Means Committee Hearings, Simplification of Customs Administra-
tion, August-September 1951.
It is believed that the President is authorized to negotiate the elimination of ASP
valuation and perhaps also the "Final List" under the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. The
relevant sections are 2O1~(a) (2),, authorizing modification, of "any existing duty or other
import restriction"; Section 405(2) defining "duty or other import restriction" to include
"(A) the rate and form of an import duty, and (B) a limitation, prohibition, charge, and
exaction other than duty, imposed on importation or imposed for the regulation of im-
ports," and Section 405(6) providing: "The term `modification', as, applied to any duty or
other import restriction, includes the elimination of any duty." Without question, the
President would have power to convert the present duties to specific duties in the course of
trade negotiations, staying within the limitation that rates not be reduced below 50 per
cent of the July 1, 1962 rate. Presumably, this would require as an initial step the conver-
sion of present duties to average specific equivalents.
Imports of coal tar chemicals that actually were assessed on the American selling price
of competitive American, products had a foreign value of about $18 million in 1962.. Imports
or Coal-tar Products, 19 dl, U.S. Tariff Coin~nission Publication 98.
FOB values of imports of rubber footwear in 19.62 paying ASP duties are estimated by
the writer at about $2.5 million (based on U.S. Census Bureau, FT 110, Nos. 2031010, and
2032,100). Many other items of footwear have not actually incurred ASP duties, largely
because there is no like or similar American product. Imports of canned clams paying ASP
were valued in 1962 at about $860,000 (FT 110, No. 0081500).
A sampling by, the Customs Bureau ia 1960 showed about 17 per cent of import ship-
ments to be "final list" Items (see Masson and English., p. 7)~; but the Bureau advises that
this contained an unusually high number of automotive parts paying duty on the basis of
foreign value. ASP items we're statistically negligible. This shows the limitations of statis-
tics for determining problem areas.
(The following was included at the request of Chairman Boggs:)
NATIONAL CHAMBER CALL5 FOR NEW FLEXIBILITY TO "MOST-FAvOREDNATION"
WORLD TRADE PRINCIPLE ` ` ` `:
wAsHINGToN, July 9.-The Chamber of Commerce of the United States today
called for continued adherence to the "most-favored-nation" principle in world
trade, but said there should be added the element of flexibility to permit limited
departures from the principle "in the interest of developing more world trade."
PAGENO="0362"
358 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
The position was outlined in a major statement on post-Kennedy Round U.S.
foreign trade policy approved by the National Chamber Board of Directors.
Specifically, the Chamber statement said that "in certain circumstances trade
may be promoted more effectively through limited departures such as temporary
tariff preferences sanctioned in connection with the establishment of common
markets . . . or extended by industrialized nations to the exports of developing
countries."
The statement endorsed expansion of developing countries' exports, careful
consideration of qualified extension of trade preferences by the industrialized
countries to the exports of developing nations, and the integration of national
economies into nonprotectionist regional markets.
At the same time, the Chamber called for increased protection and stability for
private foreign investment in theless-developed countries.
The statement urged a two-year extension of the unused "residual" (post-
Kennedy Round) authority of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act, without additional
authority to further reduce tariffs. It endorsed continuation of the escape-clause
provision of the present law, and liberalization of trade adjustment assistance
to firms injured by imports. The statement recommended a high-level joint busi-
ness-government study of long-range U.S. foreign trade policy.
The Chamber Board also approved a study to identify and propose ways to
eliminate nontariff barriers to trade (special taxes, quotas, licenses and other
restrictions on imports).
FOREIGN TRADE POLICY STATEMENT, CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES,
Jui~ 30, 1967
1. PROSPECTIvE FOREIGN TRADE POLICY LEGISLATION
Principles
That adherence to the most-favored-nation principle continue to be the basic
tenet of international trading relationship, allowing support of the concept of
regional economic integration, consistent with continued efforts to develop and
expand the world economy; but the adherence to the most-favored-nation prin-
ciple of nondiscrimination be flexible to the extent that departures from the
principle may be permitted in the interest of developing more world trade.
Proposals
1. That residual authority of the Trade Expansion Act be extended for a
period of two years with the extention to include the following essential
provisions:
(a) That no major round of tariff negotiating be undertaken during this
period and that prior to additional negotiating authority there shall occur an
interim study of the results of the Kennedy Round negoiations, an examination
of appropriate negotiating techniques, and an assessment of remaining trade
barriers-both tariff and nontariff.
(b) That Congress authorize appointment of a high-level joint U.S. Govern-
ment-Business Commission to study long-range U.S. foreign trade policy in an
international context.
(c) Continue the Trade Adjustment Assistance and Escape Clause provisions
of the Trade Expansion Act, liberalizing the criteria for Trade Adjustment
Assistance to firms and workers to make them consistent with similar authority
under the Canada-U.S. Automotive Products Trade Act of 1965.
2. That these recommendations be adopted with the greatest urgency possible
so that work may go forward by all appropriate bodies in ascertaining the most
desirable foreign trade policy for the United States in an ever-increasingly
interdependent world economy.
2. TRADE WITH LESS-DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
While it continues to be advisable to advance most-favored-nation tariff treat-
ment as a general principle of United States foreign trade policy, in certain cir-
cumstances trade may be promoted more effectively through limited departures
such as temporary tariff preferences sanctioned in connection with the estab-
lishment of common markets or other economic groupings of states or extended by
industrialized nations to the exports of developing countries.
PAGENO="0363"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 359
As a means of advancing trade with the developing countries and thereby
promoting their economic development, the National Chamber favors:
1. The encouragement, by all reasonable means, of the expansion of developing
countries' exports to enable them to take their place among the trading nations
of the world.
2. The integration of national economies, through arrangements which will
promote trade both among the participating nations and with other nations as it
becomes economically advantageous. These arrangements should avoid perpetu-
ating protection of noncompetitive enterprises and should seek the maximum
degree of unrestricted trade.
3. Careful consideration and analysis of proposals for the extension of tempo-
rary tariff preferences to exports of developing countries. Such extension by the
United States should be in concert with other industrialized nations, whereby
such nationals would share in granting preferences on a basis of equality to
developing countries. Such preferences should be periodically reviewed to deter-
mine their continuance. These preferences would be most effective in collabora-
tion with increased foreign private investment. The preferences should be in
cQnnectiOn with understandings and agreements, participated in by the develop-
ing countries to provide protection and stability for such investment under prin-
ciples of international law. These understandings and agreements should include
the usual stipulations as to performance of contractual obligations relating to
foreign investment.
8. NONTAIIIFF BARRIERS
Calls for the "greatest possible relaxation of discriminatory and restrictive
trade and investment practices which reduce the flow of goods and services and
the volume of international payments, and which obstruct production, distribu-
tion, and economic growth, such as: exchange controls, quotas, preferential or
discriminatory treatment, monopolies, subsidies, bilateral trade and exchange
agreements, or other devices. * * *" This policy also states that the Chamber
"supports a trade agreements program which provides the government with
adequate authority exercised through the proper agencies for negotiation and
administration to make effective agreements for the selective adjustment of
tariffs and the orderly and gradual reduction of other barriers to world trade.
Such adjustments should be accompanied by comparable or appropriate tariff
reductions and the elimination of trade restrictions, whether in the form of
quotas, exchange controls, or otherwise, on the part of foreign nations. * * *`~
Nontariff barriers are frequently more significant impediments to trade than
are tariffs; and as tariffs become less restrictive, nontariff barriers tend to be
greater restraints on trade. These restraints are thorny and difficult to negotiate.
Nontariff barriers, for the most part, were left intact at the conclusion of the
Kennedy Round. They must not be long neglected.
No meaningful or definitive effort appears to have been made in or out of gov-
ernment to develop the required information.
It is recommended, therefore, that the National Chamber, in cooperation with
its organization and business members, undertake immediately a study to identify,
catalog, and propose effective ways to eliminate nontariff barriers which inhibit
the access of goods to foreign markets and which significantly otherwise impair
the healthy expansion of trade.
PAGENO="0364"
PROGRAMME FOR THE LIBERALIZATION AND EXPANSION OF TRADE
IN MANUFACTURES AND SEMI-MANUFACTURES OF INTEREST TO
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES*
REPORT ON ITEMS OF EXPORT INTEREST TO THE DEvEI~OPING COUNTRIES
NOTE BY THE UNCTAD SECRETARIAT
1. At its resumed first session, the Committee on Manufactures noted the
secretariat documents TD/B/C.2/8 and Corr. 1 and TD/B/C.2/9 as progress
reports on items of export interest to the developing countries and describing
some of the barriers hampering their exports to the developed countries. It was
noted that further information would be made available by the developing coun-
tries in order that this basic information might be completed. In addition, it
was suggested that in compiling the next report, the secretariat of UNCTAD
should should take into account relevant information already supplied to the
GATT secretariat, and that the information to be presented should be tabulated
in a more detailed form and not only up to the three-digit level of the SITC.'
2. Accordingly, the Secretary-General in his letter of 31 May 1966 requested
member States which had not supplied information, and also those which wished
to revise the material already supplied to provide by 31 July 1966 the supple-
mentary information required. Replies have been received from the following
States: Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, Greece, Guatemala, India,
Israel, Madagascar, Malta, Mexico, New Zealand, Niger, Peru, Philippines,
Portugal, Turkey, Western Samoa, Yugoslavia.
3. In preparing the tables in Annex A to this document the secretariat has, in
accordance with the Committee's request, taken into account not only the replies
received from the member States mentioned above, but also the relevant informa-
tion supplied to the GATT secretariat as recorded in GATT document COM.TD/23
and addenda. Furthermore, as requested by the Committee the tables have, in
general been prepared according to four-digit or five-digit classification (SITC).
4. The secretariat of UNCTAD has used, in compiling these tables, the defini-
tion of semi-manufactures and manufactures given in document TD/B/C.2/3 of
2 July 1965; that document bad been prepared jointly by the United Nations
Statistical Office and the UNCTAD secretariat at the request of the Special
Committee on Preferences. A. further explanation in respect of the definition
used was provided in document TD/B/C.2/L.1O which was before the Com-
mittee at its resumed first session.
5. Annex B to this document gives particulars of the tariff rates in force in
the European Economic Community (EEC), the United Kingdom, the United
States of America and Japan in respect of the selected semi-manufactured and
manufactured products of export interest to the developing countries. This
selection was made primarily on the basis of there being actual exports from
the developing countries. The tariff rates have been obtained from the national
tariff schedules of the developed countries mentioned above, as well as from
the GATT secretariat document COM.TD/7.
6. Since the SITC items, especially at the three-digit and four-digit level, do
not correspond precisely with the Brussels Tariff Nomenclature (BTN), the
rates given in Annex B can only be considered as approximate. The rates have
been shown, however, in order to illustrate the likely magnitude of the tariff
barriers in the major developed countries in respect of particular items of
export interest to the developing countries.
7. For the United Kingdom, the British preferential tariff has been indicated
along with the most-favoured-nation (MFN) tariff. In the case of the EEC,
the preferential tariff for associated countries is similar to the preferential
rates applied in respect of the trade of the countries members of EEC with each
other. The rates will, therefore, be zero when the duties on trade among these
*Tjnited Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Trade and Development Board,
Committee on Manufactures, Second Session, Geneva, 4 July 1967, Item 5 of proposed
revised provisional agenda.
`See report of the Committee on Manufactures on its resumed first session (TD/B/69-
TD/B/C.2/14), para. 26.
360
PAGENO="0365"
361,
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
countries are abolished, and this abolition is planned for 1968. Ia the United
States, the present preferential tariff in respect of imports from the Philippines
is generaly 40 per cent of the MFN rate indicated. The preferential rates will be
60 per cent of the MFN rates for the calendar years 1968 through 1970, 80 per
cent of the MFN rates for the calendar years 1971 through 1973 and terminated
thereafter.
8. Non-tariff barriers, applied in the developed countries in respect of these
items of export interest to the developing countries, are not dealt with in this
paper, since a more detailed analysis of these barriers is made in document
TD/B/C.2/26.
ANNEX A
List of rnansefactured and semi-manufactured articles of ewport interest to
developing countries
Page
Section 0-Food manufacturers - 361
Section I-Beverages and tobacco 362
Section lI-Crude materials, except fuels 362
Section 111-Petroleum products 363
Section V-Chemicals 363
Section VI-Basic manufactures 364
Section Vu-Machinery and transport equipment 368
Section VIlI-Miscellaneous manufactured articles 370
ANNEX A
LIST OF MANUFACTURED AND SEMIMANUFACTURED ARTICLES OF EXPORT INTEREST TO DEVELOPING
COUNTRI ES
SEC. 0-FOOD MANUFACTURES
[See key to abbreviations at end of tablej
SITC BTN
Products
Notifying countries
Bacon, ham, and other pig meat
Meat extracts and meat juices
Sausages and the like, of meat, meat offal,
or animal blood.
Other prepared or preserved meat or meat
offal.
Prepared or preserved fish
Crustaceans and mollusks, prepared or
preserved.
Wheat or meslin flours
Meal and groats of wheat or meslin
Other cereal flours
Cereal grunts and meal, other than of wheat
or meslin.
Unspecified products of the milling indus- ARG, GUA.
try, malt and starches, gluten, inulin.
Puffed rice, corn flakes, and similar prod- ARG, CHL.
ucts.
Malt
Macaroni, spaghetti, and similar products -
Bread, ships biscuits, and other ordinary
bakery wares.
Biscuits, etc
Preparation of flour, starch,' or malt extract_
Tropical dried fruit
Figs, dried
Grapes, dried
Fruit, dried, not elsewhere specified
Fruit, fruit peel, and parts of plants, pre-
served by sugar.
Jams, fruit jellies, marmalades, fruit puree,
and fruit paste.
Fruit jaicas and vegetable juices
ARG, CHL, COS, ETI, NIR, TAL, YUG.
ARG, BRZ, COS, IND, NIR, URU.
ARG, CHD, DR, ETI MAG NIR TUR
UGA, URU.
ARG, BRZ, CHD, COS, ETI, IND NIC, NIR,
TUR, UGA, URU YUG.
ARG, CHD, CHL, CHN, COS, CUB, ETI
GUA, MAG, MEX, MTN, NIC, PAK, PER
PHL, PRT SPN, TUR, UAR, URU, YUG.
BRZ, CHL, óHN, CUB, DR, ETI, IND, PAK,
PRT, SPN, TUN, UAR, YUG.
ETI, NEP, NGA, NIR, UGA, URU.
BRZ, ETI, NEP, NIR UGA.
DR, ETI NIC, NIR, TAL, TUR, UGA.
ETI, Nló, NIR, TAL, TUR, UGA.
CHL, UAR.
ARG, DR, ETI, GUA, MLT, NIR, PRT, TUR
CEY, COS, ETI, GUA, MEX, UGA.
ARG, CEY CUB, ETI GUA KEN NGA
PRT, UAIO, UGA.
ARG, ETI, MEX, NEP, NIR.
CHD, DR, ETI. ND, JAM, MEX, MTN, NGA,
NIC, SPN, TT, UGA.
TUR.
TUR.
ARG, CHL, CHA, NIC, SPN, TUR, YUG
CEY, CHL, CHN, CUB, DR, ETI, IND, NIC,
PAK, SPN, TAZ, TUN.
ARG, CEY,'COS, DR, ND, TUR.
012.1
013.3
013.4
013.8
032.01
032.02
046.01
046.02
047.01
047.02
048.12
048.2
048.3
048.41
048.42
02.06A
16.03
16.01
16.02
16.04
16.05
hUlA
1 1.02A
11.U1B'
1 1.02B
11
19.05
11.07
19.03
19.07
19.08
048.82 19.02
052.01 08.011
052.02 08.03
052.03 08.04
052.69 08.12
053.2 20.04
053.3 20.05
053.5 20.07
053.61 08.10
053.62. 20.03
053.63 08.11
ARG, BRZ, CHL, CHN, COS, CUB, CYP, DR
ETI, GHA, GRC, IND, ISR, MEX, SPN
TUR, UAR, URU.
Fruit preserved by freezing ARG, CHN, ElI, GHA, NGA.
Fruit preserved by freezing, containing CEY, CHL, CHN, ETI, NIC, UAR.
added sugar.
Fruit provisionally preserved ARG, CHL, CHN, DR, ETI, GHA, NGA, NIC,
PH L.
053.64 00.13 Peel of melons and citrusfruit ARG, CHN, OR, SPN.
053.9 20.06 Fruit otherwise prepared or preserved_ - - - ARC, BRZ, CEY, CHL, CNN, ETI, GRC, ISR,
MEX, MLS, NIC, PER, PRT, SPN, TUR,
UAR, URU, YUG.
PAGENO="0366"
362
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
LIST 0F1IANUFACTURED AND SEMIMANUFACTURED ARTICLES OF EXPORT INTEREST TO DEVELOPING
- COUNTRIES-Continued
SEC. 0-FOOD MANUFACTURES-Continued
ISee key to abbreviations at end of tablel
SITC
BTN
Products Netifying countries
055.1
055.41
05543
055.44
055.45
055.51
055.52
.
.
062.01
062.02
071.3..
072.2
072.31
072.32
073.0
091.3
091.4
099.01
099.02
099.04
099.05
099.07
099.09
07.04
11.03
11.05
11.06
ex 19.04
20.01
20.02
20
17.04
17.05
21. 02A
18.05
18.03
18.04
ex 18.06
15.01
15.13
21.01
21.02B
21.04
21.05
ex 22.10
21.07
Dried, dehydrated, or evaporated ARG, Cl-IL, 01-IN, ETI, MWT, NIC, NIR, PAK.
RHO SPN TAL TUR UAR YUG
Flours of the leguminus vegetables CHL, CHIl, ETI r4IR.
Flours, meal, and flakes of potato CHL.
Flour and meal of sage and of maniac, BRZ, CHR, ETI I1ID,TUR UGA.
tapioca, cassava, etc.
Tapioca and tapioca substitutes obtained ARG, BRZ, Cl-IN DR ETI IDN MAC.
from potato starch.
Vegetableo and fruit, prepared or preserved CEY, CHL, Cl-Il-I, CYP, ETI, li-ID SR JAM
by vinegar or acetic acid. PER, RHD SPN TAZ TUN TUR UAR
YUG.
Vegetables prepared or preserved other- ARC, BRZ, CHL, CNN, CYP, DR ETI IND
wise than by vinegar or acetic acid. ISR, MLS, MLT, MW1, NIR PAN PER
RHO, SPN, TAZ, TIJN, UAR, YUG.
Unspecified preparations of vegetables, ARG, BRZ, COS, CUB, GHA GRC CUA NAG
fruit, or other. NIC, PAN, TAL, TAZ, TT, BAR YUC.
Sugar confectionery ARG, CEY, CHD, CHL, COS, CUB, CYP, DR,
NAG, i-BC, PAK,TAL,TAZ,TT TUR UAR
UGA.
Flavored or colored sugars, syrups, and CYP, ETI, NEP, NGA, NIC.
molasses.
Instant coffee, coffee extracto, essences, ETI, CUA, IND, ISR, NIC, PER.
concentrates, and similar preparations
of coffee.
Cocoa ponder BRZ, COS, CUB, OR, GHA, JAM, NGA, RiG.
Cocoa paste OR, GHA, JAM, NGA.
Cocoa butter BRZ, 005, OR, CHA, JAM, I4GA, RIG.
Chocolate COS, OR, GUA, NGA.
Lord and other rendered pig fat; rendered ARC, COS, PAN.
poultry fat.
Margarine, imitotion lard, etc ARC, COS, GUA, MEX, RCA, NIR, UGA.
Roasted coffee substitutes, etc TUR.
Instant tea BRZ, CEY, ETI, IND, MAL, BOA.
Sauces, mixed condiments, and mixed sea- ARC, CHL, ETI, NO, JAM, TiJR.
sonings.
Soups and broths ARC, CHL, ETI.
Visegar CHL, CUA.
Food, preparations, notelsewherespecified_ ARC, CHL, ETI, MLT, NEP.
SEC. I-BEVERAGES AND TOBACCO
111.02
112.12
112.13
112.2
112.3
112.4
122.1
122.2
22.02
22.05
22.06
22.07
22.03
22.09
24.02A
24.02B
Beverages, nonalcoholic CHD, ETI, TUR, UCA.
Wine of fresh grapes; grape must with ARC, CHL, CYP, ETI, CRC, ISR, MEX, MLT
fermentation arrested by the addition of REP, SPN, TUR, UAR, YUC.
alcohol.
Vermouths, etc ARC, GYP, ETI, MEX, REP, SPN, TUR.
Cider, perry, mead, etc ACR, CYP, ETI, MEX, NEP, SF11, TUR.
Beer CEY, CRC, GUA, MLT, RCA, PRT.
Spirits, liquors, etc ARC, CUB, GYP, OR, CRC, GUA, JAM, MAC,
MEX, NIC, PER, SPN, TT, TUR.
Cigars and cheroots ARC, BRZ, CHD, CUB, GYP, OR, ETI, GUA,
NO, JAM, MEX, NIC, UCU.
Cigarettes ARC, CHO, CUB, CYP, OR, ETI, CRC, GUA,
ND, MAC, PRT, TT, TUR, UAR, UCA.
SEC. Il-CRUDE MATERIALS, EXCEPT FUELS
231.2
231.4
243.1
243.21
243.22
.
.243.31
.
243.32
244.02
251
266.23 .
266.33
267.02
ex 40.02
ex 40.04
44.07
44.05A
44.13A
44.05B
44.13B
45.02
47.01
1
~ex 56.04
J
ex 63.02
Elastomer BRZ.
Synthetic rubber moldings MLT, RCA.
Railway or tramway sleepers of wood BRZ, CHL, CHN, OR, REP, TAL, TUR.
Wood sawn lengthwise, sliced or peeled__ CHL, CNN, COS, GAB, CHA, CUA, REP,
RCA, RIG, TAL, UCA.
V/sod planed, tongued, grooved, rebated, BRZ, CHL, CHN, CUA, REP, RIG, TAL, TUR.
etc.
Woodsawn lengthwise, sliced or pneled~~. CHL, CHA, COS, GAB, CNN, GUA, REP,
NIC, TAL, UCA.
V/sod planed, tongued, grooved, rabated BRZ, CHL, GUN, REP, RIC, TAL, TUR.
etc.
Natural cork in blocks, plates, sheets and SPR, TUN.
strips.
Pulp BRZ, CHO, CHL, CHN, COS, CUB, OR, CUA,
REP PRT, TUR.
Synthetic fibers (discontinuous or waste),
carded, combed, or other.'~ise prepared CEY, CUA INO, MLT.
for spinning manmade fiber tops.
Old hemp rope cuttings, jute caddies INO, TUR.
PAGENO="0367"
TIlE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
363
LIST OF MANUFACTURED AND SEMIMANUFACTURED ARTICLES OF EXPORT INTEREST TO DEVELOPING
COUNTRIES-Continued
SEC. Ill-PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
512 29
512.12 ex 29.O1B
512.13 cx 29.02
512.14 ex 29.03
512.23 ex 29.05
512.24 22.08
512.26 15.11
531.01 32.05
532.1 ex 32.04
532.4 32.01
532.5 32.02
533.31 ox 32.08
533.32 ox 32.09
533.33 32.10
541
541.1 ex 29.38
541.3 29.44
541.4 ox 29.42
541.5 ex 29.39
541.61 ex 29.41
541.62 ox 30.01
ISR.
M EX.
BRZ.
ARG, BRZ, CUB, GHA, GRC, NGA, PER
UAR.
ARC, BRL, CEY, CUB, PHL, TAL, UAR
U RU.
M EX.
BRZ.
BRZ.
MEX, SPN.
CHL, MEX.
COS, DIR, GUA, SR.
UGA.
CHN.
CEY, CHL, GUI, ISR, PER.
UAR.
CHL, TUR.
MEX.
IND, PER, TAZ, UGA.
ISR.
MEX.
ARG.
ISR, TUR.
M EX.
IND, MEX, TUR.
M EX.
CHL, TT.
CEY, GUI, TAZ.
CHA, JAM.
BRZ.
SR.
IN 0.
GHL
JAM, NIR, TUR.
ARC, BRZ, IND, NIC, NIR,TUR.
BRZ.
GUA, GUI, JAM, TT, TUR, UAR.
IND, ISR.
PER, PRT, TUR.
COS, GRC, PAK, TAL, UAR.
BRZ.
BRZ, ISR.
BRZ, GUI, ND, ISR.
ISee key to abbreviations at end of tablej
SITC
BTN
Products Notifying countries
331.02 ox 27.1OA Petroleum, other than crude BRZ, IND, NGA, PRT, TAL, TT, TUR.
332.1 ox 27.1OB Petrol TUR.
332.4 27.1OE Residual fuel oil TUR.
332.62 ox 27.13 Paraffin wax CHN, IND, TAL, TT.
332.92 27.08A Pitch obtained from coal or mineral tarS. MEX, TUR.
~
SEC. V-CHEMICALS
512.32
512.51
512.52
512.53
512.74
512.85
512.91
513
513.21
513.22
513.24
513.25
513.27
513.33
513.35
513.36
513.37
513.39
513.52
513.53
513.56
513.61
513.62
513.65
514.12
514.15
514.24
514.25
514.26
514.29
514.33
514.35
514.94
521.4
ox 29.09
ox 29.14
ox 29.15
ox 29.16
ox 29.25
ox 29.35
os 29.40
28
ox 28.01
ox 28.04D
ox 28.05A
28.03
ox 28.08
ox 28.10
28.11
ox 28.12
ox 28.13
ox 28.22
ox 28.23
ox 28.27
28.16
ox 28.17A
ox 28.20A
ox 28.30
28.33
ox 28.38
ox 28.39
28.40
ox 28.42B
ox 28.45
ox 28.47
28.56A
27.07
Organic chemicals CHN, GUA
Benzine, excluding chemically pure butyl- BRZ, MEX, IND.
one.
Bromides, polybromiclos, and insecticidos
Dirnethyl-dichlorovinyl phosphate
Menthol
Ethyl alcohol or neutral spirits..
Glycerol and glycerol lyos
Ethylene oxide
Vinyl acetate
Oxalic acid
Oxygen-function acids and dorivativos_
Urea, poliamides
Heterocyclic compounds
Pepsin
Inorganic chemicals
Iodine, bromine, chlorine
Silicon
Mercury
Carbon black
Sulfuric acid
Phosphoric acid
Arsenic trioxide
Boric acid
Inorganic acids and oxygen compounds_~_
Manganese dioxide
Iron oxides
Lead oxide
Ammonia
Sodium hydroxide (caustic soda)
Aluminium oxide and hydroxide
Cerium chloride
Bromides and bromine compounds
Manganese sulfate
Sndium nitrate, containing more than 16.3
percent by weight of nitrogen.
Phosphites ISR, MEX.
Lithium carbonate, cerium carbonate BRZ, TUR.
Sadism silicate UGA.
Sodium dichromato BRZ, IND.
Calcium carbide GUI, TUR.
Oils and other products of the distillation of TUR.
coal tar.
Synthetic organic dyostuffs and natural TUR.
indigo.
Dyeing extracts (vegetable and animal) - -
Tanning extracts of vegetable origin
Tannings
Prepared pigments, enamels, etc
Varnishes and lacquers
Dyes for retail sale
Pharmaceutical products
Vitamin Bin
Antibiotics (penicillin in bulk)
Caffeine; opium alkaloids, cocaine, etc. of
quinine sulfate and other q~iinino prepara-
tions; alkaloids other than opium and
onichino groups.
Hormones (testostorous, progesterone follic- BRZ, MEX.
sun, etc.).
Saponin CHL.
Organo-thorapeutic glands or other organs BRZ, PAK, URU.
extracts.
PAGENO="0368"
364
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
LIST OF MANUFACTURED AND SEMIMANUFACTURED ARTICLES OF EXPORT INTEREST TO DEVELOPING
COUNTRI ES-Continued
SEC. V-CHEMICALS-Continued
[See key to abbreviations at end of tablej
581.32 ex 39.03B
581.92 39.05
581.99 ex 39.06
599.51 ex 11.08
599.52 ex 11.09
599.53 35.01
599.54 ex 35.02
599.55 35.03
599.56 35.04
599.57 ex. 35. 05
599. 59 35. 06
599.63 ex 38. 07
Anticora, vnccines and ferments
Medicaments
Essential oils, etc
O ilof marine animals, sulfonated orsulfited,
detergent powder.
Superphosphates and hyperphoaphates___
Potassium chloride and sulfate
Ammonium sulfate, urea
Gelignite
Shooting cartridges
Artificial resins and plastic materials,
cellulose esters, and others; articles
therof.
Alkydes
Vinyl resins (vinilite), polyethylene and
polypropylen from natural gas, expanded
polystyrene.
Cellophane, cellulose acetate
Modified natural resins, ester gums, etc_ --
Sodium alginate
Starches
BRZ, MGA, PAN.
AltO, BRZ, COS, GUA, ISR, NGA, PAN, TUR.
ARG, BRZ, CEY, COS, CUB, DR, GRC, GUI,
IDN, IND, ISR, MAG, MEX, NIC, PHL,
SPN, TUR, UAR, UGA.
GHD, COS, CYP, GRC, GUA, IND, JAM, NGA,
PER, PHI., SPN, TAL, TT.
ARG, CYE, CHD, COS, CYP GRC, GUA, GUI,
IND, NEP, NGA, PAK, SPN, TAL, TAZ,
TOG, U, TUR, UAR, UGA.
CHL, CYP, GUA, MLT.
COS, GRC, GUI, ND, MEX, TAZ, TUN, UAR,
UGA.
ISR.
TT.
ARG.
UAR.
CHN, COS, ND.
BRZ, TUR.
BRZ, GRC, MEX, MLT, TUR.
CH L
TU R.
CHL.
BRZ, CHL, DR, GHA, GRC, MAG, NGA, NIC,
NIR, TUR, UAR, YUG.
ARG, IND, NIR.
ARG, NIC, NlR, URU.
RRZ, NIR.
ARC, NlR, URU.
NI R.
NIR, TUR.
ARG.
IND, MEX, NIC.
SEC. VI-BASIC MANUFACTURES
Reconstituted and artificial leather contain
ing leather.
Calf leather, bovine cattle leather, and
equine leather.
Sheep and lamb skin leather
Goat and kid skin leather
Chamois-dressed leather
Parchment-dressed leather
Patent leather and metalized leather
Other kinds of leather
Unsoecified artictes of leather, etc
Articles of leather used in machinery, etc. -
Saridlery and harness
Parts of footwear
Other articles of leather
Furskins, tanned or dressed
Plates, sheets and strip, of unvulcanized
rubber.
Unvulcanized natural rubber and articles MLS, NGA.
thereof.
Rubber arficles
Rubber hoses
Rubber tires and tubes for vehicles
Conveyor or elevator belts
Articles of sponge rubber, and forom rubber.
Veneer sheets and sheets for plywood
SITC BTN Products Notifying countries
Perfumery
P
- -4C)-4C)
CO
- C)~0~C/)
-< -<- C)
~ c:~ C)
>
03
-4
C)
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DC C)
CD > ~
~
DC C) C)>
DC ~
03 ~
CD
C. ~ CD;
:~
-n
DC. C)
C)
-1
C)
-4
C)
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-4
-4
0
C)
0
-a
C)
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L~1
ci
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ci
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t~CJ
z
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pP ~
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PAGENO="0372"
368
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
LIST OF MANUFACTURED AND SEMIMANUFACTURED ARTICLES OF EXPORT iNTEREST TO DEVELOPING
COUNTRI ES-Continued
SEC. Vt-BASIC MANUFACTURES-Continued
[See key to abbreviations at end of tableJ
SITC BTN Products Notifying countries
693.2 73.26
694.11
694.12
694.21
694.22
695.1
695.21
695.22
695.23
695.24
695.25
695.26
696.01
696.03
696.04
696.05
696.06
697.11
697.21
697.22
697.23
697.91
697.92
698.11
698.12
698.2
698.3
698.61
698.82
698.84
711.1
711.2
711.5
712.1
712.2
714.1
714.2
715.1
715.21
715.22
715.23
717.11
717.13
717.3
718.11
718.29
718.39
718.51
719.11
719.12
719.15
84.01
84.02
ex 84.06B
ex 84.24
ox 84.25
ex 84.51
ox 84.52
84.45
84.43
84.44
ex 84.50
84.36
ox 84.38
ex 84.41
84.31
ex 84.35
84.30
ox 84.56
84.03
84.12
84.15A
GUA, NGA, TAL, UGA, YUG.
CHL
CHL, COS, ND, NGA, YUG.
CHL, COS, NGA, TUR.
COS, GUA, MEX, TUR, UAR.
ND, TUR.
CEY, GRC, GUA, MEX, PRT, UGA.
TUR.
ND, SPM.
SPN, TUR.
SPN, TUR.
r'lEX.
TUR.
GUA, MEX, TUR.
TUR.
IND.
SEC. VU-MACHINERY AND TRANSPORT EQUIPMENT
CHL, SPN, UGA.
MEX, PER, SPN, TUR.
ND, MEX, SPN.
ND, MEX, SPN.
ND, tSR, TUR.
SR.
SR.
NEP, PAK.
ND, MEX, NEP, PAK.
NEP, PAN, SPN, TUR.
NEP, PAK, SPN.
ND, PAK, TUR.
GUA, NEP, TUR, UAR.
693.12 74.10 Stranded viire, cables, cordage, ropes, CHL.
etc. of copper wire.
Barbed iron viire, zinc coated of from 2.1 ARG, PRT, TUR.
to 3.5 millimeter cross section.
ex 73.31 Nails, except for horseshoe
ex 74.14 Copper nails and the like
ex 73.32 Bolts and nuts, screws, rivets of iron or
steel.
74.15 Bolts and nuts, screws, washers, etc. of
copper.
82.01 Handtools (spades, picks, etc.)
82.02 Saws and saw blades
82.03 Handtools (pliers, spanners, files, otc.)____
82.04 Handtools (grinding wheels, blow lamps,
etc.).
82.05 Interchangeable tools
82.03 Knives and cutting blades for machines or
mechanical appliances.
82.07 Tool tips and plates, sticks, and the Iike__
82.09 Knives with cutting blades
82.11 Razors and razor blades
82.12 Scissors and blades
82.13 Other articles of cutlery
82.14 Table and kitchen knives, spoons and
forks.
73.36 Stoves, ranges, cookers, etc., of iron or
steel.
73.38A Domestic articles and parts thereof of iron
or steel.
ex 74.18 Household utensils of brass
ox 76.15 Kitchen utensils of aluminum
ox 73.39 Iron and steel wool
83.06 Statuettos and other indoor ornaments of
base metal.
ex 83.01 Locks and padlocks
ox 83.02 Latches, bolts
83.03 Safes and strongbnxes
ox 73.29 Chain and parts thereof
73.35 Springs and leaves for springs
83.08 Flexible tubing and piping of base metal__
ox 83.11 Bells and gongs (brassand bronze viare as
artviare).
Electrodesfars'.eldieg
Castings and forgings, fancy materials of
brass and other brass manufactures.
Castings and forgings of aluminium
Lead castings and forgings
698.87 ox 83.15
698.92 ox 74.19
698.94 ox 76.16
698.96 ox 78.06
GUA, TUR.
IND, KRR, YUG.
KRR, YUG.
YUG.
Steam and other vapor generating boilers - BRZ, MIX, PER, TUR.
Steam condensers MEX.
Internal combustian engines, diesel engines, ARG, BRZ, ND, PAK.
for motorcycles.
Steelplates for pleaghs and harrows CHL, MIX, TUR.
Cotton ginning machinery TUR.
Typewriters BRZ, TUR.
Calculating machines BRL, TUR.
Machine tools for working motel or metalic ARG, BRZ, CHL, IND, tSR, PAK, SPIt, Y'JG.
carbiden.
Metal foundry machinery and equipment.._ YUG.
Rolling mills and rolls therefor YUG.
Hardening, casting, and soldering ovens end YUG.
machines.
Machinery for extracting manmade textiles_ TUR.
Auxiliary machinery, parts and accessories ND.
for textile machinery.
Sewing machines, furniture designed for BRZ, GRC, IND, TUR, UAR.
sewing machines.
Machinery for making or finishing s'aood- BRZ.
pulp, paper, and paporboard.
Printing macbinary MEX.
Machinery for fond or drink industrios~ BRZ, TUR.
Shields for grinding machinery and parts of BRZ, CHL, TUR.
manganese steel.
Gas generators MEX.
Air-conditioning machines UAR.
Refrigerating equipment MIX.
PAGENO="0373"
TEE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
369
LIST OF MANUFACTURED AND SEMIMANUFACTURED ARTICLES OF EXPORT INTEREST TO DEVELOPING
COUNTRI ES-Continued
SEC. VI I-MACHI ERY AND TRANSPORT EQUI PM ENT-Continued
[See key to abbreviations at end of tablej
SITC BTN Products Notifying countries
719.19 84.17A
719.21 ex 84.10
719.22 ex 84.11
719.23 8&18B
719.31 ex 84.22
719.41 82.08
719.51 84. 46
719.52 84.47
719.53 ex 84.49
719.54 ex 84.48
719.62 ex 84. 19
719.64 ex 84.21
719.7 84.62
719.8 84.59B
Apparatus for treating materials with heat MEX.
or cold.
Pumps for liquids BRZ, IND, MEX.
Compressor parts and accessories BRZ.
Centrifuges; filtering and purifying ma- MEX, TUR.
chinery.
Hoists ARC, MEX.
Coffee mills, juice extractors, mincers, etc_ CHL, TUR.
Machine tools for working stone, ceramics, ARG, ND, PAK.
etc.
Machine tools for working wood, corks, etc. ARG, BRZ, ND, PAK, TUR.
Pneumatic tools (hammers) IND.
Interchangeable tools SR.
Bottling machinery; machinery for wash- ARG, MEX.
I ng, filling sealing, or labeling.
Spraying appliances ISR, MEX, TUR.
Ball, roller, or needle roller bearings BRZ.
Machinery and mechanical appliances not ARG, BRZ, CHL, CRC, MEX, TUR.
elsewhere specified, machines for plastic
processing industries, asphalt mixers and
spreaders, presses, parts and acces-
sories.
Moulding boxes for metal foundry MEX.
Taps, cocks, valves, etc BRZ, MEX, TUR, UAR, YUG.
Plain shaft bearings, pillowblocks of steel, CHL.
bronze and/or other metals.
Machinery parts CHL.
Electric generators, motors, convertors, CHL, IND, TUR, YUG.
transformers, etc.
Electrical apparatus for making and break- BRZ, MEX, TUR, YUG.
log electrical circuits.
Insulated electric wire, cable bars, strip, CHL, GRC, IND, MLT, PRT, TUR, YUG.
and the like.
Insulators ARC, CUA, TUR.
Insulating materials for electrical equip- MEX.
ment.
Electrical conduit tubing and joints there- TUR.
for.
Radio receivors BRZ, CHL, KRR, TUR, UAR.
Complete telephonic systems and parts ARG.
thereof.
Loudspeakers ARC.
Other telecommunications equipment IVIEX.
Domestic refrigerators BRZ, CHL, MEX, TUR.
Dnmestic washing machines ARG, CHL, TUR.
Electromechanical domestic appliances_ - BRZ, CHL. COS, IND, MEX, TUR.
Shavers and hair clippers CHL, MEX.
Electric space heating equipment MEX.
Primary cells and primary batteries CEY, GUA, IND, MEX, PER, TAL, TUR, UAR.
Electric accumulators CHL, PER, PRT, TUR.
Electric lamps CHL, GUA, MEX, TUR, UAR.
Receiving valves and tubes, crystal diodes BRZ, CHL, MEX, TUR.
and triodes (transistor).
} Electrical equipment for vehicles CHL, GUA, MEX.
Electrical measuring and controlling appa- MEX.
ratus.
Electromechanical handtools CHN.
Industrial electric furnaces and ovens ARG, GRC.
Condensers BRZ, MEX, YUG,
Carbon brushers and electrodes MEX, TUR,
Electrical parts of machinery and apparatus, CHL, CRC.
not elsewhere specified.
Electrical goods and apparatus, net else- CHL, GUA TUR YUG.
where specified, galvanizing aggregates.
Complete goods wagons for railways BRZ, CHL, MEX.
Parts for railway wagons, shoes, axles, CHL.
wheel centers, bogies, couplings, etc.
Passenger automobiles BRZ, CRC, MLT.
Chassis fitted with engines, for motor CRC, TUR.
vehicles.
Parts and accessories of motor vehicles - - BRZ, CHL, GRC, KRR, PER, TUR.
Motorcycles ARC, YUC.
Cycles CHL, CHN, GUA, IND, NGA, PRT, SPN,
UAR, UCA.
Parts of bicycles BRZ, CHL, CUA, IND, NGA.
Canoes, skiffs, and other boats, including BRZ, CHL, PER.
motorboats for sport. Fishing boats up to
240 tons (hulls of fishing boats).
719.91
719.92
719.93
719.99
722.1
722.2
723.1
723.21
723.22
723.23
724.2
724.91
724.92
724.99
725.01
725.02
725.03
725.04
725.05
729.11
729.12
729.2
729.3
729.41
729.42
729.52
729.6
729.92
729.95
729.96
729.98
729.99
731.62
731.7
732.1
732.7
732.89
732.91
733.11
84. 60
84.61
ex 84.63
84.65
85.01
85.19
85.23
85.25
ex 85.26
85.27
ex 85.150
ex 85.13
ex 85.14
ex 85.15C
89.15C
ex 84.40B
85.06
85.07
85.12
85.03
85.04
ex 85.20
ex 85.21
85.08
85.09
90.28
85.05
85.11
ex 85.18
85.24
85.28
85.220
ex 86.07
ex 86.09
ex 87.02A
87.04B
87.06
ex 87.09
87.10
733.12 ex 87.12B
735.3 ex 89.O1B
PAGENO="0374"
370 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
LIST OF MANUFACTURED AND SEMIMANUFACTURED ARTICLES OF EXPORT INTEREST TO DEVELOPING
COUNTRI ES-Continued
SEC. VIII-MISCELLANEOUS MANUFACTURED ARTICLES
[See key to abbreviations at end of table[
SITC BTN Products Notifying countries
BRZ, GUA, TUR.
COS, GUA, TUR UAR.
SPN.
IND, SPN, TUR.
BRL, CHL, CHN, COS, OR, GHA, ND, NIC,
SPN, TAL, TAZ, TUR, UAR, UGA, VIR,
YUG.
CHN, COS, IND, TAL, TAZ, TUR, UAR, UGA.
IND, MLT, NGA, PRT.
BRL, CHL, CHN, CUB, DR, GHA, ND, MEX,
MLT, NIC, PRT, SPN, TAL, TAZ TUR,
UAR, UGA, VIR, YUG.
ARG, CEY, DR, GUA, IND, JAM, MEX, MLT,
NGA, NIC, NIR, PRT, TUR, UGA, URU.
ARG, CEY, CHD, CHL, COS, CYP, IND, tSR,
JAM, KRR, MAG, MDC, MLT, PRT, TT,
TUR, UAR, YUG.
ARG, CHD, CHL, COS, CYP, IND, tSR, JAM,
KRR, MAG, MEX, MLT, PRT, TT, UAR,
YUG.
CEY, CHD, CHL, COS, IND, JAM, KRR, MAG,
MLT, PRT, TT, UAR, YUG.
CHD, CHL, COS, IND, JAM, KRR, MAG,
PRT, TT, YUG.
CHL, ND, PRT.
CHL, IND, PRT, UAR.
CHL, PRT.
JAM, PRT, TT.
KRR, PRT, TUR, UAR.
CHL, PRT, TUR.
ARG, OR, ND, KSR, JAM, MLT, NGA, NIC,
TU R.
ARG, CYP.
ARG, CHL, CYP, ISR, MLT.
ARG, CEY, CYP, JAM, TT.
ARG, CYP, tSR, JAM, MLT, U, TUR, YUG.
COS, SR.
BRZ.
DR, JAM, NIC, TT.
MLT.
COS, GUA, PER, UAR.
ARG, CHD, SPN.
CH D.
BRZ, CEY, CHL, CYP, GFIA, GRC, GUA,
IDN, IND, JAM, KRR, MEX, NGA, NIC,
PRT. SPN, TUR, UGA,
ARG, BRZ, CEY, CHL, COS, CYP, GHA,
GRC, GUA, ION, IND, JAM, KRR, MAG,
MEX, MLT, NGA, NIC, PAK, PRT, SPN
TUR, UAR, UGA, URU, YUG.
Footwear with outer soles of wood GUA, MEX, YUG.
Footwear with soles of other materials_ MEX.
Spectacles frames and mountings IND, PAK, SPN, TUR.
Spectacles MEX, SPN.
Surgical instruments BRL, PAK.
Meters for water and gas CHL, MEX, SPN, TUR.
Drawing and measuring instruments, etc.. IND, MEX, NIC, TUR.
Measuring instruments for flow, depth, MEX.
pressure, etc.
Chemical products used in photography -- MEX.
Sensitized paper BRZ.
~Cinematograph film, exposed and de- BRZ, TUR.
.f veloped.
Grsmaphones, record players, etc ARG, CHL, COS.
Other accessories and parts of equipment CHL.
in item 9211.
Phonographic records CUB, GUA, JAM, MEX, TT, TUR.
812d
812.2
812.3
812.41
812.42
821.01
821.02
821.03
821.09
831.0
841.11
ex 73.37
69.10
73.38B
ex 70.14
83.07
94.01
94.02
94.04
94.03
42.02
61.01
Central heating boilers, radiators, and parts TUR.
thereof.
Ceramic sanitary fittings
Sanitary equipment of cast iron
Lighting apparatus and their parts and
fittings.
Lamps and lighting fittings of base metal.._
Chairs and other seats
Medical furniture
lVlattress supports
Other furniture and parts thereof
Travel goods, handbags, wallets, etc
Men's and boys' outer garments
84L13 61.03
841.14 61.04
841.21 61.05
841.22 61.06
841.24 ex 61.08
841.25 ex 61.09
841.26 ex 61.10
841.29 61.11
841.3 42.03
841.41 60.02
841.42 60.03
841.43 60.04
841.44 60.05
841.45 60.06
841.51 ex 65.03
841.52 65.04
841.12 61.02 Women's, girls', and infants' garments~~
Men's and boys' undergarments
Women's, girls', and infants' under-
garments.
Handerkchiefs
Shawls, scarves, mufflers, mantillas, veils,
and the like.
Trimmings for women's and girls' gar-
ments.
Foundation garments of cotton or other
material.
Gloves and socks of wool
Made-up accessories for articles of appareL
Articles of apparel and clothing accessories
of leather.
Gloves, mittens and mitts
Stockings, understockings, socks, etc
Undergarments
Outer garments and other articles
Unspecified knitted articles
Hats of beaver, rabbit, hare and other fine
hair.
Hats and other headgear, plaited or made
from plaited or other strips of any ma-
terial.
Caps, uniform
Rubber articles
Articles of furskins
Articles fur and articles thereof
Footwear with outer sales and uppers of
rubber or artificiol plsstic material.
851. 02 64. 02 Footwear with outer soles of leather and
rubber, etc.
841.53 ex65.05
841.6 40.13
842.01 43.03
842. 02 43. 04
851. 01 64. 01
851. 03 ex 64. 03
851.04 64.04
861.21 ex 90.03
861.22 ex 90.04
861.71 ex 90.17B
861.81 ex9O.26B
861.93 ex 90.16
861.97 90.24
862.3 37.08
862.43 37. 03
863.01 37.06
863.09 37.07
891.11 92.11
891.12 ex 92. 13
891.2 ex 92. 12
PAGENO="0375"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
371
LIST OF MANUFACTURED AND SEMIMANIJFACTURED ARTICLES OF EXPORT INTEREST TO DEVELOPING
COUNTRI ES-Continued
SEC. VII I-MiSCELLANEOUS MAN UFACTURED ARTICLES-Continued
899.23 96.01
899.24 ex 96.02
899.25 96.03
899.31 ex 34.06
899.32 36.06
899.35 ex 98.11
899.41 66.01
899.52 ox 98.01
899.53 98.02
899.93 ex 67.02
899.96 ex 67.05
951.05 93.02
[See key to abbreviations at end of tablel
Other string musical instruments (guitars, CHL, MEX, PAK, SPN.
mandolins, etc.).
Musical instruments MEX, PAK.
} Musical instruments MEX, PAK, TUR.
Printed books, booklets, etc CUB, DR.
Periodicals and magazines DR, MEX.
Plastic articles, polythene bags, and CYP, MEX, MLT, PER, PRT, TUR, UAR.
covers.
Baby carriages and invalid carriages SPN.
Wheeled toys without spring mechaninm_ IND.
Dolls GUA, IND, SPN.
Other toys CHN, COS, GUA, TAL, TUR.
Playing cards SPN.
Sporting or hunting guns SPN, TUR.
Partsof arms SPN.
Sports goods GUA, JAM, PAK, TAL, YUG.
Ballpoint pens and stylograph pencils -- - CHL, MEX, TUR.
Pencils CHL, UAR.
Typewriter ribbons TUR.
Stamps of philatelic interest CUB.
Articles of jewelry and parts thereof of BRZ, ND, PER, TAL.
precious metal or rolled precious metal.
Goldsmiths' and silversmiths' wares MEX.
Articles of precious, semiprecious rate BRZ.
stones.
Imitation jewelery
Worked tortoise shell and articles of tortoise
shell.
Worked ivory and articles of ivory
Horns, fancy carved articles, excluding
artware.
Worked amber and other finished articles of CHN, DR, TAL.
amber.
Various handicrafts
Plaits, plaiting materials
Basketwork, wickerwork, and other articles
of plaiting materials.
Brooms and brushes, merely bound to- CHL, UGA, YUG.
gether.
Other brooms and brushes CHL, TUR.
Prepared knots and tufts for broom or brush CHL.
making.
Candles
Matches
Smoking pipes and parts thereof
Umbrellas and sunshades
Buttons and studs
Slide fasteners and parts thereof
Flowers of ornamental plastic materials - -
Fans, nonmechanical, and parts thereof - --
Revolvers and pistols
SITC BTN Products Notifying countries
891.42
891.43
891.83
891.84
891.89
892.11
892.2
893.0
894.1
894.21 -
894.22
894.23
894.24
894.31
894.33
894.42
895.21
895.23
895.94
896.04
897.11
897.12
897.14
92.02
92. 09
92.05
92.06
92. 08
49. 01
en 49. 02
ex 39.07
87. 13
ex 97.01
97.02
97.03
ex 97.04
ex 93.04
93.06A
97.06
en 98.03
en 98.05
ex 98.08
99.04
71.12
71.13
en 71.15
897.2 71.16
899.11 95.01
899.13
899.15
899.17
95.03
ex 95.05
ex 95.07
95
899.21 ex 46.01
899.22 46.03
IND, MLT.
CHN, CUB, DR, TAL, VIR.
CHN, IND, NGA, TAL
CHN, CUB, ND, TAL
CUB, GHA, PHL, TAL, UAR,UGA.
N IC.
ND, JAM, NIC, PRT, SPN, TT, VIR, YUG.
MLT, PRT.
GHA, GUA, IND, MLT, NGA, PRT, UAR.
MLT, SPN, TUR.
CEY, IND, NGA, TAL
GUA, JAM, TUR.
TUR.
CHN, KRR, SPN, TAL
SPN.
SPN.
Alphabetical list of country name abbreviations:
ARG-Argentina
BRZ-Brazil
CEY-Ceylnn
CHD-Chad
CHL-Chile
CHN-China (Taiwan)
COS-Costa Rica
CUB-Cuba
CYP-Cyprus
DR-Dominican Republic
ETI-Ethiopia
GAB-Gabon
GHA-Ghana
GRC-Greece
GUA-Guatemala
ND-India
SR-Israel
JAM-Jamaica
KRR-Korea, Republic of
MAG-Madagascar
M EX-Mexico
MLS-Malaysia
MLT-Malts
MTN-Mau ritania
MWI-Malawi
N EP-Nepal
NGA-N igeria
N IC-Nicaragua
NIR-Niger
PAK-Pakistan
PHL-Philippines
PRT-Portugal
PER-Peru
RHD-Rhodesia
SPN-Spain
TT-Trinidad and Tobago
TAL-Thailand
TAZ-Tanzania
TUR-Turkey
UAR-United Arab Republic
UGA-Uganda
URU-U ruguay
VIR-Viet-Nam, Republic of
YUG-Yugoslavia
PAGENO="0376"
I~rJ
C
C
~2i
~rJ
0
ANNEX B
TARIFF RATES IN THE EEC, UNITED KINGDOM, UNITEDSIATES,ANDJAPAN IN RESPECTOFTHESELECTED MANUFACTUREDANDSEMI MANUFACTURED PRODUCTS OF EXPORT INTEREST TO THE
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
L~1
Lii
0
ci
SITC No.
BIN No.
Tariff rates
Products EEC
United Kingdom
United Staten
Japan
MFN BPT
012
013.3
013. 4
013. 8
ox 032. 01
ex 032. 02
048. 3
ox 048.42
052. 01
ox 053. 2
053. 2
ox 053. 5
053. 62
ox 053.9
ox 055. 1
ox 055.45
055. 51
02. 06
16. 03
16. 01
16. 02
ox 16. 04
ox 16. 05
19. 03
ox 19.08
ox 08. 01
ox 20. 04
20. 05
ox 20. 07
20. 03
ox 20.06
ox 07. 04
ox 19.04
20. 01
Meat, dried, salted or smoked, In containers or not 16-25
Meat extracts and meat juices Free; 9; 24
Sausages, whether or not In airtight containers 21; 24
Other prepared or preserved meat whether or not in 20-26
airtight containers.
Canned fish 16-30
Canned shrimps 20
Macaroni and spaghetti 30
Biscuits 30-35
Tropical fruit, dried 12-20
Fruit, fruit peel preserved by sugar Free; 25
Jams, marmalades, fruit jellies, fruit purees and pastes 30
Fruit juices, unfermented 19-50
Fruit preserved by freezing, containing added sugar - - 26
Fruit prepared or preserved; not elsewhere specified Free-25
(including canned fruit).
Dehydrated onions 20
Tapioca 26;29
Vegatahles and fruit prepared and preserved by vinegar 22; free
or acetic acid.
10; 20; free Free
10; 20 do
20 do
Free; 5-20 do
5-30 do
7.5-30 do
10 do
10 do
5-10 do
3-22 do
10 do
Free-18 do
9; 15 do
Free-25 Free
10; 15 do
5 do
10 do
2. 4-15
1.0
2-15
2.5-20
0.7-35
Free-23.7
6.1-6.6
6.5
7.5-30
8-37
6.5-17.5
2-15; 60.5
6-35
Free-59.9
35
Free
8-35
15; 25.
30.
25.
20; 25.
20.
15; 20.
50Y/kg.
35; 40.
20.
35.
25; 40.
17-35.
35.
20-55.
15.
25.
25-35.
055. 52
062. 01
20. 22
17. 04
Vegetables otherwise prepared or preserved 18-24
Sugar confectionery 21-27
10; 15 do
4s. 9d./hundrodweight - - - do
plus 10 percent.
Free; 5.3.-25 - -
10; 14
20-35.
35.
PAGENO="0377"
SECTION I-BEVERAGES AND TOBACCO
071. 3
072. 2
072.31
072. 32
112. 12
112. 13
112.3
122. 1
122. 2
122. 3
ex 21.02A
18. 05
18.03
18. 04
22. 05
22.06
22.03
24.02A
ex 24.02B
ex 24.020
Soluble coffee 24 5.4
Instant tea 24 10
Cocoa powder 27 2
Cocoa paste 25 1
Cocoa butter 20 0.5
Wine 9-40 1 1
UA/hl ~14s.tof2pergallon
Vermouths and other wines flavoured with armomatic ex- 16-19 1 UA/hI J
tracts.
Beer 30 £87s.2d., per 36gallons
Cigars 80 £4 6s. 3d. per lb
Cigarrettes 180 £4 2s. 103.~d. per lb - - -
Tobacco manufactured 180 £4 is. i0~d
4 2
Free Free
do 7.3
do 2.6
do 6.25
112-50
i2stoEi pergallon°_~_ ~
18-40
£7 7s.2 per 36 gallons~ ii
£4 3s. 3~d per lb 58
£4 6d per lb 64
£3 i9s. 7J.~d. per pound 14
25.
27.5.
30.
20.
10.
400-650.
Y/i.
180 Y/i.
35.
200.
355.
355.
SECTION Il-WOOD AND WOOL SEMIMANUFACTURES
243.21
243.31
244.02
250
262.7
ex 44.05A
44.05B
45.02
47.01
53.05A
Sawn lengthwise, conifer 10 3 Free-i2
Sawn lengthwise, nonconifer Free; 13 Free
Natural cork in blocks, plates, etc 12 10
Wood pulp Free; 4 6 Free
Wool and other animal hairs carded and combed. 3 10
Free Free; 1.8
do Free; 2.5
do 13
do Free
do 10; 19; 31
Free; 5; 10; 20.
Free.
5.
5.
Free; 5.
See foo
tnotes at e
nd of table, p. 379.
0
~.j)
0
t:~J
0
PAGENO="0378"
ANNEX B-CONTINUED
TARIFF RATES IN THE EEC, UNITED KINGDOM, UNITED STATES, AND JAPAN IN RESPECT OF THE SELECTED MANUFACTURED AND SEMIMANUFACTURED PRODUCTS OF EXPORT INTEREST TO THE
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES-CONTINUED
SECTION V-CHEMICALS
SITC No.
BTN No.
Products
Tariff rates
EEC
United Kingdom
United States
Japan
MFN BPT
ex 512.26
512.85
ox 513.21
ox 513.22
513.23
ox 513.33
ox 513.62
ox 51365
532.4
ox 533.32
541.3
541.63
541.7
ox 551.1
554.1
ox 561.29
561.3
ox 581.2
599.51
ox 599.53
599.63
ox 15.11
29.35
ox 28.O1A
ox 28.O1B
28.02
ox 28.08
ox 28.17A
ox 28.20A
32.01
ox 32.09
29.44
30.02
30.03
ox 33.01
34.01
ox 31.03D
ox 31.04D
ox 39.02
11.08
ox 35.01
ox 38.07
Glycerine
Heterocyclic compounds
Chlorine
Bromino
Sulphur sublimed
Sulphuric acid
Caustic soda
Alumina
Tanning extracts of vegetable origin
Varnishes and lacquers
Antibiotics
Bacterial products, vaccines
Medicaments
Essential oils
Soaps
Seperpliosphote
Potassic fertilizers
Polyethylene (from natural gas)
Polypropylene (from natural gas)
Starches and inulie
Casein
Spirits of turpentine, etc
2-8
10-25
14
15
8
4
14
11
Free; 9; 10
15
9-21
14; 15; 17
12-34
Free-12
15
6
Free; 3
20; 23
23
Levy
2-14
3
1 Free
10; 33~ do
10 do
Free do
Free; 33~ do
10; 33~ do
10 rIo
10; 16; 33~'rj do
Free; 10 do
7.5;5 12.5 do
25 do
10 do
Free; 10 do
Free-25 Free; 13s. 4d. per ounce_
10-25 Free
14 do
Free do
10 do
10 do
Free-lO do
10 do
10 do
3
Free-50
10.5
46.5
Free
do
2
Free
Free-7.5
8.5 10; 16
3; los; 28
Free; 10.5
Free-34
Free-25
8-28
Free
do
17-40
4; 12.5-20
15.3-20
Free
5
5; 20.
5-25.
10.
10.
10.
10.
20.
15.
Free.
20.
15.
Free.
15; 17; 20; 25.
Free-20.
20-30.
Free.
Do.
20; 30.
57Y/lOOkg.
25.
Free; 10.
10.
SECTION Vt-BASIC MANUFACTURES
ci
L:rJ
0
ci
~r:l
0
L:rJ
0
z
L~J
0
i-cl
611. 3
611.91
611.92
611.99
612.9
41.02A
41.03
41.04
41.05
42.05
Calf leather
Sheep and Iamb skins, leather
Goat and kid skins leather
Other kinds of leather
Articles of leather
9
Free; 6; 10
Free; 6; 10
8 9
i4
20
10; 15
10; 15
10; 12; 15
20
Free
do
de
do
do
8.5 10; 12.5 - -
8; ~0
10
10 12.5
6-14
20.
15; 20.
15; 20.
15-25.
25.
621.01
40.05
Plates, sheets and strip of unvulcanized rubber
8
10
do
Free-12.5
15.
PAGENO="0379"
~a+~ ~
HHH
HH~
!HH~ ~!
~ P1
~
~ ~-
375
THE FUTURE.: OF U.S. FOREIGN~ TRADE POLICY
- L ~
~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~
0
0
-~u,~o_ 0
0
(0(0(0(0(0
-- (0~-0)
C~4 C'J C~J ~ C~4 C~4 C~ C~) - - - - - (01010(0
PAGENO="0380"
ANNEX B-CONTINUED
TARIFF RATES IN THE EEC, UNITED KINGDOM, UNITED STATES, AND JAPAN IN RESPECT OF THESELECTED MANUFACTURED AND SEMIMANUFACTURED PRODUCTS OF EXPORT INTEREST TO THE
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
SECTI ON Vt-BASIC MAN UFACTURERS-Continued
Tariff rates
United Kingdom
SITC No. BTN No. Products EEC MFN OPT United States Japan
Nets and netting made of twines, etc 14; 19 20 Free
Other articles made from twine, etc 18 20 (In
Sacks and bags of textile meterials 10-23 17.5-33~ Free 20; 27
Blankets, etc. (not containing manma(Ie or silk filmers) - - 19 20 Free
cx 655.62
cx 655.63
cx 656.1
656.61
656.62
656.69
ex 656.91
657.5
657.6
661.2
662.32
663.81
cx 664.11
664.12
664.13
664.3
664.4
664.5
664. 91
665.11
665.2
666.4
671.2
671.4
cx 59.05
ex 59.06
62.03
cx 62.01
cx 62.02
cx 58.01
cx 58.02
25.23
69.02
68.13
cx 70.01
70.02
70.03
70.05
70.06
70.04
70.07
70. 10
70. 13
69. 11
73.O1B
cx 73.02A
22.5
13.5; 48
7-51
15-45
10.
10.
Free; 23.
20.
22 17.5; 20; 25 de 8-50 20; 30.
24; 23 20 do 7-48.1 30.
Bed linen, table linen (not containing manmade or silk
fibers).
Carpets and rugs (notconteining manmade or silk fibcrs)
Cement
Ref rectory bricks, etc
Manufactures of asbestos other than friction materials -
Glass in the mass
Enamel glass in the mass, rods or tubes
Glass, unworked in balls, rods or tubes
Drawn or blown glass, unworked in rectangles
Cast, rolled, drawn or blown glass in rectangles surface
ground or polished.
Cast or rolled glass, unworked in rectangles
Cast, rolled or blown glass cut otherwise than into rec-
tangles, bent, etc.
Carboys, bottles, jars and flasks, etc
Glass tableware and other articles of glass for house-
hold, hotel, and restaurant use.
Porcelain or china household ware.
kg.
Pig iron
Fcrromangancsc
10
10-16
10
10
10; 15; 20
10
20
10_331/3
15
15
- . - .do
- . - .do
- - - _do
- . - do
- - - .do
- -- do
- - - do
- - - .do
ci
ci
cli
0
0
0
2-5
9.8; 25
8-20
15; 21
34
14-35
Frec-19
3-23.5
10.
10.
15.
10.
10.
10; 20.
10; 15; 20.
25.
15; 20.
25.
10 15 do 8.5-13
16 15; 16 do 15; 22
19 20-25 do 6; 10; 32 15.
24 20-25 do 22; 5-50 10-20.
27 (13.6-28) U.C. 100
kg.
3-7
2.4; 8
25 do 25-64.4 15.
Free, 10 do 0.3; 11 10.
Free-1Q jo 7-8 20.
PAGENO="0381"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
>~ c~
~
...c~j *.~ a..:
~kc~r, ~
377
rr~d
r- r-~ ~
I I . -
~ c~oo ~cco r-. r-r~CD
~: ~
E~ ~
~
c~od~
U ~
F-
F-
0
C/)
a::
F-
0
>-
=
C-)
0
F-
C-)
Cl)
C)
C-
Cl)
C)
.~
0
`0
C
C)
0
C
0
0
C)
02
PAGENO="0382"
SITC No. BTN No.
ANNEX B-CONTINUED
TARIFF RATES IN THE EEC, UNITED KINGDOM, UNITED STATES AND JAPAN IN RESPECT OF THESELECTED MANUFACTURED AND SEMIMANUFACTURED PRODUCTS OF EXPORT INTEREST TO THE
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES-CONTINUED
SECTION VIII-MISCELLANEOU5 MANUFACTURED GOODS
Products
EEC
Tariff rates
I~3
ci
0
ci
0
BPT United States Japan
t;rJ
0
20-40.
21; 25; 30; 40.
20; 30.
United Kingdom
MFN
812.3
73. 38B
Saiiitary equipment ef iron or steel
17
25
ex 821.01
ex 821.02
cx 94.01
cx 94.02
Steel furniture
14; 17; 16
15; 20
Free
do
8; 9.6; 17
10.5-35
15.
20; 25; 30.
cx 821.03
cx 94.04
cx 821.09
cx 94.03
cx 831.0
cx 841.11
ex 42.02
es 61.01
Luggage, handbags, purses
Outergarments
15; 17
18; 20
15; 20
17.5-25
do
8.5-50
cx 841.12
es 61.02
do
10-42.5
cx 841.13
es 61.03
Undergarments
18; 24
25
cx 841.14
cx 61.04
20;
do
10-42.5
es 841.43
cx 841.44
cx 851.01
cx 60.04
cx 60.05
cx 64.01
Undergarments, knitted or crocheted
Outorgarments, knitted or crocheted
Footwear with soles and uppers of rubber
21
16; 21
20
20; 25
20-25
do
do
17.5-50
12-54.8
20; 30.
25; 30.
cx 851.02
cx 64.02
Footwear with soles ef leather
16-20
do
12.5-37.5
20.
PAGENO="0383"
TIlE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 379
dd
~ ~r) ~ o
~C) ~
~`r ~
::~H~~HH~ ~
:~ :~ ~ ~ I
- ~
~ u~E~
-
~
- I * - ~ ~ ~ r-
`.-~~c-, ~E ~
C~O
C)>~ ~
1.111..
c~c~ C) C) ~) C) C) r-r--r--- C)C) C) ~ (C
~ E~
PAGENO="0384"
THE QUESTION OF THE GRANTING AND EXTENSION OF PREFERENCES
IN FAVOUR OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
A SYSTEM OF PREFERENCES FOR EXPORTS OF MANUFACTURES AND SEMIMANUFAC-
TUBES FIIoM DEVELOPING TO DEVELOPED CouNTRIES
REPORT BY THE UNCTAD SECRETARIAT
CONTENTS
Part ONE Page
GENERALCONSIDERATIONS 381
A. Introduction - 381
B. The general case for better access 381
C. The case for preferences 382
D. The doubts concerning preferences 383
Part Two
OUTLINE OF SPECIFIC ELEMENTS OF A PREFERENTIAL SYSTEM 385
A. The objective 385
B. The question of negotiability 385
C. The problems arising with respect to each of the elements of a general preferential system~_ 386
D. Tile various interdependent means for limiting the import of a preferential system on the
developed countries' interests 353
E. The safeguard arrangements as a key to distinguishing among various general preferential
systems 388
Part THREE
ANALYSIS or EACH OF THE ELEMENTS OF A PREFERENTIAL SYSTEM 389
A. Techniques of limiting the impact of preferential imports on producers in the developed world 389
(1) The application of an escape clause 389
(2) The provision of a uniform tariff quota 391
(3) The extent of the duty reductions 395
B. The products on which preferences would be granted 396
(1) The objective and the problems involved in attaining it 396
(2) Methods for defining the products subject to preferences 397
(3) The question of special action regarding excluded items 398
C. The countries that would be prepared to grant preferences 399
(1) The objective 399
(2) The definition 399
(3) Tile same system applied by all developed countries? 399
D. The countries that would be eligible for the benefits of the preferential system? 400
B. Provisions for the less-advanced among the developing countries 401
(1) General considerations 401
(2) Pitfalls to avoid 402
(3) Limiting the period during which preferences can be enjoyed on a particular item_.... 403
(4) Suitable adaptation of the criteria for applying the escape clause or tile tariff quota~ 403
(5) A permanent mechanism for reviewing the working of the system from the point of
view of equitable sharing of the benefits 404
(6) The question of preferences by the more-advanced developing countries for the less-
advanced 404
(7) Special financial and technical assistance measures 405
F. The duration of the preferential system 406
(1) The arguments for limiting the duration 406
(2) Alternative ways of dealing with the problem of duration 406
G. The relationship of a new preferential system to the preferential arrangements now- existing
between some developed and some developing countries 407
(1) The objective 407
(2) Tile problem of measuring equivalence 408
(3) The escape-clause system in relationship to existing systems 409
(4) Tile tariff-quota system in relationship to existing systems 409
(5) The review- of the equivalence of advantages 410
(6) The problem of reciprocal preferences 410
H. The question of possible paraliel obligations on the part of the developing countries 412
I. institutional arrangements 413
K. Summary of tile main features of a preferential system 413
I United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Trade and Development Board, Committee
on Manufactures, group on preferences, second session, Geneva, July 4 1967, item 3 of the provisional
agenda.
380
PAGENO="0385"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 381
Part ONE
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
A. INTE0Du0TION
1. At the first United Nations Conference on Trade and Development the need
to expand and diversify exports of manufactures and semi-manufactures from
developing countries was recognized without dissent (recommendation A.III.4).
To fulfill this need, various forms of action were recommended to developed and
developing countries. One form of action, however, i.e. the granting of prefer-
ences on a general and non-reciprocal basis, while supported by all developing
countries, did not meet with the approval of all developed countries (recom-
mendation A.III.5; see also General Principle Eight). It was, therefore, referred
to the continuing machinery emerging from the Conference. Since then a number
of proposals and studies have been made and discussed in various organs of
UNCTAD. Studies have also been made by other interested bodies in response
to the recommendations of the Conference. Presently, it would seem that there
is growing support for the principle of granting preferences to developing coun-
tries. However, equal progress has not been achieved with respect tO the specific
content of the system to be established. The present paper is intended to study
in somewhat greater detail than hitherto the various elements and technicalities
of a preferenial system.
2. In defining the specific content of a scheme it is necessary, however, not
to lose sight of the basic aims of a preferential system, nor to ignore the doubts
that have been raised regarding the principle itself or certain of its features.
In the first part of this paper, therefore, the arguments in support of a pref-
erential system will be briefly recapitulated, as well as some of the doubts that
have been expressed during previous discussions of the issue. In the second
part, the concrete elements of a preferential system will be broadly outlined,
and the main problems that arise with respect to each of them will be cited. The
basic alternatives of general preferential systems will be sketched. The third
part contains the detailed examination of the various elements, and ends with
a summary of the conclusions regarding each.
B. THE GENRRAL CASE FOR BETTER AccEss
3. It is important to distinguish at the outset between the case for improved
access in general and that for preferences in particular. The arguments for
improved access in general are largely accepted by all countries, including
those which may be skeptical about preferential access. It is well recognized
that the export earnings of developing countries are expanding at rates far below
their development needs. The law elasticities of demand, the decreasing raw
material content of industrial products resulting from technological progress,
and growing production of both natural and synthetic materials in the developed
countries, have severely limited the potentialities of expansion of many primary
exports. Manufactured products, in contrast, are largely free from such limita-
tions. Accordingly, the establishment of better conditions of access for manu-
factures and semi-manufactures should serve to alleviate one of the bottlenecks
in the process of economic development. Apart from the slow growth of export
earnings, the severe fluctuations in the prices of many primary commodities
introduce an element of uncertain and instability as to export proceeds which
militates against orderly planning. Therefore, an increase in the relative share
of industrial products in the total exports of developing countries would help to
provide a greater degree of stability in their external earnings.
4. Under the present conditions of access, developing countries tend to adopt
inward-looking industrialization policies. In many cases, in particular at early
stages of development, such policies may be difficult to avoid. However, beyond
the stage of simple consumer goods which may be sustained by the home market,
import-substitution policies tend to become progressively more costly. The re-
moval of trade barriers facing developing countries would help to promote an
export-oriented outlook of the industrialization efforts.
* 5. One of the basic characteristics of tariff regimes in the developed countries
is the escalation of rates from the lower to the higher stages of processing.
Thus, duties on crude materials may be nil, but they tend to rise on simply-
processed forms, and become high on finished products: Such a pattern has the
S2-1S1-67-vol. I-25
PAGENO="0386"
382 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN ThADE POLICY
effect of inhibiting the location of industries at the site of raw materials.1 Under
conditions of free access it is to be expected that it would be profitable for a
larger proportion of future investments in processing industries to be made in
developing countries close to the source of raw materials with a view to export-
ing the goods concerned towards the developed countries.
6. The elimination of barriers to imports from developing countries would
redound to the advantage, not only of developing countries, but also of developed
countries. The increased earnings from industrial exports would enhance the
import capacity of developing countries and thereby promote exports by devel-
oped countries. Equally important is the more rational allocation of resources that
would ensue. At present, labour is kept in relatively less competitive industries
through the edifice of protection. At the same time the high level of demand in
a number of developed countries has created a condition of labour shortage lim-
iting, in some cases, the growth potential of the economy. This has been aggra-
vated in some countries by the depletion of the traditional reservoir of labour
which the agricultural sector constituted for industry. Increased imports from
developing countries would therefore mitigate the labour shortage, reduce the
inflationary pressure and promote a better pattern of resource allocation. Labour
would be utilized in a more rational manner in more advanced fields of manu-
facturing where the rise in wages could be better sustained by a corresponding
growth of productivity. Instead of using imported labour to maintain or even
expand the traditional less competitive industries, the developed countries would
import goods.
C. ThE CASE F~R PREFERENCES
7. Broadly speaking, the above advantages will be greater the lower the trade
barriers facing developing countries. It is not to be excluded that at some time
the aim of universally free trade will be achieved. Obviously, however, this is
not something that could reasonably be counted upon in the near future. In the
meantime the trade in manufactures and semi-manufactures will have to contend
with barriers which, even after the conclusion of the Kennedy Round, remain,
to developing countries in any event, considerable. At any rate it is uncertain
whether the Kennedy Round would in the near future be followed by another
of comparable coverage and intent. Furthermore, negotiations on a most-favored-
nation basis are not likely to take sufficient account of the specific interests of
developing countries. The fact that these are at best marginal suppliers in the
vast majority of cases tends to impair seriously their bargaining position.
8. Yet, developing countries' trade problems are so urgent that in order to
improve access for their industrial exports they should not have to depend on
whether or not it will be possible to undertake a new round of negotiations on
an m.f.n. basis. It may be argued that developing countries should not have to
wait for agreement among developed countries before attention is paid to their
trade problems, and difficulties that might exist for further expanding trade
among developed countries should not impede progress for the developing coun-
tries. Therefore it may appear justified to consecrate the next step in world
trade to the liberalization of the imports from developing countries.
9. The case for preferences rests on more than the limitations inherent in tariff
reductions on an m.f.n. basis. Paradoxically, preferences would be a means for
enabling the developing countries to come closer to real equality of treatment.
The traditional m.f.n. principle is designed to establish equality of treatment
among the various sellers to a particular market, but it does not ensure equality
of treatment in several respects that are of considerable importance to develop-
ing countries. First, unless the m.f.n. tariff is zero, there is no equality of treat-
inent with the domestic producers, nor with the producers inside the recently
established regional groupings in the developed world. Secondly, the m.f.n. prin-
ciple does not take account of the fact that there are in the world inequalities in
economic structure and levels of development; to treat equally countries that
are economically unequal constitutes equality of treatment only from a formal
point of view but amounts actually to inequality of treatment. Third, partly as a
result of negotiations conducted on the basis of reciprocity and of the m.f.n. clause,
typical manufactured and semi-manufactured export products of developing coun-
tries are frequently subject to higher nominal and, in most cases still higher,
effective duties than typical imports from developed countries. Preferential reduc-
1 ThIs subject has been treated in some detail in two papers prepared for the Committee
on Manufactures (TD/B/C.2/25 and TD/B/C.2/36).
PAGENO="0387"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 383
tions on imports from developing countries bring them closer to achieving equality
of treatment with producers inside the national or multi-national markets, take
into account the fact that they are at a lower level of development, and correct a
situation where they have in actual fact disadvantages in comparison with im-
ports from developed countries.
10. The establishment of a preferential system for all developing countries
could prevent the proliferation of mutually exclusive preferential systems limited
to some developed and some developing countries. The choice at present is not
between maintaining m.f.n. treatment and establishing a general preferential
system for all developing countries; it is rather a choice between a general system
of preferences on the one hand and mutually exclusive preferential systems on
the other. If no such general system could be established, it would be difficult to
avoid a situation in which these developing countries which now do not enjoy
preferences anywhere, would be granted preferences in at least some of the
developed countries.
11. Preferences for the developing countries would be a means for correcting
the increasingly disadvantageous situation of the developing countries', exports
resulting from the formation of ever-increasing regional groupings among
developed countries. Among the countries outside these groupings, the develop-
ing countries tend to be most vulnerable to such differential treatment since their
cost structures and flexibility of production may be less able to absorb the new
competitive disadvantages created by the discriminatory tariff margin in favour
of the developed partners inside the regional groupings. As a result of such group-
ings and other preferential arrangements, almost two-fifths of the total imports
of manufactured and semi-manufactured products of the developed countries
from non-socialist countries are already on a preferential basis, but mainly
from other developed countries. If additional developed countries enter EEC, as
they have announced their intention of doing or if alternative free-trade arrange-
ments are concluded between countries nonmembers of EEC, then more than half
of the developed countries' manufactured and semi-manufactured imports would
flow outside the m.f.n. system. In such a situation, it is difficult to assert that
countries outside of these groupings are enjoying "most-favoured-nation" treat-
ment. The formal application of the m.f.n. clause to developing countries means,
in the conditions of today, granting what' is in effect least-favoured-nation
treatment.
D. TUE DOUBTS CONCERNING PREFERENCES
12. Doubts have, however, been expressed regarding preferences. It has been
stated that after the conclusion of the Kennedy Round, the remaining duties will
be so low as not to constitute real obstacles for imports from developing
countries.
Preferential margins that could be granted would be trivial and at any rate not
sufficient to stimulate the developing countries' industrial exports. However
contrary to the initial intentions, the Kennedy Round has in many cases not
resulted in 50 per cent reductions of the existing tariffs. More important, the
effective tariffs, even after the Kennedy Round, are still very high precisely on
those goods which developing countries export and could expand in the immediate
future. That tariff margins remaining after the Kennedy Round are still sub-
stantial in the eyes of developed countries is shown also by the continued interest
of such countries in entering or becoming associated with the EEC.
13. It has been said that developing countries would not be able to stand com-
petition in the highly competitive markets of the developed world, even if they
enjoy equality of' treatment with domestic producers of the latter. No doubt, for
a certain number of goods, requiring considerable technological know-how,
developing countries could not compete even if they were granted equality of
treatment. On the other hand, there are several examples of developing countries
successfully exporting manufactures and semi-manufactures to the developed
world in spite of the fact that they have to overcome tariff barriers in these
countries. If these barriers were removed such exports could probably be stepped
lip. Moreover, if firms in developed countries know that they can count on import-
ing freely from developing countries, they `would in all likelihood in many cases
give serious consideration to establishing in developing countries some manu-
facturing processes which could be carried out there with cost advantages.
14 It is argued that developmg countries should first concentrate on what
they themselves could do for promoting. their exports before insisting on what
PAGENO="0388"
384 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
developed countries could do for them. Accordingly, for example, it is suggested
that developing countries will not be able to export, even if they are granted
preferences, unless they eliminate internal obstacles to export and adopt sound
export policies. Equally, it is said that they would not succeed in penetrating the
highly competitive markets of the developed world as long as they feel the need
to protect their industries by extremely high trade barriers against products
of other developing countries. There is no doubt an important element of
truth in these considerations. Benefits of the preferential system would only
accrue to those developing countries that take the necessary national action
that would make increased industrial exports possible. It is also true that for
products which developing countries want to export to the developed world, they
must be able to face a certain degree of competition in their own markets. De-
veloping countries would indeed be well advised to pay greater attention to each
other's markets because they could sell products there which might have diffi-
culties in penetrating into developed countries' markets.' Action in these re-
spects could be taken simultaneously with the introduction of the preferential
systems. Moreover, the Trade and Development Board at its fifth session in
August/September this year will examine what kind of action programmes de-
veloping countries could adopt to further their mutual trade.
15. Preferences are said to create a vested interest on the part of the develop-
ing countries against further reductions on m.f.n. basis. These countries might,
after the establishment of a preferential system, favour the maintenance of non-
preferential import duties in developed countries at the highest possible level.
That such a risk exists as indicated by the fact that it has been especially difficult
to reduce duties on items on which some developing countries enjoyed special
preferences. It would, however, be short-sighted to try, in connexion with the
setting-up of a general preferential system, to prevent the developed countries
from further reducing the barriers on each other's trade. This might have ad-
vantages from the viewpoint of some short-term interests of the developing coun-
tries. But the freeing of world trade has been a powerful factor of growth in the
developed world, and the retardation of this rate of growth would in turn ulti-
mately have negative effects on the developing countries themselves. Such conse-
quences are, however, not necessarily inherent in a system of preferences. It
could be specifically provided that there would be no need to maintain preferential
margins in favour of developing countries and that countries granting prefer-
ences would be able at any time to extend the duty reductions or eliminations on
an m.f.n. basis. When conceived in this way, a preferential system for developing
countries would be a step towards the liberalization of world trade as a whole in
the sense that first priority would be given to reducing barriers on the imports
from those countries that are most in need.
16. It is sometimes argued that only a few developing countries would benefit
from the establishment of a preferential system. Inasmuch as only a dozen coun-
tries at present account for about 75 per cent of the developing countries' total
industrial exports, it cannot be denied that these developing countries will, at
the outset of the preferential system. probably enjoy greater immediate benefits.
But these industrially more advanced developing countries are. at least in some
cases. those where per capita income is particularly low or other development
problems present themselves with particular acuteness. Moreover, with respect
to other measures discussed in IJNCTAD (related to primary commodities, financ-
ing, regional integration, etc.). less-advanced developing countries can often be
expected to gain greater benefits than more-advanced ones, and it is clear that
not every developing country can expect to obtain an equal advantage from every
policy measure recommended by UNCTAD. This being said, it is possible arid
necessary to provide. in connexion with the establishment of a preferential sys-
1 Why trade amonr developing countries cannot be a subtitute for Increased inc1ustri~1
exports to the developed world has been explaIned in document TD/B/85. Chanter V.
paragraphs 5 to 11. These reasons can be briefly stated as follows: first. develoninr coun-
fries experiencing balance of payments difficulties or depending on customs revenue for
their national budgets. have greater difficulties in successfully negotiating trade liberaliza-
tion among themselves than developed countries have. Secondly, even if such agreeme~'~a
are negotiated, the deficiencies of the infrastructural links between developing countries
still give a greater advantage to imports from developed countries. Thirdly, It cannot he
generally asserted that the markets of other developing countries are less competitive: for
fudeed, the large international firms of developed countries are very often also present in
the markets of other developing countries. Lastly. the purchaslngpower of other develop-
I"g countries-Is -often so low that It cannot absorb the output of certain types of industry.
To attain sufficient economIes of scale, they also need access to the markets of developed
countries.
PAGENO="0389"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 385
tem, for special measures and mechanisms to ensure more effective participation
by the less-advanced among the developing countries in the benefits of the system
(see Part Three, Section E below).
17. It is pointed out that imports from developing countries might create
unemployment in certain branches of industry in developed countries. Apart
from the fact that under recent conditions of relative labour shortage in many
developed countries, displaced labour could be more advantageously employed
in technologically more advanced branches, the changes in industrial produc-
tion that occur all the time as a result or technological developments are, in
most cases, considerably greater than those which might result from imports
from developing countries. Developed countries have accepted, in their regional
groupings, commitments for the reduction of trade barriers which also caused
fears in certain industrial sectors. On account of the gradualness of the entry
into force of these commitments, and in view of maintenance of adequate over-all
demand and provision for internal adjustment measures, the developed coun-
tries were perfectly able to cope with these problems. It is difficult to see why
they should not be able to cope with similar problems that might result from
imports from developing countries which have such a small share of world
industrial exports. Considering the great size of the market in the developed
countries, a manifold increase in imports from developing countries can be
easily accommodated in the normal growth of the market. At any rate, provision
can be made in the preferential system to take account of such problems of
domestic producers (see Part Three, Section A below).
18. The establishment of a system of preferences has been said to involve
particular disadvantages for those developed countries that are already partly
or totally outside the large regional markets which have been formed in the
developed world. In particular those countries might be hit that may not qualify
as developing countries but that are on a lower level of industrial development
than the bulk of tIme developed countries. No doubt, it can hardly be the purpose
of a preferential system for developing countries that the weaker or otherwise
handicapped developed countries should bear the main burden of the system.
Special measures nìay therefore be necessary to safeguard the interests of such
third-country suppliers, just as care is to be taken that domestic producers are
not seriously injured by the establishment of the system. (See Part Three,
Section A below.)
PART Two
OUTLINE OF SPECIFIC ELEMENTS OF A PREFERENTIAL SYSTEM
A. THE OBJEcTIvE
19. For examining the concrete features of a possible preferential system for
industrial exports from developing countries, it is convenient to take as point of
departure the system which the developing countries had themselves proposed
at the first Conference on Trade and Development and reiterated at the May
1965 meeting of the Special Committee on Preferences. The essential features
of this system are as follows: all developed countries should grant, for all
manufactures and semi-manufactures toward all developing countries, duty-
free preferential access to their markets without limitation on volume. The
developing countries recognized, however, that the duration of the preferences
should he limited in time and that it should be possible, under certain condi-
tions, for the developed countries to exclude products from the benefits of the
system and to apply safeguard clauses. On the other hand, the system should
take into account the special needs of the less-advanced developing countries
and provide, for those developing countries that presently enjoy preferences in
developed countries, advantages at least equivalent to those which are now
enjoyed so that these existing preferences can be suspended. Suitable interna-
tional supervision will have to be provided for. The system summarily described
is largely similar to that adopted as a working hypothesis by the Group on
Preferences at its first session in August 1966 (see report on the session,
TD/B/84).
B. THE QuEsTIoN OF NEGOTIABILITY
20. A system along the lines just sketched would no doubt be the optimum
solution for enhancing the developing countries' opportunities of exporting
industrial products. Once there is clarity about the ideal solution, however,
82-1SI-67----vol. I-26
PAGENO="0390"
386 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
there arises the much more difficult question as to what would be a negotiable
or acceptable solution. This negotiability or acceptability will to a large extent
depend on the manner in which the concrete features of a system take into
account the concerns that have been expressed in the previous discussion on
this issue (see Part One, section P above). An intimate knowledge and apprecia-
tion of each of the participating countries' negotiating problems would facilitate
the finding of formulae leading to the establishment of a mutually satisfactory
system.
21. When solutions are to be found to all these problems, it is unavoidable
that some of the expectations which developing countries have attached to the
setting up of a system of preferences will not fully materialize. There is a risk
that the ways and means chosen to meet the concerns or special wishes of the
participating countries would unduly weaken the effectiveness of the system
itself, To avoid this consequence, it will be necessary to reconcile two equally
important requirements: on the one hand, of providing for the developing coun-
tries substantially better access to the markets in the developed world and; on
the other hand, of paying serious attention to the problems of negotiability and
acceptability faced particularly by the governments of the developed countries.
C. THE PROBLEMS ARISING WITH RESPECT To EACH or THE ELEMENTS OF A
GENERAL PREFERENTIAL SYSTEM
22. When the system outlined in paragraph 19 above is to become the object
of a concrete commitment on the part of the developed countries, the following
negotiating problems are bound to arise in relation to each of its elements:
(a) With respect to the aim of granting duty-free access without limita-
tions on volume, assurances will have to be provided to producers in the
developed countries to safeguard them against a conceivable negative impact
of the system on their essential interests. Various measures can be envisaged
for this purpose: should an escape clause be provided for, to be applied
only in case of serious injury occurring to producers of developed countries,
or should the volume of admissible preferential imports or the extent of the
duty reduction already at the outset be limited for all products? Would
provision have to be made for the various methods to be applied to safe-
guard only essential interests of domestic producers or should interests of
third-country suppliers of the developed countries concerned also be taken
into account?
(b) With respect to the aim of including all manufactures and semi-
manufactures, certain items of processed agricultural products in some
countries as well as highly protected industrial products including those
still under quantitative restrictions, present special problems. Ways and
means should be found for including processed agricultural products even
where the high trade barriers sometimes reflect the protection granted to
the domestic agricultural raw material that has been used. Due account
will have to be taken of how to deal with products now subject to quantita-
tive restrictions. Provision may have to be made for enabling individual
developed countries to exclude from the beginning certain items from the
scope of the preferential system, while at the same time ensuring com-
parable participation by the various developed countries.
(c) With respect to the aim that all developed countries should grant
preferences, the question arises whether the establishment of the system
should be made conditional on the participation of all these countries.
Furthermore, it must be considered whether all should apply essentially
the same system and how account might be taken of differences in the
degree of industrialization of these countries and of the special foreign
trade regimes of the socialist countries of eastern Europe.
(d) With respect to the aim of granting preferences to all developing
countries, the question arises as to which countries are to be regarded
as developing. Special consideration will have to be given to the problem
of so-called borderline countries.
(e) With respect to the special needs of the less-advanced among the
developing countries, the countries concerned should be able to rely on
the solutions envisaged, while at the same time the system should not
become too complicated to operate for the developed countries.
PAGENO="0391"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 387
(f) With respect to the duration, the solutions envisaged would have to
ensure the temporary nature of the system, while at the same time enabling
the late-centers to industrialization to count on preferential access for a
sufficiently long period.
(g) With respect to the suspension of the existing systems, or their
absorption insofar as they relate to manufactures and semi-manufactures,
the problem arises as to how to appraise and secure the equivalence of the
new system with the old ones. Solutions may also have to be found for the
question of reverse prefereiices. ,
(h) With respect to the need for suitable international review, care will
have to be taken that the institutional framework chosen for this purpose
would include all participating countries and thus be of a universal nature.
23. It is the purpose of this report to show how all these special problems cdn
find adequate solutions within the framework of a general preferential system.
Accordingly, the adaptations of the ideal systems that are necessary to take into
account the various considerations of negotiability would be introduced as ex-
ceptions to, or qualifications of, the general applicable across-the-board rules. In
particular, the targets for tariff eliminations or reductions and the means for
possible limitations of the volume would in principle be the same for all products
and for all developing and developed countries. Of course, the provision of ex-
ceptions to, these targets would result in introducing elements of flexibility and
selecti\ ity into a general system of preferences This selectr~ ity would however
have to be exercised in conformity with certain guide-lines and uniformly ap-
plicable criteria. The extent to which such selectivity could be applied would also
be limited.
24 A basic distinction must however be made between a general system of
preferences that provides for the introduction of elements of selectr~ ity and a
selective system of preferences. In a system of the latter type, no general appli-
cable targets for duty reductions would be set. The means for, and extent of,
volume limitations would also vary from product to product and from country
to country. While some general guidelines as to the margin, of preference or the
admissible volume might be included in such systems, their characteristic is
that each developed country or group of countries woCid itself decide which
action to take with `respect to each item or each group of items. In ,a selective
system it might even be pros ided that the countries which grant the preferences
could decide which would be the beneficiaries of these preferences. This would
greatly facilitate the acceptance of a system of preferences by various developed
countries as they could take into account, with respect `to each' item, the domestic
and third-country suppliers' interests as well as the interests of those developing
countries with which they have special links. But there would be great uncer-
tainty as to whether the preferences to be granted would then really be sub-
stantial and of any real assistance .to the exports from developing countries.
Since tariff rates and/or tariff quotas applicable to the developing countries
would vary from product to product, laborious item-by-item negotiations on a
multitude of products may be necessary. There would be a risk that non-
economic criteria would be applied in deciding on the concessions to be granted.
Also, the administration of such a system would pose special problems in view
of the fact that the situation may be different with respect to each product.
There would be no assurance of burden-sharing among developed countries, nor
would it be possible to absorb or suspend existing systems since they are general
and not selective in nature. The establishment of a selective system of prefer-
ences would therefore be inconsistent with the proposal made by the developing
countries and with the working hypothesis adopted by the UNCPAD Group on
Preferences (TD/B/84).
25. For these reasons, the possible application of a selective system of pré-
ferences is not examined further in the present report. Also, in such a system the
various problems such as the replacement of existing systems, the definition of
products and countries eligible for preferences', and the treatment of the less-
advanced developing countries, present themselves in a completely different
light and call for `substantially different solutions from those envisaged in
connexion with a general preferential system. The following chapters of this
report therefore concern only the technical ways and means of implementing
a general system of preferences'. `
PAGENO="0392"
388 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
D. THE VARIOUS INTERDEPENDENT MEANS FOR LIMITING THE IMPACT OF A
PREFERENTIAL SYSTEM ON THE DEVELOPED CouNTRIEs' INTERESTS
26. Among the preoccupations affecting the negotiability of a system, the most
important ones are likely to be, first, the effects of the preferential system upon
domestic producers and, secondly, its consequences upon trade relations among
developed countries, i.e., with countries to which the most-favoured-nation clause
would continue to apply. The first aspect is a familiar one: in all negotiations
on the reduction of trade barriers, governments are concerned with the need to
avoid undue damage to their country's domestic producers. The second aspect
is, however, novel and specific to the establishment of any system of preferences
including preferences among members of a regional grouping. Third-country
suppliers to the developed countries granting the preferences may be affected
because, contrary to what happens in reductions on the traditional m.f.n.
basis. the conditions of access for third countries would not improve, but might
rather deteriorate. This type of preoccupation may also have to be taken into
account when considering the means of improving the negotiability of the system
from the developed countries' point of view. It should, however, not be forgotten
that the fears of domestic producers in connexion with trade liberalization com-
mitments have in the past in most cases not been borne out by the subsequent
developments. As to the interests of third countries, no special measures were
provided in their favour when certain developed countries freed trade among
thems~elves within regional groupings. To the extent that third developed
countries possess technological superiority and differenciated industrial struc-
tures as compared to developing countries, they might be in a better position to
offset the new preferential advantages envisaged for the developing countries
than may have been the case with respect to the similar advantages granted to
developed countries within these regional groupings.
27. For dealing with these preoccupations and safeguarding what developed
countries may regard as their essential interests, a variety of means enter into
account:
Narrowing the product coverage;
Providing for mere duty reductions in lieu of duty abolitions;
Limiting in advance the volume of imports that would in any case be ad-
mitted at the preferential rate;
Providing for an escape clause that would permit partial or total with-
drawal of preferential treatment in ease of serious injury to producers
in developed countries.
28. Each of the methods listed can be used for limiting unfavourable effects
of the preferential system on the interests of domestic producers or third-country
nonpreferential suppliers. Moreover, the more the developed countries can rely
on resorting to one or other of these means, the less they are likely to need the
others. Thus, if the definition of the list of semi-manufactures is very wide and
includes for instance the early stages of processing of agricultural primary
goods, the more the developed countries might feel that they need possibilities
to limit in advance the volume and the depth of reductions. If, on the other hand,
the product coverage does not include certain sensitive items, the developed
countries are likely to be more relaxed about the advance limitations of volume,
the depth of the reduction or the escape clauses. Finally, if the volume is limited
iii advance or mere duty reductions are called for, the narrowing of the product
coverage becomes a safeguard instrument of lesser importance from the point of
view of the developed countries. This mutual interdependence of the various
possible safeguards has to be taken into account in the discussions and negotia-
tions leading to the establishment of a preferential system. Otherwise. seemingly
satisfactory solutions for the interests of the developing countries with regard
to one of the techniques may be frustrated by provisions regarding another.
For the developing countries to avoid losing on one score what they gain on an-
other, the total picture must constantly be kept in mind and evaluated.
E. THE SAFEGUARD ARRANGEMENTS AS A KEY TO DISTINGUISHING AMONG VARIOUS
GENERAL PREFERENTIAL SYSTEMS
29. Not only do the various means of safeguard depend on each other, but also
the solutions to be found for the basic elements of a preferential system depend
on the kind of safeguard provided for in the system. For example, the question
PAGENO="0393"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 389
of the suspension of existing preferential systems, as well as that of the special
arrangements for the less-advanced countries, presents itself in somewhat dif-
ferent terms if the volume admissible at the preferential rate is, in principle,
unlimited and the tariffs are eliminated or if provision is made for volumes
limited in advance or for mere tariff reduction.
30. It would therefore appear to be a proper methodological approach first to
analyse the various safeguard techniques that can be provided, starting with the
escape clause and the limitations to the admissible volume and to the depth of
the tariff cuts. The other elements of a preferential system would be examined
subsequently, and with respect to each of them it would be shown to what extent
the solution might have to differ depending on the safeguard arrangements
chosen. According to this methodology one might iii theory distinguish three
different approaches to general preferences based on largely uniform commit-
inents by all developed countries:
(a) A system based on the escape clause (hereafter referred to as the
"escape-clause system") : the assumption is that under this system duties
would be eliminated and that there would be no advance limitation of
*the imports admissible on a preferential basis. Developed countries could,
however, resort to an escape clause if certain criteria and conditions are
fulfilled. In application of the escape clause, the volume of the imports
and/or the scope of the reductions could be temporarily limited when serious
injury to producers in the developed countries is caused or threatened.
(b) A system based on tariff quotas expressed in terms of a percentage
of consumption, production, or total imports of a particular item (hereafter
referred to as the "tariff-quota system"). One assumption is the perentage
would be identical for all products for which preferences have to be granted
and that duties would be eliminated on an import volume corresponding
to the quota. Even if there is no threat or injury to producers, the importing
country could impose the m.f.n. tariff on imports exceeding this quota.
(c) A system based on a uniform duty reduction on all items for which
preferences have to be granted (hereafter referred to as the "duty reduc-
tion system"). The assumption is that under this system the volume would
not be limited in advance, but could be limited only if the criteria and
conditions for the application of an escape clause are fulfilled with regard
to a specific item.
31. Of course, a combination of the three above systems can also be imagined.
For instance, it would be quite possible to combine the tariff quota system with an
across-the-board tariff reduction rather than with duty-free entry. There are
practical reasons why only the three systems mentioned above will be referred
to in the subsequent chapters of this report: the developing countries' proposal
is an escape clause system with duty-free entry. As to the uniform tariff-quota
system, one of the main arguments for it is that it would grant duty-free entry
to industrial imports from developing countries. As to the reduced duty system.
the limitation of the depth of the reductions would already constitute a safe-
guard for developed countries so that it could in this case less easily be argued that
in addition a general tariff quota would be necessary; the reduced-duty system
is thus discussed on the assumption that it would be combined with an escape
clause only.'
Part THREE
ANALYSIS OF EACH OF THE ELEMENTS OF A PREFERENTIAL SYSTEM
A. TECHNIQUES OF Ln'rrriNo THE IMPACT OF PREFERENTIAL IMPORTS
ox PRODUCERS IN THE DEVELOPFD WORLD
(1) THE APPLICATION OF AN E5CAPE CLAUSE
(a) Its operation and advances
32. In order that reductions of trade barriers agreed upon by an importing
country do not lead to serious injury to domestic producers. the country is
usually enabled temporarily to suspend the obligations, provided certain condi-
tions are met. Considerable practical experience is available with regard to the
1 It Is also possible to envisage a system that combines certain characteristic features
both of the escape-clause and of the tariff-quota system, but for simplicity of exposition
and analysis, the pure forms of each system are being discussed at this time.
PAGENO="0394"
T~ FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
operation of such an escape clause since it is provided for in GATT, EEC, EFTA
etc., though the details differ. An escape clause could therefore be incorporated
into a preferential system for developing countries' industrial exports. Ac-
cordingly, imports at preferential rates of a particular item into a developed
country would in principle be unlimited, but if as a result of the preferences any
product is *being imported in such increased quantities as to cause serious
injury to domestic or third country producers of like or directly competitive
products, application of the preferential tariff could be in principle fully or
partially suspended temporarily.
33. The advantages of this system is that it places no limitations on the volume
of imports enjoying preferential treatment. For this very reason, it also possesses
the second advantage of not appearing to offer less than the existing preferential
systems between some developed and some developing countries, since these
systems do not normally provide for an ea, ante limitation of preferential im-
ports. Thirdly, the system does not give rise to administrative complications be-
cause limitations would only be established in the presumably few cases where
real injury occurs. Fourthly, in an escape-clause system it would be possible to
direct the remedial action against that developing country which is causing
serious injury; the limitations need not be applied to the imports of the other
developing countries.
(b) The problems, and ways of dealing witib them
34. The escape-clause system also gives rise, however, to some problems that
may to some extent be taken care of by specific provisions.
35. The escape clause is usually resorted to unilaterally by the importing
country which relies on its own judgment as to whether a sufficiently serious
injury has occurred. Once the action is taken, it is as a rule difficult to induce the
country concerned to reverse it soon. though the temporary character of the
limitations and special review- procedures may be provided for. Developing
countries might therefore fear a cessation of imports at preferential rates as
soon as some problems arise in the importing country; this may make it more
difficult for them to plan their exports and to count on a certain volume being
admitted in all circumstances on preferential terms.
(i) One of the ways for dealing with this problem would be to provide
that the importing country would have to ask for prior approval by a
suitable international institution before it can resort to an escape clause.
Within the EEC such prior approval is provided for because it is consistent
with a series of other provisions establishing close economic solidarity
between the member States. In GATT, EFTA and indeed in a grouping of
developing countries like LAFTA the escape clause, though subject to
consultation. can however ultimately be invoked unilaterally. It may there-
fore be questioned whether the developed countries would be able to accept
that their right to defend what they may regard as their vital national
interests could only be exercised subject to the prior approval of an inter-
national body. Moreover, if recourse to the escape clause is to require prior
approval, developed countries will tend to insist on a narrower product
coverage and might tend to opt in favour of a tariff quota or reduced duty
instead of a duty-free system. If it is recognized, however, that developed
countries can unilaterally invoke temporarily the escape clause in an emer-
gency, they should, however, submit to consultation procedures as soon as
possible.
(ii) An alternative, more acceptable, means of giving a minimum guar-
antee to developing countries' exporters might be to provide that in the
case of the application of an escape clause the importing country could
not-even temporarily-suspend preferential treatment altogther, but would
have to maintain it for a minimum volume to be defined. The developing
country would thus be able to count on a minimum guarantee that would
be admitted in all circumstances. On the other hand, the domestic pro-
ducers of the developed countries would in this way be assured against
contractions of the absolute volume of their production.
36. The escape clause may be regarded as involving the risk that some devel-
oped countries would apply it sooner than others even if there were no threat of
a serious injury. Some developed countries may then bear a larger share than
others of the burden which additional imports from developing countries might
constitute. It might lead to additional pressures on the domestic market of the
more liberal developed countries, inducing them to take yestrictive measures in
their turn.
PAGENO="0395"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 391
(i) It is true that there is also some risk of abusive recourse to the
escape clause with respect to concessions made on a most-favored-nation
basis as in GATT; but it is probably much smaller because such con~ession's
are granted on the basis of reciprocity: when resorting to the escape clause,
the country is aware that concessions granted to it may be withdrawn in
turn. This inhibiting effect is less likely to exist with respect to developing
countries, which would not grant any conceSsion's in return for the prefer-
ences they would receive.
(ii) It `should however be possible to reduce any `such risk to manageable
proportions. In addition to the minimum guarantee as examined under para-
graph 35(u) above, special review procedures might be provided for in all
`cases where an escape `clai~se is applied. Accordingly, the country might b~
obliged to `report, after resorting to the clause, to UNOTAD on the progress
made towa'rd re-establishing preferential treatment or, a's the case may be,
on the rea'sons for not having `done so. The `report might also have to include
a d~etailed account of the industrial adjustment measures the country plans
to take with a view to being again able to grant preferential treatment.
These reports might form the basi's for a consultation and review procedure.
37. The escape `clause might be regarded by third `developed~country suppliers
as an insufficient guarantee again'st trade diversion occurring to their detriment.
Though it `could `be provided that the importing developed country can resort to
the escape `c1au~e in `case of serious injury to the detriment of its traditional
developed-country suppliers, the third `country would indeed have no certainty
that the importing country would actually use this possibility. It might there-
fore be provided that the importing developed country would have to take suit-
able measures if as a `result of the granting of preferences, imports from other
developed `countries decreased in absolute term's or have a si'bstantially reducec~
share of the mar1~et. One of these measures may be to `reduce the m.f.n. tariff.
InStitutional procedures may also have to be provided for.
38. A `special problem may a'ri'se between those countries participating in a
general preferential system that on the basis of existing bilateral or multi-lateral
agreements `between them `may, under certain `condition's, apply quantitativ~ re-
strictions to safeguard domestic producers against serious injury. This conse-
quence can be avoided if the partner's to existing agreements agree that in case
of injury they would first reim'po'se m.f.n. duties as a protective measure and
would resort to quantitative restriction's only if after a reasonable period of
time the restoration of m.f.n. treatment had not yielded adequate results. More-
over, it should not be possible to apply quantitative restrictions to the imports
from the developing countries alone.
(2) THE PROvISION OF A UNIFORM TARIFF QUOTA
(a) The various forms of its operation
39. Instead of `making the limitation of the volume dependent upon the occur-
ren'ce of a seriou's injury, it i's possible to conceive of a `system according to which
ea'ch `developed `country would be expected to a'dmit duty-free only a certain pre-
determined volume of imports corresponding to a certain percentage of domestic
consumption, production or total imports of the item `concerned. The percentage
cho'sen might be the `same for all products and all importing `countries. A's `soon
a's the imports frOm the developing `countries as a whole were to reach this `ceiling,
the developed country could without further justification `subject additional im-
ports of thi's item to the m.f.n. tariff. The importing country could take this action
~.ven if no injury `was `cau'sed. `Of course, the reference period on which `consump-
tion, production or import figures would be ba'sed `would have to be a'dju'sted at
regular interval's. Even if the tariff quota `had been filled in one year, it would be
poSsible `for all `developing countries to avail themselves of the ta'riff quota in
the next year.
40. An alternative `form of the tariff-quota system would be to use it to with-
draw preferential treatment from those ~eveloping ~`countries which with regard
to a particular item would have `shown that they a're particularly competitive.
`To achieve this purpose, it may be provided that preferential treatment could be
`withdrawn from the im'ports of that `developing country which would take up
`more than a `certain percentage (for instance, 33 per cent) of the tariff quota.
The consequence of such a'ction would be to grant to the other developing coun-
tries, an'd particularly to newcomers, the opportunity of taking up the `share of
PAGENO="0396"
392 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
the quota which `had hitherto been taken up by the first-mentioned country. The
withdrawal of preferential treatment could be gradual; licenses under the tariff
quota would remain available to the first-mentioned `country inasmuch as the
other countries would not use them.
41. This system of automatic exclusion of a particular country for a particular
item has the advantage of providing for a certain rotation among the
countries benefiting from the quotas. At first sight, the statistical criteria used
would also have the appearance of avoiding arbitrariness in excluding the really
competitive countries. This is, however, not necessarily the case. It may well
be that a country is excluded though it is not responsible for the fact that the
particular developed country felt the need to apply the `tariff quota. It is indeed
quite possible that the particularly competitive imports come from a country
that would take up only a small percentage of the quota. The method would also
work against the main supplier developing countries because their productive
capacity is such that they can probably more easily reach the percentage than
smaller developing countries. Another result of the application of the quota and
of the exclusion of some countries `would be that with respect to many items,
there would be different lists of countries benefiting from `the preferential system.
Since these lists might have to be adjusted whenever a tariff quota is filled and
the exclusion procedure applies, this might be regarded as an administrative
complication.
42. To take in to-account the possible objections to the system described in
paragraphs 40 and 41, a third variant may be conceived according to which it
would be provided `that a certain percentage of the tariff quota (for instance, 20
per cent) would every year be reserved to newcomers, i.e., non-traditional sup-
pliers. If this reserve were unutilized. it would be carried over to the next year
and `become available to all developing countries. This method would be an inter-
mediate one in the sense that non-traditional suppliers w-ould always `be able to
count on an opening while traditional or important supplying couatries `would
not risk being excluded altogether `from the benefits of the `preference (as may
happen under paragraph 40).
43. The methods listed under paragraphs 40 and 42 would provide largely
automatic `statistical criteria for progressively excluding particularly competi-
tive suppliers and/or for admitting newcomers. Another way of avoiding arbitrari-
ness might be to have the institutional framework regularly reviewed and decide
upon a case-by-case basis or upon pragmatic criteria to be evolved gradually.
(b) Its advantages
44. An appraisal of the probable results of such a system would, of course, de-
pend on the size of the uniform quota. If the tariff quota is large, few problems
would arise; if it is insufficiently large, the problems examined under su'b-section
(2) (c) below would be considerable. On the assumption that the size of the quota
is reasonable from the point of view of the developing countries' export capacity,
the following advantages can be seen in this system.
45. The tariff quota could constitute a guarantee for the developing countries
that preferential imports from them could not suddenly be stopped for alleged
m'arket disruption. This would enable developing countries to plan better their
exports to the various developed countries' markets.1
46. A uniform tariff quota for all products would make it possible to define
industrial products broadly, for it would be clear that the domestic producer
would only have to accept competition from developing countries for a relatively
small percentage of production, consumption or total imports. Developed coun-
tries' governments would `be able to argue that the domestic or third-country
pro'ducers should be able to stand competition for such a very minor share of
consumption, production or imports. This would certainly make it easier to deal
with domestic objections to a preferential scheme.
47. There would be an appearance of burden-sharing among developed coun-
tries because each of them could count on their partners taking up a similar
amount of exports from developing countries (see, however, paragraph 51
below).
1 Such a guarantee would, however, only exist if countries parties to existing Interna-
tional arrangements that permit the imposition of quantitative restrictions In case of
injury to domestic producers adapt them so as to ensure that such restrictions cannot he
applied befo'~e the tariff quota is reached and before the m.f.n. treatment has been again
applied for some time (see paragraph 3S above).
PAGENO="0397"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 393
48. The existence of pre-determined tariff quotas would allow third countries
to measure exactly in advance the risks to which they would `be subject. It
could, indeed, be provided that the importing developed country would impose
the tariff quota as soon as imports had reached the ceiling `and a third developed
country had asked for it being imposed.
(c) P'roblem.s common to all tariff-quota systems
49. After listing the advantages of a tariff-quota system, it may be useful to
examine the problems which arise in connexion with it. Some of these problems
are common to tariff-quota systems whether they are based on percentages of
consumption, production or total imports, while other problems are characteris-
tic either for a system `based on a percentage of consumption or production, or for
a system based on a percentage of imports. Among the common problems the
following can be mentioned.
50. A system based on generalized tariff quotas would require the introduc-
tion by developed countries of statistical control and further administrative
arrangements. Rules for the utilization of the quotas would have to be set up,
and it would be necessary to prevent abuses. To enable the developing countries
to gain the advantages of exporting at preferential rates, ihe importing countries
would therefore have to accept some administrative complications. In actual fact
these inconveniences would, however, be of rather limited scope. Indeed, in the
case of most products, the export capacity of the developing countries as a whole
aught likely remain far below the quota even if the latter amounted to a rela-
tively small percentage of consumption, production or total imports. Invocation
of the quota need therefore not occur before imports come close to this ceiling.
And even if the imports attain the amount of the quota, each importing country
would be free to decide whether or not to impose the quota; the insitution of the
quota could be limited to those cases where a domestic producer or a third devel-
oped country would specifically be asking for it. In determining the rules for ap-
plying the tariff quotas, the experience of the countries that presently already
apply tariff quotas would be very useful.
51. A general tariff quota may be said to limit preferential imports unnec-
cessarily, for it could be applied even in the absence of any injury. The tariff-
quota system can thus be regarded as establishing a presumption that in all or
most cases there is a risk of injury though in reality it is likely that in most
instances no problems for the importing country would arise. Moreover, it has
been pointed out that to argue in terms that imports should be limited to a certain
share of the market has often been the practice of protectionist elements, and to
establish the whole system of preferences on this basis might conceivably give
impetus to such elements.
52. It may be argued that the burden-sharing implied in a uniform tariff quota
is only apparent. Indeed, the ratio between present imports from developing coun-
tries on the one hand `and consumption, production and total imports on the other
hand vary widely from item to item and from country to country. For some
items, present imports at m.f.n. rates into some countries may already exceed
the tariff quota while in other countries such imports would still be far below
the ceiling. On some items, some developed countries might have to accept addi-
tional imports and others none at all. The additional burden represented by the
preferential system would, therefore, with respect to some items, fall on some
countries and with respect to other items, on other countries. In reply a partial
analogy may be drawn by recalling that for aid the developed countries have
accepted a uniform target in terms of a percentage of the gross national product.
Accordingly, a uniform percentage may be regarded as acceptable with respect
to imports from developing countries, for indeed the uniform percentage of the
gross national product also involves different additional commitments by each
developed country.
53. There is the undeniable risk that if a small percentage of consumption,
production or total imports is chosen as an upper limit for granting preferential
entry, most products presently exported from developing countries may not enjoy
the benefits of the new system. In many cases present imports from developing
countries would already exceed the tariff quota so that preferences could not
help promoting additional imports. It might be considered, however, that this
shortcoming would not be such as to reduce intolerably the value of a preferential
system for developing countries' industrial exports. It may indeed be argued
that the products which have hitherto been exported consti'tute only a very small
share of the items of the tariff nomenclature, and that this would be counter-
PAGENO="0398"
394 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
balanced in the long run by the fact that for all the other products countrIes
would be able to enjoy the preferences under the tariff quotas even if the per-
centage appears to be small. Also, products which have already proven their full
capacity of competing in the markets of developed countries, can be said to be
hardly in need of preferential advantages. On the other hand, if preferences are
justified not merely because the ~ndust'ries are in the infant stage, but on the basis
of the infant economy argument, even such exports should enjoy preferences
without being limited to the tariff quota.
54. The definition of the product to which the tariff quota would apply is likely
to prove one of the more difficult problems. Developing countries would naturally
wish to have such a broad definition as to mitigate the tariff quota restraint on
certain sub-items. Importing countries on the other hand will tend to define the
product so narrowly as to make .the tariff quota apply precisely in relation to
those sub-items which developing countries are supplying. To avoid such excessive
breakdown that would frustrate the purposes of the system, it would be necessary
to lay down certain guidelines combined with a review procedure.
55. Lastly, there is the problem that a system of tariff quotas would make it
more difficult to absorb or suspend existing preferential systems which appear
not to place any limit to imports (for further discussion see section C below).
(d) Considerations specifically related to a tariff-quota system based on a per-
centage of consumption or production
56. Consumption and production figures are in most cases either not available
at all or not available with respect to the items as classified and identified in
import stati~tics or tariff nomenclatures. This need be an obstacle because
consumption or production figures will only be required for those relatively few
items where total imports from developing countries would be substantial enough
to reach the percentage expressed in terms of the usually very large consumption
or production of a developed country of the item concerned. Only if a domestic
producer or a third country wants it, would the tariff quota have to be calculated.
At least as far as the domestic producers are concerned, it can therefore be
expected that they would supply the figures necessary for defending their own
interests.
57. To base the ceiling on a percentage of consumption or production, may in
some cases be particularly disadvantageous to third developed-country suppliers.
Indeed, when an importing developed country or group of countries possesses a
large internal market and relatively high tariff, its total imports of a particular
item from all countries may be `smaller than the tariff quota available to the
developing countries. For in these cases total imports may be very small in terms
of a percentage of consumption or production of a particular item. Third de-
veloped-country suppliers would then be at a disadvantage with respect to
developing countries for their total exports of that item to the developed markets
concerned. The burden on third developed countries would in those cases be
greater than that which domestic producers would have to bear, though from a
rational economic point of view it may be argued that the latter rather than
the former should be expected to adjust their pattern of production. This problem
may to some extent be remedied in a system where the tariff quota is calculated
in terms of a percentage of totalimports.
58. On the other hand, to take consumption as the basis for calculating the
ceiling is likely to have greater advantages from the point of view of developing
countries than to calculate the limitation in terms of production or particularly
imports. In case of `production, countries that do not produce a particular item
might escape the granting of preferences on a few items. In the case of imports,
protec'tionist countries could take advantage of their generally restrictive policy
for continuing to exclude imports from developing countries. Consumption, how-
ever, is considerable in all developed countries, and a percentage of consumption
may in nearly all circumstances mean fairly substantial quantities. Everything
will, of course, depend on the percentage chosen. Combinations might also be
envisaged; for instance, one in which the tariff quota would have to amount to
x per cent of domestic consumption but need not amount to more than y per cent
of total imports of a particular item.
(e) Considerations specifically related to a tariff-quota systeim based on a
percentage of total imports
59. A tariff-quota system based on a percentage of total imports would, as al-
ready mentioned, presumably `be of lesser interest to developing countries. For
PAGENO="0399"
THE FUTURE OF U.S~' FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 395
preferences can be of interest to developing countries particularly in those cases
where they would enjoy free access to otherwise highly protected markets and
where therefore the margin of perference is high. Where there are such tariffs,
total imports are likely to be small, so that a tariff quota calculated on this
basis would also be small. On the other hand, such a system may present some
advantages for the reasons listed in the following paragraphs.
60. A tariff-quota system based on total imports may be advantageous for
third developed supplier countries. To fix the upper limit in this manner would
provide an assurance to the latter countries that the imports from developing
countries that would be admitted on preferential terms could not exceed a cer-
tain percentage of total imports of a particular item.
61. To express the volume limitation in terms of a percentage of imports
may result in some advantage for developing countries in case of further reduc-
tions on an m.f.n. basis. While such reductions would reduce the developing
countries' margin of preference, they are also likely to lead to an increase in
total imports. Though percentage-wise the tariff quota would remain the same,
the increase in total imports would lead to an automatic increase of the
volume admitted under the quota. Tariff quotas expressed as a percentage of
total imports might therefore facilitate a possible increase in preferential im-
ports without hindering further reductions on an m.f.n. basis.
62. Finally, if the percentage is expressed in terms of total imports, it is
statistically much more easily ascertainable because in contrast to consumption
and production figures, import statistics are available and more reliable. This
would also mean that the developing countries could assess more easily the pos-
sibilities of the volume admissible under the tariff-quota system being fully
taken up; they could, therefore, for instance, agree to' discipline the rate of in-
crease of their exports to obviate the formal establishment of a quota.
(3) THE EXTENT OF THE DUTY REDUCTIONS
63. A major justification for granting the developing countries duty-free entry
is the existence and possible extension of large multi-national markets in the
developed world. A mere duty reduction on a preferential basis would still leave
developing countries at a disadvantage in relation to those of their competitors
which are producing within these multi-national markets. To obtain equality
of treatment with them, imports from developing countries would also have
to be admitted duty-free.
64. An additional reason for abolishing duties would be that existing prefer-
ential systems provide in many cases for duty-free entry. It would be more
difficult to absorb or suspend existing systems if the new preferential system
only provided for preferential duty reductions (see section G below for further
details).
65. The mere reduction of duties, on the other hand, would cause less con-
cern among producers in the developed countries than would an abolition of
duties. Developed countries might therefore be willing to envisage a wide pro-
duct coverage of the preferential system. Also the case that may be made for
general tariff quotas would be weaker than in case of general duty elimination.
66. It might be argued that mere duty reductions' would make it easier to
present the preferential system as an anticipation of cuts that would ultimately
be extended to all countries on an m.f.n. basis. It would presumably be easier,
in eventual future negotiations on an m.f.n. basis, to catch up with duty reduc-
tions than with outright duty elimination.
67. If the importing countries had only the all-or-nothing choice between
eliminating duties or excluding the item from the scope of the preferential
system altogether, opportunities for making more limited progress in the form
of mere reductions might be lost. If one were to find a way for providing, in
lieu of complete exclusion, for preferential duty reductions, it may be hoped
that the developed countries would include more of the so-called competitive
items within the scope of the preferential system.
68. One may try to compare whether developing countries would have a greater
interest in obtaining an across-the-hoard duty reduction for all items with no
advance limitation of the volume, or an across-the-hoard duty elimination, but
linked to a uniform tariff quota fixed in advance. Such a comparison is difficult
to make in the abstract, all the `more because it will depend on the margin of `the.
duty reduction envisaged and on `the relative size of the tariff quota. One may,
PAGENO="0400"
396 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
however, consider that obtaining zero duty and thus equality of treatment with
domestic producers in developed countries on the vast majority of items of the
tariff nomenclature would ultimately-even in connexion with a uniform tariff
quota-be more important than getting an across-the-board duty reduction which
may remain insignificant as far as the so-called competitive items are concerned
and insufficient for stimulating exports in new products.
69. The case for providing for mere tariff reductions presents itself. however,
in a different light if it is to be a mere complement to a system based essentially
on tariff elimination. When there are serious obstacles to complete tariff elimina-
tion for particular items, it is conceivable to envisage that tariff reductions could
be regarded as an alternative, provided certain conditions are met that could be
defined in advance.
70. While, on balance, tariff zero either in an escape clause or a tariff-quota
system will appear to be preferable, a case cnn be made out for enabling the
developed countries to attain this objective only gradually. The fact that the
reduction process was stretched out in EEC and EFTA over a period of about
ten years and in the United States Trade Expansion Act over five years, con-
tributed considerably to the political acceptability of the respective schemes.
Producers w-ouid have time to adapt themselves, and the case for excluding items
from the beginning would be weakened.
B. THE PRODUCTS ON WHICH PREFERENCES WOULD BE GRANTED
(1) THE OBJECTIVE AND THE PROBLEMS INVOLVED IN ATTAINING IT
71. According to the proposal of the developing countries and the w-orking
hypothesis of the Group on Preferences, preferences should, in principle, be ex-
tended to all manufacturers and semi-manufacturers from developing countries.
The wider the product coverage of a prefesential system, the larger would be the
field open for investors to choose production lines that could be located in develop-
ing countries with a view to exporting toward the developed world. To limit the
preferences to those products which are presently produced in developing coun-
tries would unnecessarily narrow the scope of the system; past experience shows
that various countries have in the last decade made rapid advances from a state
of under-development and have started producing and exporting goods which
could hardly be foreseen only a few years back. Also to grant preferences only on
the presently produced items would concentrate the attention of developing coun-
tries on lines of production for which developed countries often fear market dis-
ruption and tend to want to exclude from the system in one way or another.
72. However, to include all manufactures and semi-manufactures raises some
problems. Every country will indeed have some items which it regards as sensi-
tive and which it would want to except from the preferential system. Even in the
Kennedy Round where an across-the-board approach was aimed at, all major
developed countries submitted a list of exceptions. Among the products whose in-
clusion in a preferential system is likely to be called in question, two categories
deserve particular attention.
73. It w-ould be of considerable importance to the developing countries that
the definition of what are semi-manufactures and manufactures extends as far
as possible into the early stage of processing of primary products and partic-
ularly of processed agricultural products. Yet, such products are in some cases
highly protected partly inasmuch as these processing indutries are obliged to
use domestically-produced agricultural raw materials whose high price is par-
tially reflected in a high tariff or other protection on the processed product. In
such cases to eliminate completely the duty on the finished product might mean
that these domestic processing industries would-for reasons unrelated to the
efficiency of their transformation process-be put at a disadvantage with respect
to imported goods produced from cheap raw materials. If the processing indus-
tries w-ere to suffer as a result of this complete duty abolition, domestic agri-
culture might also be affected in those cases where a significant share of the
agricultural output concerned is taken up by these industries. Developed coun-
tries may. therefore, be hesitant to include in the preferential system such
products close to the agricultural sector though they may often be of particular
importance for the less-advanced among the developing countries.
74. When considering the various possible ways of dealing with processed
agricultural products, it might therefore be taken into account that existing
trade barriers on these products generally may be regarded as containing both
PAGENO="0401"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 397
an element of protection for the agricultural component of the finished product
and an element for protecting the industrial transformation process for the devel-
oping countries concerned. To eliminate only that part of the protection which
covers the industrial transformation process would ensure for the imports of
proccssed goods from developing countries equality of treatment as against
domestically-produced processed goods. In cases where the protection of the proc-
essing industry is high, the resulting benefits for developing countries may not be
negligible. On the other hand, whenever the agricultural inputs account for a high
proportion of the value of the finished product, the full use of export potential
of the developing countries for such products might still be severely inhibited
if a part of the duty were allowed to remain.'
75. Questions might also arise on how to deal with products now under quan-
titative restrictions. When quantitative restrictions are imposed on imports of
a product from all sources (developed and developing countries alike), the
granting of preferences on such products might allow the developing countries
to increase their exports and to obtain a larger share of the total imports
within the quota. Where, however, quantitative restrictions are imposed only
on imports from all or some developing countries, either in the form of global,
bilateral or unilateral quotas, the granting of preferences might have only a
limited positive effect on export earnings within the limits of the quota. Yet
consideration must also be given to the possibility that if tariff preferences are
granted on items under quantitative restrictions, domestic producers might
experience additional pressure and thus be led to adduce additional arguments in
favour of maintaining quantitative restrictions. Since a quantitative restriction
is in most cases a much more effective barrier to imports than any tariff,
it can be argued that nothing should be done that might in fact delay the
relaxation or abolition of such restrictions. Accordingly, a relaxation of the
restrictions might merit priority treatment, because even if the relaxation were
only gradual, it would probably yield greater benefits than would an expansion
within the quota of exports from developing countries.
(2) METHODS FOR DEFINING THE PRODUCTS SUBJECT TO PREFERENCES
79. The determination of the industrial products on which preferences should
he granted presents difficulties also on account of the fact that there exists no
internationally accepted definition of manufactures and semi-manufactures.
Some treaties (e.g. in the case of EEC and EFTA) contain definitions of what
may be regarded as agricultural products, so that they may be governed by
different rules from those applicable to industrial products. But in the Kennedy
Round negotiations, it was left to each country to draw a more or less clear
line between mostly non-agricultural, i.e., industrial, products subject to the
linear cut and agricultural products for which special arrangements were sought.
From the formal and informal lists thus established, it emerges that there are
products which are always regarded as industrial (particularly in Chapters
25 to 99 of the Brussels Tariff Nomenclature), others which are always regarded
as agricultural (particularly in Chapters 1 to 24), while others again are treated
by some groups or countries as industrial and by others as agricultural. Where
attempts have been made to agree on a common list (as in EEC and EFTA),
the negotiations have always been very difficult. These experiences have to be
taken into account when defining semi-manufactures and manufactures for the
purposes of drawing up a preferential system. Among the ways for solving the
problem the following would appear to deserve special consideration.
77. One method would be to establish a common positive list of manufactures
and semi-manufactures for which all developed countries would grant preferences
without exclusions. Accordingly, no attempt would be made to agree on a defini-
tion of what are industrial products. The approach would rather be merely to
pick out all items on which all developed countries could agree to grant prefer-
ences. However, this method is hardly to be recommended since even if one
`The calculation of the element of Industrial protection may sometime cause problems.
Tlie~e problems are, however, soluble, as has been shown by the experience in EFTA, where
countries were obliged to eliminate the protective element embodied in fiscal duties. In
EEC also, a distinction is made between the variable levy corresponding to the protection
of the agricultural input and the additional fixed tariff corresponding to the protection of
the industrial transformation process. For implementing a rule under which the element
of industrial protection would be eliminated some provision for a review procedure would
have to be allowed for.
PAGENO="0402"
398 `~IIE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
country were to consider a given item as sensitive, it would be necessarily ex-
cluded from the list. If other developed countries were also to do likewise and
exclude items which they regard as sensitive, the cumulative effect would be
considerably to reduce the product coverage.
78. An entirely opposite method would be to abandon the endeavor to arrive at
a common positive list and to leave it to each country to decide the items on which
it would wish to grant preferences. This method would inevitably be unsatisfac-
tory for it might lead to few effective preferences being granted, and this would
also create problems from the burden-sharing point of view. It is true that an
analogous method was employed in the Kennedy Round, because there was no
common determination a priori of the list of products that would be subject to the
linear cut. Yet, these negotiations were based on the principle of reciprocity, so
that the equalization~ of the burdens of each country was allowed for by means of
balancing the concessions granted. It was, therefore, unnecessary to ensure that
the list of exceptions was more or less mutually equivalent. Clearly, the granting
of preferences to developing countries cannot be based on the principle of reci-
procity. Therefore, if some provision cannot be made for each developed country
tO exert a more or less equivalent effort as regards preferences, some developed
countries might wish to grant preferences only on a restricted range of goods.
79. An intermediate method might consist in adopting a common definition of
what are manufactures and semi-manufactures. but at the same time permitting
each developed country to except certain items from the extension of preferences.
An upper limit for such exclusions would have to be provided for (e.g. in terms of
a percentage of each country's total imports of manufactures and semi-manufac-
tures) to take account of the comparable contribution aspect dealt with under
paragraph 78 above. This method might take it possible to arrive in principle at a
reasonably wide product coverage; at the same time each country could within
definite limits eliminate such items it regarded as sensitive, while other countries
could nevertheless include them in the preferential sector. Provision for in-
dividual countries to exclude selected items would probably also tend to facilitate
agreement on a common definition. It might then be possible to consider taking
as a basis the rather extensive list of semi-manufactures and manufactures sub-
mitted by the UNCTAD secretariat in document TD/B/C.2/3.
80. It will in any case be necessary to provide for criteria regarding the origin
of the products that would benefit from the preferential system. Consideration
might be given to the practicability of adopting the rules of origin envisaged by
Australia in respect of its preferential system for imports of manufactures and
semi-manufactures from developing countries. Under such a system, a product
would qualify for entry at the preferential rate of 50 percent or more if the labour
and material cost of the product was chargeable in a developing country and if
fiuial processing before export took place in the exporting developing country.
Here again, a complaint and review procedure would have to be provided for to
ensure that the developed countries follow this generally-agreed guide-line.
(3) THE QUESTION OF SPECIAL ACTION REGARDING EXCLUDED ITEMS
81. As soon as the need for a list of individual country exclusions is admitted,
the fact must be faced that the items which developed countries will wish to
exclude would often be those which developing countries would be able to export
at the present time. Many countries, for instance, may want to exclude cotton
and other textiles. Other countries may exclude leather and similar products,
but there will also be cases where only very few countries will utilize the oppor-
tunity of making an exclusion, while other countries would be ready to grant
preferences on them. Some exclusions might even be motivated by an importing
developed country's desire to maintain trade relations with other developed
countries.
82. If the risk of such exclusions could be accepted, this should not imply
that the mere maintenance of a status quo in their respect. On the contrary, it
may be possible to lay down some guide-lines and fix certain specific targets for
future negotiations regarding these products. Developed countries might w-ish,
for instance, to consider declaring formally that they would between now and
the third session of UNCTAD prepare a scheme to ensure that the protection
granted to domestic producers should be adjusted in such a way as to enable
developing countries to compete for any increase in the consumption of these
goods. Alternatively, they might propose that each developed country should
individually adopt trade policy measures (regarding tariffs and quantitative
PAGENO="0403"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 399
restrictions) designed to prevent domestic industries from expanding their pro-
duction beyond a fair share of the increase of consumption. In particular, with
regard to the so~called residual quantitative restrictions, on which consultations
have taken place over a great many years, it should now have become possible to
aim at establishing a specific programme providing for their elimination within
a reasonable period of time. With respect to the sensitive products, the develop-
ing countries may consider accepting the principle of an orderly expansion of
markets. Action along the lines envisaged in this paragraph would at any rate
have the advantage of emphasizing that the exclusion of products from pref-
erences would not imply that there would be no obligations regarding them.
C. THE CoUNTRIEs THAT WOULD Bn PREPARED To GRANT PREFERENCES
(1) THE OBJECTIVE
83. For a variety of reasons, the aim should be that all developed countries
can come to participate in the preferential system. First, the greater the number
of such countries participating, the larger will be the diversification opportunities
for the industrial exports. Secondly, each developed country could afford to grant
better conditions of access in proportion to the involvement of the developed
countries as a whole: in relation to the possible adverse impact of imports from
developing countries on the domestic producers of a particular developed coun-
try, the effect would be inversely proportional to the number of developed coun-
tries participating in the system. Thirdly, the more numerous the developed
countries that participate, the more a general preferential system can function
as a fully equivalent substitute for the existing systems. The non-participation
of one of the important developed markets would make more difficult any sus-
pension of the existing preferential systems.
84. On the other hand, of course, there may be some developed countries in
which the process of decision-making with regard to preferences may be more
protracted than in others. This need not be a reason why the other countries
should hesitate to proceed independently, since past experience shows that trade
liberalization action by some countries has in many cases had a catalytic effect
on the action adopted by other countries. It would, however, be desirable if the
system could enter into force at about the same time among all participating
countries; for in deciding on the extent to which the various available safeguards
can be applied and how the existing preferential systems are to be dealt with,
each developed country will need to know which other developed countries will
be associated in the same decisions.
(2) THE DEFINITION
85. There is no agreed definition concerning which countries are to be regarded
as developed. For very many countries that may be classified in this category
there is, however, rio dispute about their eligibility. On the other hand, there
are some countries which, while usually regarded as developed, may themselves
feel that they have not yet advanced far enough in their own industrialization
and still depend to a large extent upon exports of primary products. Such coun-
tries, for instance, in contrast to other developed countries, have been unwilling
to offer linear reductions in the Kennedy Round. It must be considered whether
similar considerations would apply not only in negotiations mainly with eco-
nomically stronger countries (as in the Kennedy Round), but also in connexion
with a preferential system in favour of weaker countries. At any rate, it would
appear that the problems of these countries could be taken into account in a man-
ner that would still enable them to participate in a general system of preferences.
Consideration might perhaps be given to granting such countries a longer period
in which to reach the target of duty abolition or reduction. Provision might also
be made for them to make initial exclusions for a larger percentage of their
imports.
(3) THE 5AME SYSTEM' APPLIED BY ALL DEVELOPED COUNTRIES?
86. To arrive at a system of preferences of which the detailed features and
mechanisms would be identical for all developed countries would be no easy task.
Yet, if the various developed countries were to apply different systems, it would
be very difficult to ensure the undertaking `of comparable efforts by all countries,
to decide on how to deal with existing systems, or to review the operation of the
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400 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
system. Arbitrary considerations might also prevail with respect to the selection
of the beneficiary countries. Moreover, in order to enable developing countries
and "third countries" to gain a clear picture of what they could count on in the
future, the essential features of the preferential system applied by the various
developed countries should be uniform.
ST. Certain differences are, of course, unavoidable and have in fact been con-
sidered in the present report as a means for facilitating the acceptability of the
system. Thus, in the event that provision is made for initial exclusions, the items
excluded by the various countries may be different. There will also be differences
as regards the extent to which the various developed countries may extend, on an
m.f.n. basis, the tariff cuts granted to the developing countries. At any rate, as
long as differences in the application of the preferential systems are marginal
and do not compromise certain fundamental principles, it would appear that they
would not be incompatible with the general system.
88. Another question arises in connexion with the participation of the socialist
countries of eastern Europe in a system of preferences. The socialist countries
applying customs tariffs have already taken tariff action in favour of the develop-
ing countries. Bulgaria and the USSR have abolished, through preferential action,
customs duties on all goods imported from and originating in the developing
countries, while Czechoslovakia has suspended on an m.f.n. basis, duties on prod-
ucts of export interest of the developing countries. Though customs duties play
an increasingly important role in various socialist countries, in particular in
connexion with current changes in the management system, it remains open to
question whether tariff concessions granted by socialist countries have effects
that can be regarded as equivalent to the establishment of a preferential system
by market-economy countries. It may therefore be appropriate to consider addi-
tional means for increasing industrial exports from the developing countries to
the socialist countries.
89. In order to obtain results that are comparable to those achieved by the
market-economy countries in connexion with the establishment of a preferential
system, the socialist countries might consider matching the rates of growth of
imports from developing countries which the market-economy countries would
attain by applying the preferential system. Another approach might consist in a
declaration of intent to the effect that the socialist countries w-ould be ready to
take an increasing share of manufactures and semi-manufactures in their imports
from the developing countries. Socialist countries may also consider aiming at
other similar quantitative targets. They may agree to apply the trade policy in-
struments appropriate to their systems in a way that would achieve such results.
Bearing in mind the growing importance of indirect instruments of management
of foreign trade in some socialist countries, they might also consider applying
these instruments in a way that would create preferential access to imports from
the developing countries. Socialist countries might also wish to consider accepting
international review of the efficacy of the methods suggested above after a reason-
able period of time has elapsed.
D. THE CouNTRIEs THAT WOuLD BE ELIGIBLE FOR THE BENEFITS OF THE
PREFERENTIAL SYSTEM
90. The notion of a preferential system for the developing countries implies that
there would be some cut-off point beyond which a country will be considered as
developed and therefore not qualifying for enjoyment of the benefits in question.
It would, therefore, be ideal if it w-ere possible to agree on objective economic
criteria to determining which developing countries should benefit from the sys-
tem. For reasons further examined below, it is however hardly practicable to
arrive at an agreement on such criteria. Procedural solutions may therefore have
to be considered as a means to determine the beneficiaries of the preferential
system.
91. One possible method might be to take as the point of departure the fact that
for a very large majority of potential beneficiaries of the preferential system,
there is no dispute as to their belonging to the category of developing countries.
The question is, indeed, not whether these countries are themselves developing,
but whether other countries should not be added to the group. One might accord-
ingly agree that the group of countries which in their mutual relationships regard
themselves as developing should make an initial proposal for the list of bene-
ficiaries and that the developed countries w-ould have an opportunity of adding
PAGENO="0405"
TIlE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 401
certain countries which in their view belong also to the category of developing
countries. If the developed countries cannot agree on which countries to add,
there might be some differences in the list of beneficiaries, but this would, how-
ever, be marginal because the bulk of the beneficiaries would not be subject to any
difference of opinion. While this method would have the disadvantage that non-
economic criteria might enter into account when establishing the initial list, there
would be a corrective in the form of the possible additions.
92. In approaching this matter, it may be recalled that there are only relatively
few countries in respect of which their categorization as developing or not would
be likely to raise any questions. But many of these potential borderline countries
would seem to have a particularly important stake in being included or excluded
from a preferential system. Indeed, they often produce goods that are generally
furnished by developing countries. Therefore, if these countries are included
among the beneficiaries of the system, they w-ould be likely to gain considerable
advantages, in particular since they are often geographically close to the de-
veloped countries' markets and sometimes already possess substantial industries.
At the same time, if these countr~es were not included in the system, the simi-
larity of their production lines with those in developing countries benefiting from
the system might often lead to their suffering particularly from the resulting
trade diversion. Solutions might be looked for in the following directions: if these
countries were excluded from the system, the question of guarantees against trade
diversion would be very important to them (see paragraphs 37, 48 and 60 above);
special guarantees might even have to be envisaged for them in such an eventu-
ality. On the other hand, to substantiate their desire to be included in the system,
these countries might consider offering to the developing countries special guar-
antees with regard to control of their exports in cases where they wrould otherwise
tend to take up a major share of preferential imports from developing countries.
Taking into account such practical considerations, it should be possible to find
mutually satisfactory solutions along pragmatic lines.
93. Some thought might also have to be given to what extent the participation
of some borderline countries in integration schemes with developed countries
could be reconciled with others benefiting from a preferential system for develop-
ing countries. On the one hand, they may possess, compared to the developing
countries as a whole, considerable advantages on a multi-national market, but on
the other hand they would have to share some of these advantages with the
developing countries if a general preferential system were established. The con-
siderations evoked with regard to the question of the suspension of existing pref-
erential systems for manufactures and semi-manufactures (see Section G below)
may have some bearing upon this problem. Similar questions will arise in con-
nection with the non-independent territories of various developed countries which
are often treated on a preferential basis or as if they belonged to the home market
of the developed country concerned.
E. PROVISIONS FOR THE LESS-ADVANCED AMONG THE DEVELOPING C0TNTRIE5
(1) GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
94. When attempting to evaluate the potential benefits of a preferential system
for developing countries' industrial exports, there is the striking fact that at
present some seventy-nine developing countries contributed only about 6 per cent
of the over-all exports of manufactures from the developing countries. It would,
therefore, appear that the establishment of a preferential system would, at least
in the initial stages, bring immediate benefits only to a small minority of develop-
ing countries. These would be the countries that have already an industrial base
and that may already be carrying out such exports to the developed w-orld. The
preoccupation with industrialization is, however, not only of concern to these few
developing countries. The industrially less-advanced developing countries have a
special need to escape from the consequences of an over-dependence on exports of
primary goods and to avoid the risks of an industrialization process that would
be based only on import substitution. The group of the developing countries has,
therefore, put forward the idea that special measures should he envisaged to en-
sure that relatively less advanced developing countries can participate effectively
in the expected benefits of a general system of preferences.
95. Before examining the special measures that might be adopted in this con-
nexion, it is necessary to recall that the high present concentration of industrial
82-181-67-vol. I-27
PAGENO="0406"
402 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
exports in a few developing countries in no way means that less-advanced develop-
ing countries could not take advantage of a preferential system if one were estab-
lished. Certain industrial exports for instance in the field of further processing of
raw materials (such as ores, bauxite, crude oil, woods), could take place from
countries regardless of whether or not they have a broad industrial base. Simi-
larly, canning industries, further processing of fishery products and even the pro-
duction of certain chemical specialities may be located in less-advanced countries.
Some may even find opportunities by importing the raw materials needed and
processing it. Such possibilities may exist particularly for those less-advanced
countries that are geographically close to developed countries or to transport
routes toward them. Quite generally the less-advanced countries have a longer-
term interest in building up a sound industrial pattern on the basis of the most
effective utilization of their resources, which in turn requires an open access to
the world markets. For such reasons it would be a mistake to believe in a general
manner that the less-advanced countries have a lesser interest in the establish-
ment of a preferential system than the more advanced ones.
(2) PITFALLS TO AVOID
90. While the need is evident for making a maximum effort in favour of the less-
advanced developed countries in connexion with the setting up of a preferential
system, the ways and means for doing so deserve special attention.
9T. Particular care shouldbe taken to ensure that the means chosen would not
be such as to damage the usefulness of a preferential system for the developing
w-orld as a whole. A typically inadequate method would, for instance, consist in
generally providing preferential free entry oniy to the imports from the less-
advanced countries, and refusing it to the more-advanced developing countries.
This might in fact mean that those developing countries that would have goods
to export would not be able to compete on equal terms w-ith domestic producers,
w-hereas those which would be granted this equality of treatment would for some
time have few goods to export.
98. Care should also be taken that the special measures for the less-advanced
developing countries should not create considerable administrative complications
in the developed countries. In the present period where the trend in some de-
veloped countries is toward a simplification of the formalities, unduly complicated
mechanisms might increase the objections against the setting up of a system of
preferences. The introduction of a three-column-tariff (one for m.f.n. treatment,
one for the preferences for the more-advanced and one for the less-advanced coun-
tries) or the setting up of special quotas for the less-advanced and other quotas
for the more-advanced countries might be regarded as such undesirable com-
plications. Largely for practical reasons there seems to be an understanding in
developed countries that trade policy measures, in contrast to financial aid which
can be better directed. are instruments which by nature do not allow excessive dif-
ferentiation between coulitries.
09. Lastly. the approach chosen for dealing with the question of the less-
advanced countries should not be such as to complicate and delay the establish-
ment of a system of preferences. This would probably be the case if there was
an attempt to reach agreement on a definition or list of these countries. Of course,
it would be ideal if objective criteria for determining which are the less-advanced
developing countries could be established. One such criterion in defining develop-
ing countries might evidently he the level of per capita income. However, reliable
data on national income are not available for a good number of countries. More-
over, the use of exchange rates to convert national accounts estimates frequently
biases inter-country comparisons. Such limitations apart, it is clear that per
capita income can hardly he the sole criterion of the level of development. In
some cases high per capita income coincides with what might be considered a
relatively low level of development, as measured by other indicators. Accordingly,
per capita income would have to be combined with other indicators of develop-
ment, such as the size of the manufacturing sector, the degree of export diver-
sification, the level of infra-structure, etc. However, once several indicators are
to be taken into account, weights have to be assigned to each, which is a far
from easy task. In all cases a decision has to be taken as to the cut-off point in
each indicator below which the country would qualify as developing. It would
also be difficult to decide whether the more advanced category should include
only those relatively few countries that presently account for the bulk of indus-
trial exports from developing countries or whether it should include all countries,
PAGENO="0407"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 403
with the exception only of those that. judged by every possible development indi-
cator, come towards the very end of the list. Since there are arguments in favour
of every possible categorization and since negotiating agreed definitions would
considerably delay the setting-up of a system, it would be preferable to provide
for special measures for the less-advanced developing countries without trying to
define different categories. In the following paragraphs, measures are examined
that do not presuppose such a definition.
(3) LIMITING THE PERIOD DIJRING WHICH PREFERENCES CAN BE ENJOYED ON A
PARTICIJLAR ITEM
100. One measure that would turn out to favour the less-advanced countries
could be based on the idea that no developing country should he able to take
advantage of preferences with regard to a particular product for more than a
certain pre-defined period: a ten-year entitlement is most often mentioned in this
connexion. There are, however, some problems in implementing this idea of
ensuring rotation in favour of the latecomers to industralization. For instance,
it would be necessary with respect to every item to establish the date when a
particular developing country has made its first significant export to a particular
developed country. With regard to each item and developed country, one would
soon have a different list of developing countries that would be entitled to pref-
erences. This would complicate the task of the customs authorities and might
also create problems with respect to the control of origin. It might, moreover,
induce the exporting countries to take measures to ensure that exports take place
only when there is a certainty that a steady stream of exports would be possible;
otherwise, the exports by one plant might be the starting point for the calcula-
ion of the ten-year period even if this plant produced only relatively insignificant
exports.
101. Such disadvantages may, however, be overcome to a large extent if the
verification of whether a particular export has been taking place for ten years
is not carried out annually but only after a longer period of operation of the
preferential system. In this case, the customs authorities would not have to
change their lists with respect to the various items so frequently. Since the work-
ing of the preferential system will in any case be reviewed after a certain num-
her of years (see Section F below) provision could be made as one of the guide-
lines for the review that the interests of the less-advanced developing countries
are taken into account and that at the time of the review, counries will stop
benefiting from preferential treatment on all those items for which exports have
taken place over a ten-year period. For this method to be useful for the less-
advanced developing countries, it would of course have to provide that the pref-
erential system as such would not be terminated altogether after ten years.
(t) SUITABLE ADAPTATION OF THE CRITERIA FOR APPLYING THE ESCAPE CLAUSE OR
THE TARIFF QUOTA
102. Advantageous results for the less-advanced developing countries can
also be achieved in connexion with the application of the escape clause or the
tariff quota, depending on which safeguard mechanism is provided for in the
preferential system envisaged. When an escape clause or a tariff quota is being
applied, the reason for doing so would usually not be the competition resulting
from imports from all developing countries, but from some only. Accordingly,
one could provide that the m.f.n. tariff that would be reimposed would apply
only to the imports from those developing countries which are the most com-
petitive with regard to the item concerned. Such a method would frequently
be likely to result in granting more advantageous treatment for the less-advanced
developing countries because in the majority of cases they can be presumed to
be less competitive than the more advanced ones. This method would, however,
have to be applied in a different manner in an escape-clause system on the
one hand and in a tariff-quota system on the other. This question will be
examined below.
103. In the case of an escape-clause system, it would simply have to be
provided that the developed country would only suspend the preferential treat-
inent for the imports from that country or those countries which are the cause
of the injury. This would have to be made a mandatory guideline for the appli-
cation of the escape clause and would be reviewed as part of the institutional
framework of the system. This suspension of imports would work to the advan-
tage of the less-advanced developing countries.
PAGENO="0408"
404 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
104. In case of a tariff-quota system, the effect on less-advanced countries
wouid be different depending on the mode of operation chosen. (See paragraphs
39-43 above.) According to the variant examined under paragraphs 40 and 41
above, the country that would take up more than a certain uniform percentage
of the tariff quota w-ould be excluded from it, as soon as the tariff quota was
filled. Since presumably for many items the less-advanced countries are unlikely
to reach this percentage share of the tariff quota, this exclusion procedure
might constitute an advantage for them. But the real question would be whether
they could exploit this advantage by starting production lines with a view to
exports. The automatic exclusion procedure presents, however, a particular
l)roblem because less-advanced developing countries usually have only very few
potential industrial export products. Precisely these few industrial exports would
risk exclusion, whereas countries with a broader industrial base could benefit
from the quotas existing with respect to their other products. Automatic exclu-
sion, even in the absence of a serious injury, when the tariff quota is reached,
might therefore damage the interests of these developing countries w-hich for
some time to come will have to concentrate their export efforts upon a few
Products.
105. For these reasons, it may in actual fact be more advantageous to the
less-advanced developing countries if the variants of the tariff quota system
listed under paragraphs 42 and 43 above were considered. Provision that a
certain percentage of the tariff quota would always be reserved for new-comers
would ensure that the traditiolial suppliers do not take up the whole quota.
This safeguard may be combined with the review procedure mentioned below.
(5) A PERMANENT MECHANISM FOR REvIEwING THE WORKING OF THE SYSTEM FROM
THE POINT OF VIEW OF EQUITABLE SHARING OF BENEFITS
106. Provision may also be made for a permanent mechanism that w-ould fol-
low and review the workings of the preferential system and assess at regular
intervals whether the system is yielding advantages to all developing countries
or only to a few. The existence of such a permanent mechanism would ensure
the less-advanced countries which would not have benefited from the system
that their interests will not be lost sight of. It could constitute an instrument for
adapting the system in accordance with the needs that may arise. In particular
it could be provided that within IJXCTAD the developed and developing coun-
tries would arrange for special measures to be taken in favour of those coun-
tries which after a given period of time would not have been able to take advan-
tage of the preferential system for starting or intensifying industrial exports.
These special measures should preferably consist in promoting and financing
investments in the countries concerned (see paragraph 109 below).
(o) THE QUESTION OF PREFERENCES BY THE MORE-ADVANCED COUNTRIES FOR THE
LESS-ADVANCED
107. The question also arises whether the responsibility for taking action in
favour of the less-advanced countries should rest only on the developed coun-
tries or whether the more-advanced developing countries should also contribute
to the benefits of the less-advanced ones in connexion with the scheme of
preferences.
108. Among the forms of action that more-advanced countries might want to
envisage would be to declare their \vilhingess to grant preferences to less-advanced
developing countries. In favour of such a declaration it may be argued that the
more-advanced developing countries are likely to gain more from a system of
preferences set up by the developed countries: by opening their own markets
to the less-advanced countries, they might. however, help in attaining a more
effective participation of the less-advanced countries in the benefits emerging
as a result of the establishment of a preferential system. Moreover, it may be
considered that in the case of some products. at least the less-advanced develop-
ing countries might have better chances of penetrating into the relatively less
competitive markets of the more-advanced developing countries than into the
markets of the developed world.
109. The practical implementation of this idea w-ould. however, not be easy. The
developing countries would have to face the difficult task of identifying the less
advanced ones among them. Such an agreement may, however, be reached more
PAGENO="0409"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 405
easily within the various regions than on a world scale, and the willingness to
grant preferences may accordingly be limited to the less advanced countries of
the same region. Moreover, the niore advanced developing countries are very
often in balance of payments' difficulties and may for this reason have con-
siderable difficulties in granting preferences to their less advanced partners on
a non-reciprocal and across-the-board basis. Their industries are often also still
in a formative stage so that they may be hesitant to expose them to outside
competition, even if it were to come from a less advanced country of the same
region.
110. For these reasons, if the more advanced developing countries want to
consider granting preferences to less advanced ones, these would probably have
to be of a selective nature and might need to be complemented with provisions
regarding licensing procedures. To allow for the balance of payments' considera-
tions, it would furthermore, be advisable to put the preferential access which
the more advanced countries would grant to their less advanced partners into
some relation with the increase of the exports that they will have been able to
achieve on the basis of the preferences that would be granted by the developed
countries. The more additional sales these more advanced countries would be able
to make in the developed countries, the more they might be expected to open
their markets to the less advanced developing countries. If the problem could be
approached in this way, the more advanced developing countries would not im-
mediately grant preferences to the less advanced partners but only once their
exports to the developed countries will have expanded in connexion with the
preferential system. The more advanced countries might consider subscribing to
a declaration of their intent to act accordingly in their trade relationships with
less advanced countries. The action taken on the basis of this declaration might
be reviewed in connexion with the review of the opei~ation of the preferential
system from the point of view of the less advanced developing countries. If the
more advanced developing countries, by that time, would have failed to `act
accordingly, this may be a reason for taking additional special measures in favour
of the less advanced countries.
(7) SPECIAL FINANCIAL AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE MEASURES
111. After examing the various trade policy methods for enabling the less-
advanced countries to take better advantage of a general preferential system for
nianufactures and semi-manufactures, it must be recalled that measures of fi-
nancial and technical assistance may even be more important for achieving re-
suits in this respect. Indeed, these countries have often not yet installed any
productive capacity in goods that could he sold in the developed countries'
markets. To make up for this handicap, these countries would need priority access
to funds for undertaking feasibility studies, for training personnel, and eventu-
ally for financing such industries. Afterwards, a special effort would have to be
made to assist these countries to improve the efficiency and quality of their pro-
duction. In all these actions, the United Nations Industrial Development Or-
ganization and international and regional banking institutions would have to play
an important role. For these institutions to give special attention to the problems
of the industrially less-advanced countries in connection with a preferential
system, the setting up of specific guidelines would be desirable. The less-advanced
countries also suffer often from particular insufficiencies with respect to their
infrastructure taken in the largest sense of the term, and it would, therefore, be
necessary that the international institutions dealing with the various elements of
infrastructure should pay particular attention to their needs so that these coun-
tries can become attractive for investments.
112. Lastly, the less-advanced developing countries are often those which possess
a rather small domestic market. Yet, an internal market of sufficient size, has, in
many cases, been a particularly useful and necessary basis of departure for in-
dustrialization efforts and particularly for subsequently undertaking exports to
the developed world. A systematic effort towards the establishment of multi-
national markets would, therefore, appear to be of particular interest for the
many small less-advanced developing countries. In this respect, a report
(TD/B/85) has been submitted to the Trade and Development Board, in which it
is suggested that the developing countries' own efforts in enlarging their markets
might be supplemented by an international support policy for integration among
developing countries. Such a support policy would be designed to assist the
PAGENO="0410"
406 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
developing countries and particularly the less-advanced of these in overcoming
the many special difficulties which they face when undertaking trade liberaliza-
tion and integration efforts. If it were possible to agree with some precision on a
certain number of elements of such a support policy, the smaller and less-
advanced developing countries would be the main beneficiaries of it. Specific pro-
visions for the less-advanced developing countries that might be incorporated into
a preferential system, together with other measures in their favour envisaged
in the field of commodity trade, financial and technical assistance, support for
integration, etc., would form a consistent programme facilitating the industrially
less-advanced developing countries to start or intensify industrial exports.
F. Tni DURATIoN OF THE PREFERENTIAL SYSTEM
(1) THE ARGtTMENTS FOR LIMITING THE DURATION
113. Some of the arguments that can be put forward in favour of a limitation
of the system are discussed below.
114. When a country ceases to be considered as a developing country, for in-
stance, because it has succeeded in building up a diversified external trade and in
achieving self-sustained growth, there would no longer be justification for it to
enjoy special advantages as against exports from developed countries to other
developed countries' markets.
115. When an industry in a particular developing country has become com-
petitive in the markets of the developed world, it may be argued that it no longer
needs advantages against similar industries in third developed countries. An
industry can become competitive even if the country concerned must still be
regarded as a developing country.
116. If they are able to benefit from preferences for an unlimited duration,
producers in a developing country may be insufficiently induced to increase their
efficiency and may thus acquire a vested interest against a further liberalization
of world trade on an m.f.n. basis.
117. A preferential system such as the one envisaged in this report will need to
be reviewed from the standpoint of whether it fulfils the expectations placed in
it and whether the doubts raised before its establishment have been eliminated.
The review could be carried out in a particularly effective way if the duration
of the system were limited, and this might, therefore, increase the chances of
ensuring a broad participation of developed countries in the system.
(2) ALTERNATIVE WAYS OF DEALING WITH THE PROBLEM OF DURATION
118. Some of these arguments in favour of a limited duration have already
been taken care of in connexion with the provisions for limiting the impact of
the system upon producers in developed countries and regarding the less-ad-
vanced countries. The question which will have to be considered in the present
section is whether the duration of the system as a whole is to be limited in time
and to what extent the various arguments in favour of limitation could be
resolved by other means. The following means for ensuring the temporariness of
the system may deserve further consideration.
119. One way to ensure the temporariness of the system would be to provide
that the preferences granted to the developing countries would have to be ex-
tended on an m.f.n. basis to all countries after a certain period of time. This
would mean linking the establishment of preferences in favour of developing
countries with a formal undertaking to reduce or abolish duties on a world-wide
basis. The preferences would then be merely in anticipation of already agreed
future world-wide tariff concessions. This method would have the disadvantage
that the preferences would in all likelihood be rather small because it is im-
probable that after the great effort of the Kennedy Round, the developed coun-
tries would be ready to commit themselves firmly to an elimination or new
substantial reductions of tariffs on a world-wide basis. To ensure the temporari-
ness of the system in this way would in actual fact mean that a preferential
system of very limited scope would be set up and that the other purposes con-
nected with it would be sacrificed to that of ensuring its temporariness.
120. On the other hand, while preferences should not be linked to the willing-
ness of developed countries to grant the same concessions at a later stage on
an m.f.n. basis, nothing should prevent the extension to the developed countries
of the preferences granted to the developing cOuntries (see paragraph 15 above).
PAGENO="0411"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 407
The duration of the preferential treatment for the developing countries would
therefore be the briefer the sooner the developed countries take the same action
on an m.f.n. basis. If such a development could be counted on, there would be no
need to fix rules as to the `duration because indeed the system of preferences
would automatically be phased out.
* 1221. Another method would be to provide from the beginning that the prefer-
ential system as a `whole would be terminated after a number of years deter-
mined in advance. It would not be easy to choose an appropriate period to meet
the various considerations arising from the need to limit the duration of the
system. A period of ten years for the duration of the whole scheme would, for
instance, `be too short, particularly in the less advanced developing countries, to
allow the building-up of new production capacity for exports and to permit the
industries concerned to maintain themselves in foreign markets under m.f.n.
conditions. Many developing countries might then never be able to enjoy the
advantages of the system to any substantial extent. Industries established in the
second part of t'he ten-year period would enjoy the benefits of the system for a
few years only. On the other hand, to decide at once that the system as a whole
would remain in force for a longer period might increase resistance against its
adoption. Yet, if the o'bjective is to build up diversified trade for `all developing
countries, the scheme of preferences would have to continue till most `countries
were able to effect `significant changes in their trading patterns.
122. In order to take into account t'hese partly conflicting considerations, an
intermediate solution might deserve `special consideration. Thus, provision might
be made for review of the preferential system at the end of a ten-year period.
Certain guidelines applicable to the review could be established at once. One
of these could be to determine whether the beneficiary `countries could continue
to be regarded as `belonging to the category of developing countries and whether
the products benefiting from the preferences were still in need of them. The guide-
lines could also provide that the question of excluding the more advanced de-
veloping countries, or at least some of their sufficiently competitive products,
would be considered. A developed country not satisfied with the results of the
review could if it wished withdraw from the system. Its withdrawal would, how-
ever, have to `be su'bject to certain conditions so as to ensure that no undue injury
was suffered by newcomers among developing countries and to take into account
the interests of those less-advanced developing countries that would have been
unable to benefit from the system. It may, for instance, be provided that pref-
erences which have been taken advantage of before the end of the ten-year period
would continue in force for a certain additional period. This would facilitate
the planning of investments in developing countries and would grant them a
sufficient period during which they could count on free access to the developed
world. At any rate, t'he longer the period for ~hich the developed countries are
ready to apply a preferential system, the greater advantages can be derived by
the less-advanced developing countries, particularly if at the end of the ten-year
period an effective review procedure is provided for.
G. THE RELATIONSHIP OF A NEW PREFERENTIAL SYSTEM TO THE PREFERENTIAL
ARRANGEMENTS Now EXISTING BETWEEN SOME DEVELOPED AND SOME DEVELOP-
ING COUNTRIES
(1) THE OBJECTIVE
123. It is generally recognized that when establishing a system of preferences
for manufactures and `semi-manufactures for all developing countries, account
must be taken of the advantages which some developing countries already enjoy,
with regard to these products, in certain developed countries. These latter devel-
oping countries can hardly be expected to consent to give up their `advantages if
the new preferential system does not grant them at least equivalent advantages
compared to those which they presently possess. Any loss of trade in existing
markets of manufactures and semi-manufactures would have to be outweighed or
at least matched by the possible gains to be made from preferential entry into
other markets. These considerations are of particular importance for the devel-
oping countries belonging to the `Commonwealth preferential system, since they
export substantial amounts of manufactures under preferential conditions. As to
the countries associa'ted with the European Economic Community, particularly
under the Yaoundé and Lagos Conventions, the share of semi-manufactures and
manufactures in the preferential imports of the Community is much smaller, but
PAGENO="0412"
408 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
they are still important for some countries, particularly if a wide definition of
semi-manufactures and manufactures is adopted. If the existing preferential
arrangements are to be suspended or absorbed as far as manufactures and semi-
manufactures are concerned, special care would have to be taken that the new
preferential system provides for equivalent advantages.
124. The same question of equivalent advantages may also play a role for those
developing countries that presently do not benefit from any existing special
preferential system. Some of these countries have indeed expressed an interest
in obtaining such special preferences in some developed countries, including those
that presently are not part of a preferential system with particular groups of
developing countries. The establishment of a general system of preferences has
the advantage of stonping the trend towards a proliferation of such preferential
arrangements between some developed and some developing countries. The inter-
est in such arrangements will, however, abate only if the general system is able
to provide countries hitherto not enjoying preferences with advantages equiva-
lent to those which they could hope to obtain under preferential arrangements
with some developed countries only.
(2) THE PROBLEM OF MEASURING EQUIVALENCE
125. The appraisal of whether a new system brings equivalent advantages will
depend on the number of developed countries that will participate in the system.
on the products that will be covered by it. on the preferential margins that will
result. and on the duration of the new system as compared with that of the old
ones. The more numerous are the participating developed countries, the greater
are the opportunities for compensation on other developed countries' markets
for any losses that might occur in those developed countries which hitherto alone
granted preferences. The more the products presently exported under existing
preferential arrangements would be excluded by other countries from the bene-
fits of a preferential scheme, the less likely would it be that the new system
could grant equivalent advantages. It must also be considered that some of the
existing systems are formally limited in time and have to be re-negotiated shortly
(e.g. Iaoundé and Lagos Conventions), whereas other existing arrangements
might be unfavourably affected by policy changes in the developed country con-
cerned (e.g. the effects on Commonwealth arrangements in the case of an entry of
the United Kingdom into the European Common Market). Such uncertainties
with respect to the existing systems would also have to be duly weighed and
compared to the duration of the new system.
126. Any appraisal of the new system as compared to the old ones would thus
have to take into account a great many variables. Yet, it is indispensable to make
such an approximate appraisal. For countries already enjoying preferences
would want to share the advantages of the existing systems with other coun-
tries only if they conclude that there is a very fair chance of at least equivalent
opportunities. In this situation, it appears that the most suitable method would
be to make at the outset a prima facie judgement about the opportunities the
new system with all its special provisions offers and to provide that after a
number of years a review will take place with a view to checking whether the
estimates have been confirmed. This means that one would have to accept that
the initial appraisal would be based on rather rough indicators. For instance, if
a developing country benefited in the past from exclusive preferences on a mar-
ket of say 200 million developed country consumers, it might be questioned
whether it would enjoy equivalent advantages if developed countries with only
90 million consumers were added to those already granting preferences. It would
largely be a matter for each developing country concerned to judge what weight
to attach to the variables mentioned above. This judgment will be easier once all
the technical features of the new system are known, for instance, the types of
safeguards regarding the volume of preferential imports. While the question of
whether a new preferential system grants equivalent advantages would presum-
ably be kept in mind by the countries during the discussions on each element of
the new system, it would probably have to be taken up as a whole toward the
end of the discussions and negotiations leading up to the scheme.
127. A further consequence of the difficulties in making an advance appraisal
would appear to l)e that the entry into force of the new preferential system for
manufactures and semi-manufactures could not be made conditional on the formal
abolition of the parts of the existing preferential systems that relate to manu-
PAGENO="0413"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 409
factures and semi-manufactures. All that could be expected is the suspension of
the relevant parts of these systems or, as the case may be, their adaptation with
a view to eliminating features that would be incompatible with the new system.
In other terms, it may be necessary that for some time the new and the existing
systems would have to co-exist and that some rules for this purpose might have
to be evolved. An examination is made below of how the relationship between the
new system and the existing systems would present itself in the case of an escape-
clause system and in the case of a tariff-quota system.1
(3) THE ESCAPE-CLAUSE SYSTEM IN RELATIONSHIP TO EXISTING SYSTEMS
128. Since the existing systems do not generally provide for an advance limita-
tion of the volume of goods admissible at preferential rates, a new general system
based on the escape clause would have the appearance of being equivalent to the
old. It would not even be necessary to suspend formally the old systems with re-
gard to manufactures and semi-manufactures. Problems arising from the replace-
ment of the old system by the new one would be few: the main problem would
probably concern the manufactured and semi-manufactured products which en-
joyed preferences under the old systems but would be excluded by other developed
countries under the new system. It may appear to be equitable to provide that for
such products the beneficiaries of the existing systems would continue to enjoy
exclusive preferential access to the developed countries concerned. Thus, the
broader the product coverage of the new system can be, the more it will be pos-
sible to absorb the existing systems.
(4) THE TARIFF-QUOTA SYSTEM IN RELATIONSHIP TO EXISTING SYSTEMS
129. If the new preferential system were to provide for general limitations by
means of tariff quotas, it would be more difficult to state that the new system is
equivalent to the old ones. The suspenOlon of the existing systems, as proposed by
the developing countries and assumed in the working hypothesis at the first ses-
sion of the Group of Preferences, would kconsequently also present greater diffi?
culties. Since the existing systems do not provide for an advance limitation of
volume, a new system that would provide only for tariff quotas expressed in
terms of a small percentage of consumption, production or total imports, would,
at least at first sight, appear not to provide equivalent advantages. On the other
hand, it can be argued that such quotas in a great many developed countries
would be worth more than theoretically unlimited access to the markets of a few
developed countries. Similarly, the ten-year duration at least of the new systeni
compares favourably with the existing preference systems that have to be re-
negotiated at short intervals or may even be discontinued altogether quite inde-
pendently from the establishment of any new system of preferences. If, however,
countries should come to the conclusion that the comparative disadvantages of
the new system weigh more heavily in the balance than the stated advantages, the
following rules regarding the co-existence of the new and the old systems might
be considered.
130. Provision may be made that tariff quotas for industrial products would
be reserved for those developing countries that do not belong to the existing sys-
tem with the developed country concerned. The previously benefiting developing
countries would, however, continue to enjoy the right of unlimited access. It might
conceivably be argued in favour of this solution that these previously benefiting
developing countries would only obtain tariff quotas in the other developed coun-
tries and that therefore they could not be expected to share with the other
developing countries a part of their previously exclusive developed-country mar-
ket that would be greater than these same tariff quotas.
131. A more equitable solution might consist in distinguishing between products
that have in the past not been exported on the basis of existing preferences and
those other products that have already been exported under preferences. With
respect to industrial products that have not been exported, the beneficiaries of
old preferences would be treated in the same way as the beneficiaries of the new
system. This would mean that one tariff quota-if it were applied by a particular
1 The relationship of a reduced duty system to the old systems Is not further examined
because it would appear to be particularly difficult to argue that such a system would be
equivalent to the old systems, which very often provide for duty-free entry. The problem
presents Itself, however, in similar terms to that of the relationship of a tariff-quota system
to the existing systems.
PAGENO="0414"
410 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
developed country-would be imposed on imports from both the old and the new
beneficiaries. The argument in favour of such a solution would be that advantages
which have not yet materialized in the form of new trade currents would hardly
have to be compensated. As to industrial products which have already been
exported on the basis of the old systems, one might provide that, as before, they
should continue to enjoy preferential access for a volume of exports correspond-
ing to the year in which they had reached the peak. Any imports beyond the
peak year of the past would be treated like the imports from the beneficiaries of
the new preferential system, i.e. the tariff quota would be applicable to both the
new and the old beneficiaries from preferences. Of course, also in this system
such countries should be able to maintain exclusive and unlimited preferential
advantages on those items which other developed countries would have com-
pletely excluded from the preferential scheme.
132. Inasmuch as in the case of a tariff-quota system the beneficiaries under
the old system might continue to enjoy special advantages not extended to the
other developing countries, the pressure for setting up new exclusive preferential
systems between some developed and some developing countries may well con-
tinue after the entry into force of the new general system. In particular, develop-
ing countries that have nowhere enjoyed preferences in the past might want to
insist that they too should, at least in some developed countries, receive the
privilege of unlimited free access. It might be argued in favour of this point of
view that it should be immaterial to the other developing countries if some
developing countries succeed after the establishment of a general preferential
system, in getting even better conditions of access from some developed countries
than those provided for in the general system of preferences. On the other hand,
the fact that the pressure for exclusive preferential systems might continue,
would impair one of the most important advantages of the establishment of a
general system of preferences, namely, of stopping the proliferation of exclusive
systems. One solution might be to agree on a temporary standstill on the negotia-
tion of new exclusive preferences for industrial products. This might, for instance,
last for a period of five years or even of ten years, at the end of which it would
be necessary anyway to re-examine whether the new system has in actual fact
yielded equivalent advantages. Such a stop-gap measure would prevent the
question of how to deal with existing systems for industrial products from
becoming more complicated in the meantime.
(5) THE REV~W OF THE EQUIVALENCE OF ADVANTAGES
133. Regardless of whether the new system is based on an escape clause or on
tariff quotas, it may be necessary to provide for a review of the question of
whether or not it brings equivalent advantages. In view of the fact that it always
takes time for new trade currents to be established or old ones to be affected, the
appropriate moment for this examination might be at the end of the ten-year
period. If the appraisal of the equivalence were made, for instance, after five
years and if as a consequence some countries found themselves able to withdraw
from the general system, the system might not have the stability necessary for
its success. However, it might be laid down that after five years a first review
would be made and if this review shows that equivalence is not achieved, special
measures would be taken for the beneficiaries under the previous systems. Such
measures might include those of a financial nature (see paragraphs 109 and 110
above). This would take into account the situation of some of the less-advanced
developing countries that are highly dependent on the existing preferential mar-
kets for the few manufactured products they export. Such a review clause would
be a means for taking care of such problems, should they arise.
(6) THE PROBLEM OF RECIPROCAL PREFERENOES
134. In the previous paragraphs, only one aspect of the existing preferential
systems has been examined in connexion with the establishment of a new general
preferential system, namely, the way to deal with the advantages which the
existing systems grant to some developing countries and which are not extended
to other developing countries. The problem of the compatibility and possible
adjustments of existing systems might, however, also arise in connexion with the
reciprocal advantages which many developing countries participating in such
systems grant to the developed countries concerned and which are not extended
to other developed or developing countries. These reciprocal or reverse pref-
PAGENO="0415"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 411
erences present the following problems in connexion with the setting up of a new
general preferential system:
(a) in a new preferential system, all developed countries would be ex-
pected to grant preferences to all developing countries on a basis of non-
reciprocity. It might be difficult to obtain such a decision if some developed
countries continued to obtain reciprocal advantages for the preferences which
they grant. if developed countries are expected to treat all developing coun-
tries alike in trade matters, the developing countries should in turn be ex-
pected to treat all developed countries in an equal manner.
(b) It may appear incongruous to stop discriminating against some de-
veloping countries in the developed countries, but to continue discriminat-
ing against them in favour of developed countries in the markets of develop-
ing countries. If there is a case for equality of treatment with producers of
the developed world in the domestic markets of the developed countries, there
is an at least equally strong case for equal treatment with these same pro-
ducers in the markets of other developing countries.
(c) The establishment of a general system of preferences would form a
proper framework for the elimination of the existing reverse preferences. The
developing countries granting such special advantages to developed coun-
tries may regard it in their interest no longer to place limits upon their
freedom of choosing the most favourable sources of supply in the developed
world. Inasmuch as all developed countries in the new system would accept
a part of the burden of granting preferences to developing countries, this
might be taken as an argument for treating all developed supplying countries
alike in the future.
135. In considering the relationship of reverse preferences to a new general
preferential system, account must, however, also be taken of arguments that
might be put forward against dealing with them at this juncture:
(a) It may be pointed out that the normal trend of events in the last
decade has already led to a reduction in reverse preferences. For instance,
the existension of the Franc-Zone preferences and licensing procedures to
the EEC as a whole is sometimes interpreted as reducing the scope of the
problem, and the general whittling down of Commonwealth preferences as in-
dicating that the scope of the problem is diminishing automatically.
(b) It might conceivably also be argued that the developed countries which
enjoy such preferences not only grant preferences on industrial products to
the developing countries concerned, but also on primary commodities and
that they also provide considerable financial assistance. Reverse preferences
might be interpreted as constituting counterparts for these special measures.
136. If the conclusion were reached that the problem of reverse preferences
bears some relationship to the establishment of a new preferential system, the fol-
lowing solutions may deserve consideration:
(a) It might be stipulated that the reverse preferences and other special
advantages would be eliminated or gradually phased out according to a pre-
established timetable. Just as within the EEC and EFTA the producers
hitherto enjoying protected domestic markets were able to face increased
competition partly because a sufficient transitional period was provided for,
it may be expected that a similar procedure would yield equally satisfactory
results in connexion with the protected markets which some developed coun-
try producers enjoy in some developing countries. Moreover, the manifold
traditional special links that do not relate to trade barriers would in any
case continue and protect the interests of the developed-country producers
concerned.
(b) Furthermore, a problem might arise not so much with the continua-
tion of existing reciprocal preferences but on account of the possibility that
after the establishment of a general system of preferences, some developing
countries might feel induced to grant to some developed countries new recip-
rocal preferences. At a stage where the developed countries would, by ac-
cepting a general preferential system, have taken an important step towards
non-discrimination among developing countries, it may appear incongruous
if some developing countries were to make moves in the other direction. Ac-
cordingly, steps might be taken to declare that no new reverse preferences
would be granted and that contrary action would be inconsistent with the
continued participation of the developing country concerned in the general
system of preferences.
PAGENO="0416"
412 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
H. THE QUESTION OF POSSIBLE PARALLEL OBLIGATIONS ON THE PAnT OF THE
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
137. While it is generally agreed that developing countries should not have to
grant reciprocal concessions in favour of the developed countries in connexion
with establishment by the latter of a general system of preferences, it has been
suggested that such a new preferential system would be of little use to many
developing countries if they themselves were not to take some action on their
part. In particular, it has been stated that exports of industrial products to the
developed world can hardly be successful if a developing country feels that it
continues to need very high protection against the outside, and particularly other
developing countries. Secondly, it has been pointed out that many features of the
governmental policies and practices of many developing countries make it un-
likely or impossible to increase industrial exports to the developed world, even
if a system of preferences were established. Accordingly, it may be said that if
LTXCTAD action is to lead to an effective increase of industrial exports to the
developed world, both the developing and the developed countries would have to
assume their respective responsibilities.
138. It cannot be denied that various developing countries are already under-
taking action to expand trade among themselves and to adapt their governmental
policies to the need for increased exports. It may consequently be considered that
the developing countries will quite naturally take additional autonomous action
in this direction. On the other hand, it may also be considered that the likeli-
hood of such action occurring in the near future would increase if the developing
countries were to undertake, towards the international community, formal pledges
to this effect. This might have the additional advantage of showing public opinion
that the establishment of a preferential system is part of a joint effort to improve
the developing countries' opportunities for increased external earnings.
139. With respect to the creation of better conditions for trade expansion
among developing countries, the need for some parallel action on the part of the
developing countries has already been recognized in resolution 32 (IV), adopted
at the fourth session of the Trade and Development Board. This envisages that
countries would "define the action programmes that might be adopted by the
time of the Second Conference". Since the conditions in the various regions of
the developing world are different, such action programmes would have to take
this into account and might profitably base themselves on what is already under-
taken by various groups of countries. Conceivably, however, developing countries
might want to consider including in such action programmes certain measures
that might be applicable to all the regions. An example of such an undertaking
might be to reduce the protection level towards other countries of the same region
to a certain ceiling on all those products which a particular developing country
succeeded in exporting to the developed world in substantial quantities. If a de-
veloping country is able to stand competition on the markets of the developed
world, it would indeed no longer need excessive protection against other develop-
ing countries. There are, however, certain problems in implementing this idea
which have been examined in another context (see TD/B/85, Chapter V, para-
graphs 48 to ~51). Another undertaking of a more general nature as regards trade
expansion among developing countries might consist in a declaration of w-illing-
ness on the part of the more-advanced developing countries to grant preferences
to the less-advanced ones.
140. With respect to the elimination of features of national policies that are
detrimental to exports, it might be possible to envisage laying down a certain
number of guidelines as to what constitute sound policies for the export of
industrial products. Formal action might be envisaged for the establishment
of agreed guidelines or a kind of code which would list the various practices
which developing countries should avoid in their export policies as well as the
positive measures which would have to be taken for a successful policy of export
promotion. Of course, some of these guidelines may not have the same binding
force as the measures which the developed countries undertake in establishing
a system of preferences. Nevertheless, such policy guidelines might form the
basis for a review procedure in which the developing countries might report on
what they have done to implement them. Such procedures have, for instance.
been practised successfully in the past in other contexts and by providing for
them in the framework of UNCTAD, they might increase the chances that the
establishment of a preferential system would actually lead to a substantial
PAGENO="0417"
THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 413
increase of industrial exports from developing countries. To provide for such
parallel undertakings in connection with the Second Conference on Trade and
Development would underscore the fact that convergent action by both developed
and developing countries is necessary to fulfill the objectives of UNCTAD.
I. INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS
141. The preparation and implementation of a general preferential system
would require adequate institutional arrangements. For, in the preparatory stage,
it would be necessary to create suitable conditions for the harmonization of
the differences that may exist on various aspects of the matter and, with regard
to the operation of the scheme, the need for proper institutional mechanisms
and procedures has emerged in connection with several of the elements which
have been discussed in this report.1
142. Consultations and negotiations on the specific content of the system would
have to be undertaken within a framework which would provide equal oppor-
tunities to all countries to discuss the technical features of the system. To
ensure the proper operation of the scheme, institutional arrangements would
be necessary for following the application of the rules and guidelines agreed
upon by the governments, for instance in connection with the escape clause or
the tariff quotas. Moreover, adequate reviewing procedures would have to be
provided for in connection with, inter alia, the special measures in favor of
the less-advanced developing countries, the appraisal of the equivalence of the
new and existing systems and the duration of preferences, and, as the case may
be, with respect to the parallel policy guidelines which developing countries
might accept. All these are matters of direct concern to all the countries par-
ticipating in the preferential system, and the universal character of UNOTAD
would thus make it possible for them to work together in the operation of
the system.
K. SUMMARY OF TIlE MAIN FEATURES OF A PREFERENTIAL SYSTEM
143. For facilitating the discussion, the main features of the possible systems
analyzed in the previous chapters are listed below in summary form:
(a) Safeguards regarding the volume. One solution would be to provide
that each country would be able to resort to an escape clause provided
certain agreed-upon criteria are respected, among which the fixing of a
minimum of imports which should not be subject to an escape clause. An
alternative solution would be to introduce uniform tariff quotas expressed
in terms of a precentage of consumption, production or total imports.
(b) Extent of tariff reduction. The tariff reduction would be to zero, but
this target might have to be reached only gradually over a number of
years. Each developed country would, however, be free to extend these
reductions on a most-favored-nation basis to all other countries.
(c) Product coverage. It would be desirable to arrive at a wide common
definition of semi-manufactures and manufactures applicable to all devel-
oped countries but each developed country should be able to except initially
items corresponding to a small percentage of imports. If a tariff-quota sys-
tem were adopted, it might be possible to avoid providing for such excep-
tions. With respect to the excepted products, developed countries might
declare their willingness to work out, within a sepcified period of time, a
programme for the orderly expansion of the possibilities of access to their
markets.
(d) Countries granting preferences. All countries that are usually con-
sidered to be in the category of the developed countries would take part in
the system. Those of these countries which cannot be considered to be fully
developed would be granted the opportunity of following a slower pace of
duty reductions and of initially excepting a larger number of products.
(e) Countries obtaining preferences. For defining which countries are
eligible to obtain the benefits of the preferential system, a procedural solution
would be envisaged. If the group of countries that regard themselves as
1 Another matter which would arise at the time of adopting a preferential scheme is that
the countries which are also Contracting Parties to GATT would require a waiver under
the terms of the General Agreement.
PAGENO="0418"
414 THE FUTURE OF U.S. FOREIGN TRADE POLICY
developing is to make the initial proposal, the developed countries should be
able to make certain additions.
(f) Less-advanced developing countries. Special provisions for the less-
advanced developing countries would be incorporated into the system, but no
attempt would be made to define in advance which these countries are. After
the preferential system has operated for ten years, a particular country
which would have exported a particular product for the whole period would
no longer enjoy preferences for that product. Secondly, in connexion with an
escape clause or with the tariff-quota procedures, one might exclude from
the benefits of the system the products of those countries which had proved
competitive, for instance, by being the cause of the serious injury or by
taking up a large share of the tariff quota. Thirdly, a permanent review
mechanism would be established to check whether all developing countries
gain advantages from the preferential system and to suggest additional meas-
urés in favour of those countries that would not have benefited from it.
Fourthly, the more-advanced developing countries would declare their will-
ingness to grant preferences to the less-advanced developing countries. Lastly,
the international institutions concerned would decide to give priority atten-
tion to the building up of productive capacity and to infrastructural improve-
ments in the less-advanced developing countries.
(g) Duration. The.preferential system would remain in force for at least
ten years. At the end of this period, the functioning of the system would be
reviewed and certain countries and/or products could be excluded from it. If
the review is not satisfactory to a particular developed country, it would be
able to withdraw from it. But even if such a country withdraws, it would
have to continue to grant preferences for a certain period on all those items
for which a particular developing country had begun exports before the
end of the ten-year period.
(h) Ecoisting preferential systems. Existing preferential arrangements,
insofar as they apply to manufacturers and semi-manufacturers would. in
the ease of a general system based on an escape clause, be suspended or
absorbed, except for the products which would not have been granted
preferences in important developed-country markets. In the case of a
system based on tariff quotas, a distinction would be made between the
products exported in the past and those not exported by the beneficiaries of
earlier preferences. For the products that have not been exported in the past,
the old system would be suspended. For the products that have been exported
in the past, the beneficiaries of existing preferences would still continue to
enjoy at least that access which they had in the past while the imports from
the beneficiaries of the new system could be subject to the tariff quota. The
question of whether the new system had granted equivalent advantages
would be considered by the developing countries concerned during the prep-
aration of the scheme and would be reviewed after a certain number of
years. As for the reciprocal or reverse preferences, the beneficiaries of the
developed countries might agree to their elimination or phasing out over a
period of years. Another solution would be to ban the setting-up of new
reverse preferences.
(i) Parallel obligations. It would be understood that at the second session
of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, parallel obliga-
tions of developing countries would be defined, particularly with respect to
trade among developing countries and with respect to policy guidelines for
sound export policies.
(j) Institutional arrangements. All developing and all developed countries
would be able to take part in the general and detailed consultations and
negotiations leading to the setting-up of the preferential system, as well as
in the operation of the system and its review, and this would be facilitated
by the universal character of UNCTAI).
0