Word: importance
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...other provision of Simpson-Mazzoli, as passed by the House, has stirred so much controversy that it might kill the whole bill. It would permit farmers, mostly in California, to import migrants to pick crops that would otherwise rot for lack of field hands. Opponents charge that those "guest workers"-the total might swell to 500,000-would be cruelly exploited. Cesar Chavez, president of the 40,000-member United Farm Workers, calls the provision a "rent-a-slave" program; the AFL-CIO and Senator Simpson also denounce it. The provision will probably be modified or dropped in the House...
...decisions gave an unfortunate boost to protectionism and put President Reagan in an election-year bind. Sweeping restrictions would be against his own free-market principles, but a vote against steel and copper quotas could hurt at the polls. New import quotas could also cause problems abroad. Chile and Canada, the two largest U.S. suppliers of copper, lobbied strongly against cutbacks. Steel producers like Mexico and Brazil have already announced voluntary restraints on their exports to the U.S., and further reductions would aggravate their debt woes...
...Martin and his attorney filed a class action on behalf of all children in preventive-detention in New York State, and won in two federal courts. Last week the U.S. Supreme Court overturned those decisions and ruled that preventive detention was constitutionally valid for juveniles. The decision has national import, since every state has provision for preventive custody of accused young delinquents...
Threatened animals are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, known as the CITES treaty. The pact, which took effect in 1975, has 87 signatories. The U.S. has two additional umbrellas: the Endangered Species Act of 1973, which bars the import of animals or plants on an "endangered" or "threatened" list, and the 1900 Lacey Act, which forbids the entry of plants or animals taken illegally out of another country...
...seemingly legitimate documents shielding these shipments make the illegal trade difficult to detect. But the World Wildlife Fund has recently helped the U.S. Government computerize international export-import records and has begun matching them with census counts of endangered species. Stopping the illegal trade in the future may depend not only on catching poachers in the act but on following the document trail they leave behind. Says the fund's Linda McMahan: "It's not just a cloak-and-dagger operation any more. It's becoming a complex paper chase...