Word: important
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...week's end the more extreme import-curbing proposals were losing steam. This was due less to Reagan's speech than to simple qualms about starting a trade war and perhaps disquieting second thoughts about the protectionist case and the grass-roots support for it. In the House Ways and Means Committee, Missouri Democrat Richard Gephardt, a cosponsor of the textile bill, introduced an amendment that would have gutted it. For one thing, the amendment would have suspended curbs on imports if Reagan could persuade countries shipping textiles to the U.S. to begin new talks aimed at working out some...
Unfair trade practices come in many guises. Some are straightforward, like tariffs and quotas. Others are more subtle, like nitpicking import regulations and government subsidies to domestic industries. Whatever the strategies used, no country, including the U.S., can claim that it always plays fair. A guide to the tricks of the trade...
Even developed countries resort to old-fashioned tariff walls. Japan, which generally has some of the lowest import fees in the world, imposes a 15% to 20% tariff on plywood because of the political clout of its lumber industry. In 1983 the U.S. hiked its duty on large motorcycles from 4.4% to 49.4% to protect Harley-Davidson, the last American manufacturer of the big bikes...
...been used for many years and have grandfather status. The problem is that only established Japanese companies and the government know what is on the supplemental list, and they are not telling foreign manufacturers, who have no way of knowing in advance if their products will make it past import inspectors...
...tape can be just as daunting in developing countries. Raul Velarde, a Mexican importer and exporter, complains that every time he brings in goods, he must get at least 15 signatures. He once got a permit to import zippers, but they arrived unassembled. They were held up in customs, Velarde says, because his permit did not cover "parts of zippers...