Word: important
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Known as Smoot-Hawley after its legislative sponsors, the bill promptly fulfilled the worst fears of critics. A new panic seized the already battered stock market; the slide continued for two years. In raising import duties on scores of items, in some cases to 50%, the measure provoked angry retaliation by 25 of the nation's trading partners. U.S. exports fell by nearly two-thirds in just two years...
...into action against their better judgment. Florida Democrat Sam Gibbons, chairman of a Ways and Means subcommittee on trade, returned in early September from a 24-day swing through Asia alarmed by the prospects of foreign retaliation against American exports, especially farm products, if the bill restricting U.S. textile imports became law. "The Chinese told us without any equivocation, 'If we can't sell you our products, we can't buy your products,' " reported Gibbons. His conclusion: the bill is "about as horrible a piece of legislation as you can imagine." Still, he made no attempt to bottle up that...
...thing, it is by no means certain that public opinion is so strongly anti-import as many legislators thought. On the contrary, national polls show sharp divisions and no small confusion. In the latest survey for TIME, taken by Yankelovich, Skelly & White, Inc. two weeks ago, majorities agreed with both these propositions: "We would all be better off if there were fewer restrictions on international trade because prices would be lower" (54% said yes), and "We should stop importing foreign products into the U.S. when these imports cause Americans to lose their jobs" (59% agreed). When asked if imports should...
...Free-traders have meanwhile been developing a telling case for opposing import restrictions. It is true, they concede, that foreign nations often discriminate against U.S. exports. But the U.S. is a sinner too. From time to time it has negotiated quotas, sometimes disguised as "voluntary" agreements with foreign producers, on imports of steel, autos, sugar and even textiles. In a study for the Institute for International Economics, C. Fred Bergsten and William Cline contend that the U.S. restricts imports from Japan about as much as Japan limits purchases from the U.S. Another widely quoted estimate is that...
...best the gradual devaluation that the U.S. wants to bring about would take a long time to work. Export prices would not drop, nor import prices rise, immediately. When they did, sales would not respond overnight. Some economists believe that 18 months or more would pass before the trade deficit came down markedly--and protectionists in Congress are hardly in any mood to wait that long. Accordingly, Reagan set out last week to convince them that their bitter complaints about unfair foreign trade practices have been heard and are getting action...