Word: important
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...agricultural products prevented the GATT participants from reaching any consensus on the specifics. Instead the GATT signators united only on the need to deter the increasingly tempting use of protectionist measures for solving national economic woes. Consequently, they grudgingly committed their countries to "refrain from taking or maintaining" import curbs...
...businessman, "and we will try to get some of the capital outflow. Even 10% or 20% would be of great help." To that end, the Taiwan government plans to create a free-trade zone and banking center on the island. In an unregulated, Hong Kong-like environment free of import taxes, businessmen would be able to enter without visas, taxes would be low, and red tape minimal. In the eyes of Taiwan's rivals, the plan has one crucial draw back: Taipei's hostile relationship with Peking could deter Hong Kong Chinese investors...
...wealthy U.S. business executives, Jay Van Andel and Richard DeVos, faced indictments last week on criminal charges that they had defrauded the Canadian government of more than $22 million in import duties between 1965 and 1980. Van Andel, 58, and DeVos, 56, are chairman and president of Amway, a large direct-selling organization that claims $1.5 billion in annual sales and at least 1 million distributors, mostly part-timers, who peddle the company's diverse line of products, from laundry detergents to health food...
Because of a third consecutive dismal harvest, the Soviets had to import 46 million tons of grain last year, or nearly 20% of their consumption, at a cost of $7 billion or more. At the same time, the sinking market price of oil, the chief Soviet export, cut earnings from energy sales. Result: a hard-currency deficit with the West of $4 billion. To help close that gap, the Soviets sold some 250 tons of gold in 1981 to raise about $3 billion...
Perhaps the lesson of these figures is that viewers prefer straight information and quiet talk to electronic bells and whistles. Certainly the perfervid claims of drama and import, when events were inconclusive, turned some viewers off. Television is incomparably compelling in covering real action, yet embarrassingly unconvincing when it tries to manufacture excitement. But there were some statistics that defied optimistic interpretations: the three networks together attracted less than a third of U.S. households on average; even among those who were home watching TV, nearly half turned to entertainment instead. Despite all their hubbub and hype, all their reaching...