Word: important
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...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...
...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...