Word: importent
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...program was doomed almost from the start. The price of oil peaked at more than $40 per bbl. in 1982 and has fallen steadily since, to about $27 per bbl. today. It has thus become much cheaper to import oil than to manufacture synthetic fuels. And that has made projects like Great Plains losing propositions. Says Energy Secretary John Herrington: "Oil and natural-gas prices have simply not proved high enough to make the [Great Plains] project economical. On balance, the costs outweigh the benefits...
...results have been discouraging. Though Tanzanian farmers have traditionally been among Africa's most productive, the country's pricing and distribution system is notoriously inefficient. The government has been forced to import food to feed the population of Dar es Salaam, the capital. As a result, ujamaa has been allowed to die a quiet death, and roughly 85% of the population has gone back to subsistence farming. Meanwhile, the nationalized industries are working at only about 20% of capacity. Tanzania's expensive 1979 military intervention in neighboring Uganda to topple the brutal dictatorship of Idi Amin further accelerated the economic...
...fury was directed at Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, who two weeks earlier had introduced an economic austerity plan. With its call for a 15% devaluation of the Greek drachma, wage curbs, new taxes, import controls and cuts in public spending, the plan was designed to ease the country's roughly $6 billion budget deficit, its $3 billion balance of payments deficit and its $14 billion foreign debt. Despite the resulting labor confrontation, the government refuses to give way. Since the real impact of the austerity will not begin to be felt for months, Papandreou will probably win this round. Last...
...dollar does not stay down, American industries will keep pushing hard to raise import barriers. Last week the U.S. Senate approved a measure similar to one already passed by the House of Representatives that would curb textile and apparel shipments from a dozen exporters, including South Korea and Hong Kong. In addition, the U.S. International Trade Commission issued a preliminary ruling that low-priced Japanese products were hurting the American semiconductor industry. That could lead to import restrictions on computer chips...
Despite the difficulties of 1985, TIME's economists agreed that the year could be profitable if it encourages the Pacific countries to re-examine their economic strategies. Even the threat of Western import barriers could be helpful if it forces countries to find different trading partners and new ways to grow. Concluded Hong Kong's Chen: "Protectionism can be an early signal to adjust. And only countries that learn to adjust can prosper." --By Charles P. Alexander Forecasts by TIME's Pacific Board of Economists...