Word: protectionists
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...first of these bills to come close to a vote, the textile measure is a kind of test case of protectionist sentiment. Present outlook: some version of it will sail through both chambers of Congress; after all, bipartisan majorities of both House and Senate have signed on as co-sponsors. Reagan will veto it, repeating dire warnings that U.S. protectionism could once again provoke foreign retaliation against what remains of American exports (which is plenty: the U.S. is still the world's biggest exporter by 27% over runner-up West Germany). Such retaliation is what happened after Congress passed...
...then the shift by Washington not only to intervening itself but to orchestrating a coordinated effort by other governments to do the same? Primarily because a drop in the dollar holds the greatest promise of reducing the trade deficit and easing protectionist pressure on Capitol Hill. Indeed, unless the dollar comes down, many economists doubt that anything else will do much good...
...they would like them to be to prevent still more money from fleeing to the U.S. A lower price for the dollar might enable them to reduce domestic interest rates and thus speed up their internal economies. And if sales to the U.S. fall? Well, the unattractive alternative is protectionist legislation that might slam the American market shut in their faces and push them into retaliation...
...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...
Support for other protectionist bills appeared to weaken too. Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski of Illinois, a principal author (with Gephardt and Texas Democratic Senator Lloyd Bentsen) of the bill to impose a 25% tariff on goods from countries running especially large surpluses in trade with the U.S., has always acknowledged that the bill is likely to be rewritten in ways that he cannot foresee. Gephardt now is voicing hope that if the measure does pass in something like its present form, its targets will trim their trade surpluses enough to escape its provisions. But he admits, "I really...