Word: shoes
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Amid all the good fellowship that Jimmy Carter enjoyed last week when he attended a town meeting in Clinton, Mass., there was one discordant note. The President was greeted by a full-page ad in the Clinton daily Item urging him to save the American shoe industry by imposing stiff tariffs and quotas on imports. Earlier in the week, the Government's independent International Trade Commission, which is already on record in favor of protecting the shoemakers, had called for tight curbs on U.S. imports of sugar and color-television sets as well. "The protectionist heat is on," said...
...timing could not be more awkward for the President. In early May, he will go to a seven-nation economic summit in London to argue, among other things, for free trade and lower tariff barriers. He must make a decision on shoe tariffs by April 9, and on sugar and color-TV imports one to two weeks after the summit. If the President acts to cut imports sharply, his free-trade evangelism in London will seem hollow or even hypocritical. If he ignores the protectionist pressures, his summit partners will be pleased, but Carter will face domestic protest...
...protectionist case is formidable. Since 1968, foreign shoes have increased their share of the U.S. market from 22% to 46%. During the same period, 300 domestic shoe factories have closed, wiping out 70,000 jobs. Imported color-TV sets, mostly from Japan, Taiwan and Korea, grabbed 42% of the $2 billion American market last year, a huge increase from 18% only the year before. The American sugar industry, undersold by foreign competitors, faces similar troubles...
Tariffs and Quotas. The ITC wants a quota of 265 million pairs-equal to 1974 imports-on the number of shoes that can come in under the present 10% tariff, and quadrupling the tariff to 40% on any additional imports. It would raise tariffs on color TVs from 5% now to 25% for the next two years, then drop them back to 20% for an additional two years. The commission further would cut the quota on sugar, now 7 million tons, to a maximum of 4.4 million tons a year. Labor leaders, businessmen and politicians from regions hurt by imports...
...President faces his own pressures. U.S. shoe workers and factory owners are clamoring for a tariff that would reduce imports to their 1974 level. Makers of color TV sets are similarly demanding high tariffs that would keep out Japanese imports. The betting is that Carter will resist; he could hardly call for free trade at the summit right after caving in to protectionist pressure at home...