Word: tariff
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...trade bill would empower the President to slash tariffs drastically-all the way down to zero on many categories of manufactured goods-in return for tariff concessions by other countries (TIME, Feb. 2 et seq.). Because it cuts far deeper than the old reciprocal trade program that it is designed to replace, the bill was expected to stir up fierce opposition. But last week, as the House Ways and Means Committee completed its second week of hearings on the measure, the opposition seemed more plaintive than ferocious...
...Import-Export Policy and for a decade Washington's No. 1 professional lobbyist for trade barriers, warned that the bill would give the Administration "power to push domestic industries onto the ash heap." Spokesmen for firms that make machine tools, watches, bicycles, pianos and other products complained that tariff cuts would injure their industries. But these warnings and complaints seemed no more fervent, and perhaps less persuasive, than at hearings on reciprocal trade renewal in past years...
Last week Kennedy did more warding off by proclaiming steep increases in tariffs on some kinds of carpets and glass. The increases had been recommended by the Tariff Commission, but the President was under no legal obligation to put them into effect. By doing so, he stirred predictable resentment in Europe and Japan, and cast doubt upon the sincerity of his own trade bill-but he also helped to win the votes of Congressmen with carpet or glassmaking plants in their districts...
...essentially a response to the great opportunity and the great challenge of the European Common Market. Said Secretary Hodges:"We need-we must have-a trade policy that will assure us access to this booming market." But as the Common Market moves toward its goal of abolishing tariffs between member nations and erecting a common external tariff wall, the U.S. could find its exports largely shut out. That is where the trade bill comes in. Its essential purpose, explained Treasury Secretary Douglas Dillon, is to enable the U.S. to "bargain down the outside tariff wall of the Common Market...
What of the widespread fears that deep cuts in U.S. tariffs would open up the U.S. to a deluge of cheap-labor imports? Labor Secretary Arthur J. Goldberg testified that the "displacement" of U.S. workers as a result of tariff cuts would be "small" and would be "more than offset by the number of jobs generated by an expanding export trade." And for companies and workers injured by increased imports, there would be "adjustment assistance" loans and technical help for companies, relief payments for laid-off workers (up to 65% of the average weekly manufacturing wage for as long...