Word: tariffers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
GATT was designed to bring order out of a chaotic mass of trade pacts that sprang up after the U.S. Congress passed the first Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act in 1934. Under that act, the U.S. signed bilateral tariff agreements with France, Great Britain, Belgium and 26 other nations. As each of these nations signed similar agreements with dozens of other countries, a tangled net of concessions, quota restrictions, special licenses, etc. was created. To simplify matters, the U.S. helped sponsor a meeting of interested nations after World War II to write a single, broad General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade...
World trade grew so rapidly under GATT that the tariff concessions were expanded at a meeting in 1949, and again in 1951. The agreement now covers 58,000 concessions, on everything from locomotives to leather gloves. But GATT delegates, for all their accomplishments, never had a place to hang their hats. They met intermittently, lacked even an adequate secretariat. Earlier this year they decided to set up a permanent secretariat, the Organization for Trade Cooperation, to keep records of rate agreements, provide a forum for participating countries, make arrangements for negotiations, etc. But OTC would conduct no negotiations on tariffs...
...moment, OTC is stalled in House and Senate committees, and neither Democrats nor Republicans are pushing it. The high-tariff bloc and the protectionists are leagued with a group with a vague fear that the U.S. could eventually lose part of its sovereignty through OTC. Some opponents have incorrectly likened OTC to the sweeping International Trade Organization, or "World New Deal," which President Truman proposed to Congress in 1949 but withdrew in the face of opposition. OTC has also been denounced as "socialism," even though (by lowering trade barriers) it would not increase, but actually reduce, Government intervention in trade...
Next day, Walter George laid it on the line to his Finance Committee colleagues. Said he, in a closed meeting: "Gentlemen, we can go into each tariff rate one by one and write new rates for every commodity; or we can simply make up our minds that we are going to write a reciprocal trade bill and forget about the individual commodities. Gentlemen, that is the choice.Which will...
...hours later, Johnson, Byrd, Millikin and a few others began drafting a compromise amendment. They eliminated amendments favoring specific industries, but inserted an escape clause under which the President, in the interest of national security, could grant tariff protection to industries injured by foreign competition. With the compromise clause written in, the Finance Committee last week approved the trade bill...