Word: tariffs
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THIS grotesque parody of the U.S. legislative process is unfortunately all too real. When Congress reconvenes this week, the first major item of business in the House will be a vote on the most restrictive piece of trade legislation since the disastrous Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. The bill, which would raise prices by denying consumers access to many imports, is likely to pass after only perfunctory debate, and then whiz to the Senate. There the Finance Committee already has voted to attach it as a rider to a measure raising Social Security benefits. The odds are that...
...held to the 1967-69 average, which would amount to a reduction of at least 30% from current levels; in subsequent years, they could grow only 5% annually. The bill also obliges the President to continue holding down oil imports by quota, rather than switch to a less restrictive tariff system...
Tragedy of Errors. The bill's most mischievous feature is the so-called "trigger mechanism." It forces the President to impose quotas or higher tariffs on any foreign product that is increasing rapidly in sales and has captured 15% of the U.S. marketprovided that the domestic industry can prove injury and the U.S. Tariff Commission recommends action. The President can avoid invoking restrictions only if he finds that they would not be "in the national interest." At present, an estimated 125 foreign productsincluding wigs, radioactive isotopes, sewing machines, autos and TV setswould...
...which Mills expects to report out by month's end, would impose mandatory quotas on imports of foreign shoes and synthetic and wool textiles. Furthermore, it would force President Nixon to continue curbing oil imports by a quota system, rather than replace the quotas with a less restrictive tariff. The oil deal was wrapped up in eight minutes. Even that might be only the beginning. An omnibus provision authorizes the President to put quotas on any imported products that take as much as 15% of the U.S. market. If the provision becomes law, it could be used immediately...
...elegant Room H208 (which has become known to some congressional staffers as "the tiger cage"). As clumps of industry and labor lobbyists waited outside, the House Ways and Means Committee put on a display of protectionist logrolling that would have done credit to the authors of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. What emerged was an inflationary, consumer-be-damned bill that could reverse the whole U.S.-led postwar movement toward freer trade...