Harmonized Tariff Schedule

“ We favor immediate revision of the tariff by the reduction of import duties. Articles entering into competition with trust-controlled products should be placed upon the free list, and material reductions should be made in the tariff upon the necessaries of life, especially upon articles competing with such American manufactures as are sold abroad more cheaply than at home, and graduated reductions should be made in such other schedules as may be necessary to restore the tariff to a revenue basis. ”

“ Accordingly, I have decided that it is necessary to provide for the termination of all quantitative limitations and fees previously proclaimed under section 22 of the Adjustment Act (7 U.S.C. 624) , other than those for wheat, as provided in the Annex to this proclamation.
6. (a) Section 404 (a) of the URAA directs the President to take such action as may be necessary in implementing the tariff-rate quotas set out in Schedule XX to ensure that imports of agricultural products do not disrupt the orderly marketing of commodities in the United States. ”

“ Frequent changes are to be avoided, because they upset calculations which are at the foundation of trade. Even if the object of a tariff is agreed to and settled, that object may not be attained by the means proposed. A tariff builder always has in mind one or both of two ideas or results; first, revenue with which to run the federal government; second, protection to domestic industries. These ideas may be, and generally are, antagonistic. A schedule which produces a large revenue may not be protective, and one which is protective may produce no revenue at all. ”

“ On January 29, 1997, pursuant to section 115 of the URAA, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) submitted a report to the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Finance of the Senate ("the Committees") that set forth the proposed tariff eliminations and corrections in existing tariff treatment, together with the advice received from the appropriate private sector advisory committee and the U.S. International Trade Commission regarding such actions. ”

“ It is no part of the function of the Tariff Board to propose rates of duty. Their function is merely to present findings of fact on which rates of duty may be fairly determined in the light of adequate knowledge in accord with the economic policy to be followed. This is what the present report does.
The findings of fact by the board show ample reason for the revision downward of Schedule K, in accord with the protective principle, and present the data as to relative costs and prices from which may be determined what rates will fairly equalize the difference in production costs. ”

“ But neither our nation nor any other can stand the ruinous policy of readjusting its business to radical changes in the tariff at short intervals. This is more true now than ever it was before, for owing to the immense extent and variety of our products, the tariff schedules of to-day carry rates of duty on more than four thousand articles. Continual sweeping changes in such a tariff, touching so intimately the commercial interests of the nation which stands as one of the two or three greatest in the whole industrial world, can not but be disastrous. ”

“ It is time to readjust our trade and tariff policies to suit present conditions and to make them more effective instruments of our economic development.
I propose the creation of a Tariff Commission to study the present tariff rates carefully and in detail. This we should do while we present our side to the United States in our desire to readjust our trade relations with her. The Problem is not easy. It will take some time before we can expect concrete recommendations for the required changes. ”

“ In the end these duties are paid by the producer. Every bushel of wheat, corn, or other grain, shipped over a railroad, pays part. Protective tariffs are so interwoven with the construction of railroads and the internal commerce of the country that they cannot be separated from the questions we have been discussing. All tariff duties are direct charges upon the productions of this country, and not on any other. Import duties are not paid by the people of the country from whence the goods are imported, but by our own people. ”

“ No Party may, by reason of an exportation described in paragraph 1, refund, waive or reduce:
(a) an antidumping or countervailing duty that is applied pursuant to a Party's domestic law and that is not applied inconsistently with Chapter Nineteen (Review and Dispute Settlement in Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Matters) ;
(b) a premium offered or collected on an imported good arising out of any tendering system in respect of the administration of quantitative import restrictions, tariff rate quotas or tariff preference levels ”

“ As I have indicated, it is increasingly clear that to obtain and maintain that equity and substantial equality of treatment essential to the flourishing foreign trade, which becomes year by year more important to the industrial and commercial welfare of the United States, we should have a flexibility of tariff sufficient for the give and take of negotiation by the Department of State on behalf of our commerce and industry. ”

“ But so long as the tariff rate, based on value, remained operative, it was binding upon the shipper and carrier alike, and was to be enforced by the courts in fixing the rights and liabilities of the parties. The tariffs are filed with the Commission and are open to inspection at every station. In view of the multitude of transactions, it is not necessary that there shall be an inquiry as to each article, or a distinct agreement as to the value of each shipment. If no value is stated, the tariff rate applicable to such a state of facts applies. ”

“ In order to provide an accelerated schedule of duty elimination for specific goods of Mexico under the terms of general note 12 to the HTS, and to provide identical tariff treatment for originating goods of a CBTPA beneficiary country provided for in the same HTS subheading, the special tariff treatment set forth in the HTS for the pertinent subheadings is modified as provided in Annex IV to this proclamation. ”

“ I warn those who insist so pertinaciously upon a retention of these high duties upon necessary articles of consumption that they only hasten the time when a more radical change will be made in our tariff laws. What manufacturers need most of all is stability in legislation, avoiding sudden and sweeping changes. The changes which I have proposed would reduce the revenue only a few million dollars, while to the consumers of manufactures produced they would reduce the cost of those products many million dollars. ”

“ We are of opinion that the rule is not a violation thereof.
It is conceded that the different railroads forming a continuous line of road are free to adopt or refuse to adopt joint through tariff rates. The commerce act recognizes such right, and provides for the filing, with the Commission, of the through tariff rates, as agreed upon between the companies. The whole question of joint through tariff rates, under the provisions of the act, is one of agreement between the companies, and they may, or may not, enter into it, as they may think their interests demand. ”

“ Second, it could reduce the tariff to schedules sufficient only to protect American business and American jobs from immediate destructive competition. The classic argument of the protectionists is that a high tariff is necessary to the maintenance of high wages. ”

“ We demand tariff revision because the present tariff is unjust to the people of the United States. Fair dealing toward the people requires an immediate downward revision of those schedules wherein duties are shown to be unjust or excessive. ”

“ It is clear to the whole country that the tariff duties must be altered. They must be changed to meet the radical alteration in the conditions of our economic life which the country has witnessed within the last generation. While the whole face and method of our industrial and commercial life were being changed beyond recognition the tariff schedules have remained what they were before the change began, or have moved in the direction they were given when no large circumstance of our industrial development was what it is to-day. Our task is to square them with the actual facts. ”

“ For instance, the binder which in the United States sells for $125.00 at retail sells in France for $173.70. The reapers, mowers, and rakes are proportionately dearer. There are two reasons for this: In the first place France has been applying her maximum tariff to our exports, by way of meeting our high duties on her products. But after the harvesting machines get into the country, they meet another hindrance to a natural price; the importers of agricultural machines in France are organized into a general syndicate, which consists of French, German, Canadian, and American firms. ”

“ As an occasion for such charges scarce any other form of legislation serves as well. Even the people themselves are easily assumed by their neighbors to weigh their opinions upon a tariff measure by their personal interests.
The indirect influence of a new tariff law upon the industries of a country can scarcely be foreseen. So interlocked are all the varieties of manufacture and trade that a change in price of any one article of commerce may affect hundreds of others, sometimes much more than the article restricted. ”

“ The combination of the two documents caused something like a split in Republican ranks. The Chicago Tribune and a number of other Western papers came out with as strong a commendation of Mr. Cleveland as the New York Nation, and in Minnesota, Nebraska, and Iowa particularly, many leading Republicans publicly approved it. Nevertheless, the final effect on the party was to solidify the varying degrees of protectionists into one body. Cost what it might the Democrats must not be allowed to reform the tariff. Nothing was better campaign capital for Republicans than the charge of “free-trade.” ”

“ The world should be open to our national ingenuity and enterprise. This cannot be while federal legislation, through the imposition of high tariffs, forbids to American manufactures as cheap materials as those used by their competitors."
In view of this message, it was manifest that the tariff would be the chief subject of legislation during the session. It was understood that a bill had been prepared by the committee of ways and means, which had been submitted to the President and Secretary of the Treasury and approved by them. ”

“ In the first case the tax or duty goes to the government, in the other case to the domestic manufacturer. “It is said that the increase in the price of domestic manufactures resulting from the present tariff is necessary in order that higher wages may be paid to our working-men employed in manufactories, than are paid for what is called the pauper labor of Europe.” Now out of a population of 50,155,783, 2,623,089 persons are employed in such manufacturing industries as are claimed to be benefited by a high tariff. ”

“ No reasonable person can expect the protective system to be handled without compromises, backsets, and errors of judgment, but he can expect it to be handled as a principle and not as a commodity. The shock and disgust come in the discovery that our tariffs are not good and bad applications of the principles of protection, but that they are good or bad bargains. Dip into the story of the tariff at any point since the Civil War and you will find wholesale proofs of this bargaining in duties ”

“ Where the tariff rates balance the difference in cost at home and abroad, including an allowance for the difference in freight rates, the tariff must be competitive, and from that point downward to the lowest tariff that can be levied it will continue to be competitive to a greater or less extent. ”

“ All imports are subject to a tariff designed to protect the standard of living on this continent, which is far above that of any other nation on the planet. These tariffs are set by the highest industrial court after both houses of the industrial congress have ratified the recommendations of the chief executive of economic affairs, who is the joint appointee of these two legislative bodies. The upper industrial house is elected by labor, the lower by capital. ”