Trade Adjustment Assistance

“ But that’s not all we should be doing for our workers. Right now, something called Trade Adjustment Assistance provides vital support, like job-training and community college education, to tens of thousands of American workers each year who were hurt by past trade deals – the kind we’re not going to repeat again. ”

“ The ITC transmitted to the President its recommendations made pursuant to section 202 (e) of the Trade Act (19 U.S.C. 2252 (e) ) with respect to the actions that, in its view, would address the serious injury, or threat of serious injury, to the domestic industry and be most effective in facilitating the efforts of the industry to make a positive adjustment to import competition. ”

“ We will accelerate institutional reform in local governments and move forward with the reform of government-affiliated institutions.
We will strive to ensure steady growth in foreign trade. While stressing the importance of boosting domestic demand, we must not slacken efforts to promote export. In the face of the serious situation of a sharp decline in external demand and growing trade protectionism, we will straighten out and adjust our foreign trade policies and increase our support for import and export. ”

“ If our tariffs are to be made equitable, and not necessarily burden our imports and hinder our trade abroad, frequent adjustment will be necessary for years to come. Knowing the impossibility of modification by act of Congress for any one or a score of lines without involving a long array of schedules, I think we shall go a long ways toward stabilization, if there is recognition of the Tariff Commission's fitness to recommend urgent changes by proclamation. ”

“ It is by no means desirable, however, that the policy under consideration should be applied to these countries alone. The healthful enlargement of our trade with Europe, Asia, and Africa should be sought by reducing tariff burdens on such of their wares as neither we nor the other American States are fitted to produce, and thus enabling ourselves to obtain in return a better market for our supplies of food, of raw materials, and of the manufactures in which we excel. ”

“ Full decontrol may obviously be accompanied by an increase in price of imports, but it will create conditions favorable for the establishment of new industries to increase production for export and employment and, in the long run, stabilize prices. With the savings of foreign exchange resulting from the reduction of imports of consumer goods, we shall have more resources available for the importation of machineries and equipment to expand industrial production. ”

“ Imports can also benefit the United States by increasing consumer choice while lowering prices for millions of working families. In addition, imports can support employment for retailers, distributors, the transportation sector, and domestic manufacturers which rely on global supply chains to make products for both the U.S. and international markets. We must ensure that the benefits of trade are spread more widely. This can be achieved by training and supporting Americans and ensuring that trade agreements provide the economic opportunities that Americans deserve. ”

“ Today, as never before, when peoples are seeking trade restoration and expansion, we must adjust our tariffs to the new order. We seek participation in the world's exchanges, because therein lies our way to widened influence and the triumphs of peace. We know full well we cannot sell where we do not buy, and we cannot sell successfully where we do not carry. Opportunity is calling not alone for the restoration, but for a new era in production, transportation and trade. ”

“ However, under prevailing world conditions and in our present state of economic growth, the continuation of economic controls is a necessity. I would like to reiterate the view which I expressed on March 11, 1956, before the first Trade National Convention that a system of exchange and import controls is still a necessary instrument today if we are to meet the requirements of our development projects and at the same time maintain the inflow of essential consumer goods not locally available. ”

“ Dismantling protectionist barriers and providing correct incentives and support shall make our industry more efficient and world competitive — and our exports, the spearhead for economic revival and growth. ”

“ Emphasis is laid instead on the fact that in the last analysis the trade is of goods for goods, not of money for goods, and that a tariff on imports reduces, not only imports, but exports also,—that it merely interrupts temporarily the virtual barter between nations. ”

“ Investors, demanding interest payments from foreign debtors, will no longer be able to maintain the attitude that imports menace the prosperity of the country and should be cut down by the restrictions of the tariff. Exporters will find that the current is set against them, and that they can broaden their market only as they stimulate still greater growth in the import trade. ”

“ When Congress passed the 1930 Tariff Act there were roughly 700 categories of imports. Since that time—with the adoption of the Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act—the number of categories has been increased by the thousands. Most of the increases were in categories created to help foreign countries expand their trade in the United States. The duty on a comparatively few imports has been revised upward as a measure of protecting some of the American industries from lower-cost foreign competition. ”

“ This circumstance [Pg 221] is counted upon by the leadership to motivate trusts toward attaining optimum efficiency in export production and toward adjusting output to foreign market requirements. Financial incentives to surpass official foreign trade targets are provided by allocating the producers and foreign trade organizations a portion of the receipts from excess exports and a portion of savings made on imports through import substitution. ”

“ More than 80 per cent of imports last year were capital goods and raw materials. Only the balance of 20 per cent went to consumer goods. The increase in export production and the modified import pattern reflected an overall economic gain for the country in foreign trade.
As we can see, our foreign exchange earnings have not kept pace with the rising internal demand for imports. The gap had to be financed from our international reserve so that our development program would not be paralyzed at its crucial first stages. ”

“ The large increase in domestic consumption expected in the immediate future will probably be supplied chiefly from expanding domestic production and imports from Canada will probably decline even under the reduced trade-agreement duty except to fill possible temporary shortages. ”

“ The public is thoroughly aroused and the work of reform is progressing as fast as ever any national movement of equal consequence. One of the most fortunate consequences of a justly protective tariff will be the tremendous enlargement of foreign trade. We pride ourselves upon the exportation of $1,082,000,000 of manufactured products, but 63 per cent, of these exports are crude and semi-crude ”

“ Less than two years hence, the tariff levies on our exports to the United States will be in operation. By that time we shall be manufacturing articles and goods needing export markets and facing stiff competition there. We must therefore, attend to the problem of foreign trade promotion. We must locate markets for our products. This means that our home production should be placed on a competitive basis abroad not only in price but in quality. But more than anything else, our home market should be developed in order to promote our foreign trade. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Another immediate necessity is to provide a means of bringing about, through government effort, a substantial reduction in the difference between the prices of things the farmer sells and the things the farmer buys. One way of correcting that disparity is by restoring international trade through tariff readjustments. ”

“ It is in America's economic and national security interests to promote commerce by strengthening our relationships with our trading partners, vigorously enforcing our Nation's trade laws, improving the overall conditions for competition and trade, and ensuring the strength of our manufacturing and defense industrial bases. For many years, the United States has not obtained the full scope of benefits anticipated under a number of international trade agreements or from participating in the World Trade Organization. ”

“ To achieve the second objective, we must give priority to the development of economic projects which can be brought up to the producing point within a relatively short time and will enable us to reduce the amount of dollars spent on imports. Now is our opportunity to initiate the adjustment of our economy to maintain a stable, high level of em­ployment without unduly exposing our program to the’ dangers of unpredictable violent fluctuations of demand for basic export crops in the foreign markets. ”

“ Ranging from technological innovation incentives and government procurement, through subsidies on specific sectors and companies, to tariff protection and trade agreements, these industrial policies have played a vital role in enhancing the competitive strength of US industries.
To strengthen its global leadership in manufacturing, the US has in recent years formulated a large number of industrial policies. ”

“ The United States, however, has a large and persistent trade deficit in manufacturing, overall as well as with certain trading partners. Through an increased commitment to opening markets, reducing barriers to our goods, and firmly addressing unfair trade practices, we can do far better for American workers and manufacturers. ”

“ It consists in such a revision of the tariff as will deliver our manufacturing industries of those artificial burdens which increase the cost of the things they have to use in production, thus permitting them to obtain those things as cheaply and advantageously as their foreign competitors obtain them, and in that way giving them a fair chance for the export trade. ”

“ Every element of aid to the introduction of the products of our soil and manufactures into new markets should be made available. At present such is the favor in which many of the products of the United States are held that they obtain a remunerative distribution, notwithstanding positive differences of cost resulting from our defective shipping and the imperfection of our arrangements in every respect, in comparison with those of our competitors, for conducting trade with foreign markets. ”

“ In that spirit, we've been urging others, especially those with large trade surpluses, to adopt growth-oriented policies at home, enabling their citizens to buy more American products and other imports. The answer to our trade balance problem is not to close our markets, cut imports, or collapse trade. Millions of American jobs are tied to imports. The way to a better life is to open markets now closed, improve trading conditions, and to expand our exports. ”

“ We must never lose sight of the fact, that the sure test of free-trade, for which object we have sacrificed our revenue, is augmented export. Let us see how far this branch of the scheme has succeeded. We shall take the exports and imports for the years 1845 and 1846, which will afford a sufficient indication of the manner in which the new tariff is likely to work.
Thus, while the exports are decreasing, the imports are augmenting; we are selling less and buying more, and the foreigner is reaping the profit. ”

“ Efforts to help every American build a better life have included also a vigorous program for expanding our trade with other nations. A 4-year renewal of the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act was passed in 1958, and a continuing and rewarding effort has been made to persuade other countries to remove restrictions against our exports. A new export expansion program was launched in 1960, inaugurating improvement of export credit insurance and broadening research and information programs to awaken Americans to business opportunities overseas. ”

“ We must gradually reduce certain tariff obstacles to trade. These actions should, of course, be accompanied by a similar lowering of trade barriers by other nations, so that we may move steadily toward greater economic advantage for all. ”

“ Our policy should be so to cheapen 68manufactured products that we can revive our export trade, now swept away, because we cannot compete with other nations in the markets of the world. If we could restore what we have lost, and in addition greatly enlarge our exportations of manufactures, we should then have an enlarged home market for our agricultural products, which would then be exported in a concentrated form in exchange for other commodities which we do not now and cannot produce. ”

“ Under these trade arrangements a free or favored admission has been secured in every case for an important list of American products. Especial care has been taken to secure markets for farm products, in order to relieve that great underlying industry of the depression which the lack of an adequate foreign market for our surplus often brings. An opening has also been made for manufactured products that will undoubtedly, if this policy is maintained, greatly augment our export trade. ”

“ Regulatory reform legislation, a responsible clean air act, and passage of enterprise zone legislation will also create new incentives for jobs and opportunity.
One of out of every five jobs in our country depends on trade. So, I will propose a broader strategy in the field of international trade--one that increases the openness of our trading system and is fairer to America's farmers and workers in the world marketplace. We must have adequate export financing to sell American products overseas. ”