Export control

“ Others must continue to trade through foreign trade enterprises. The delegation of authority has not involved a transfer of basic decisionmaking powers, and the continuance of central control is therefore assured. All trade must be conducted in accordance with binding state plans and guidelines issued by the minister of foreign trade. Every transaction requires approval by the Ministry of Foreign Trade in the form of an import or export [Pg 249] license. Central controls have also been retained over foreign exchange and over export and import prices. ”

“ Establish, develop, review and maintain appropriate effective national export and trans-shipment controls over such items, including appropriate laws and regulations to control export, transit, trans-shipment and re-export and controls on providing funds and services related to such export and trans-shipment such as financing, and transporting that would contribute to proliferation, as well as establishing end-user controls ”

“ An Act to make provision enabling controls to be imposed on the exportation of goods, the transfer of technology, the provision of technical assistance overseas and activities connected with trade in controlled goods ”

“ The loss of the exports, and with it the imports also, must in truth be the end of the system. If we export, we must import, and the most simple and efficient system to secure the home market, would in fact be to prohibit exports; and as the constitution only prohibits duties on exports, and as duties are not prohibition, we may yet witness this modification of the American system. ”

“ An unbroken conversion of the whole yield of exports and freight returns and interest on foreign investments into imported raw material to be wholly converted into new products, mainly for export, was something utterly beyond the possibilities. It would mean a rate of expansion of exports never attained and not only not attainable but not desirable. On such a footing, the producing and exporting country would never concretely taste of its profit, which is to be realised, if at all, only in consumption of imported goods and foods. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The framers of our constitution, by granting the power to congress to lay imports, and prohibiting that of laying an export duty, manifested that they did not regard them as equivalent. Nor does the common sense of mankind. An export duty fastens upon, and incorporates itself with, the article on which it is laid. The article cannot escape from it—it pursues and follows it, wherever the article goes; and if, in the foreign market, the supply is above or just equal to the demand, the amount of the export duty will be a clear deduction to the exporter from the price of the article. ”

“ We have inland navigation. Our last exports did not exceed £1,000,000. Our export trade is entirely in the hands of foreigners. We have no manufactures—depend for supplies on other nations—and so far are we from having any carrying trade, that, as I have already said, our exports are in the hands of foreigners. Besides the profit that might be made by our natural materials, much greater gains would accrue from their being first wrought before they were exported. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Another major cause in the reduction of the foreign exchange resources was the higher level of activity of business firms, particularly those in the export sector. As in the case of firms producing goods for domestic consumption, these export firms were heavily dependent on imported machinery as well as imported raw materials to bring about an expansion in their production. ”

“ Then let me ask, what would our Neo-Protectionists say if the products of our industry were annually exported to the extent of 411 millions, and we received back from the foreigner only 286 millions worth in exchange?
Look at the question in yet another light. How can it be otherwise than that our imports should exceed in value our exports? If a merchant export £100 worth of goods, and in exchange for them imports goods worth only £100, he must make a dead loss under the heads of freight, insurance, interest, and profits. ”

“ That country which has the strongest demand for the commodities of other countries as compared with the demand of other countries for its own commodities will pay the burden of the export duty. Thus far of duties on exports. We now proceed to the more ordinary case of duties on imports: “We have had an example of a tax on exports, that is, on foreigners, falling in part on ourselves. We shall therefore not be surprised if we find a tax on imports, that is, on ourselves, partly falling upon foreigners. ”

“ If the import of foreign goods, either crude or manufactured, is obstructed, then it follows of necessity that the export of the products of the farm and of the mine is to that extent obstructed, because we buy our foreign goods in exchange for food that we can not consume, for cotton that we can not spin, and for oil that we can not burn. "But," some one says, "if these foreign goods were manufactured at home, there would then be the same market for the product of the farm, the mine, and the forest, within the limit of our country, that now exists abroad." ”

“ 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. ”

“ Any cause which alters the exports or imports from one country into another, alters the division of the advantage of interchange between those two countries. Suppose the discovery of a new process, by which some article of export, or some article not previously exported, can be produced so cheap as to occasion a great demand for it in other countries. This of course produces a great influx of money from other countries, and lowers the prices of all articles imported from them, until the increase of importation produced by this cause has restored the equilibrium. ”

“ If the fact be, that by allowing to foreigners a participation in our machinery, we enable them to produce any of our leading articles of export, at a lower money price than we can sell those articles, it is certain that unless we possess as great an advantage in the production of the machinery itself as we have in the production of other articles by means of machinery, the permitting of its exportation would alter to our disadvantage the division of the benefit of trade. Our exports being diminished, we should have to pay a balance in money. ”

“ We are committed to helping all U.S. businesses continue to succeed-not only by opening markets, but also by assisting U.S. exporters. My Administration, through the efforts of the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee, has developed a National Export Strategy to help small- and medium-size companies sell globally to realize their export potential. ”

“ Just as we must pay for our imports by our exports, and in addition pay hundreds of millions of interest and dividends on our securities held abroad, so other nations must export to us very largely if they buy from us largely, and the newer countries must export more than they import. We must, with extreme good judgment and care, ascertain just what we can buy without hurt to our home products, at the same time that we induce the foreigner to buy from us all that he can without hurt to his own production. ”

“ While it has a less palpable influence in the generality of cases, the protectionist policy is not less unfavorable to industry as a whole. If the market for most of our export products is restricted, one of the causes for it is to be found in the fact that between 1878 and 1880 France converted most of the nations to protectionism; we set them the example and they followed it. We repel foreign wheat, cattle, and cotton-thread, and they repel our articles de Paris, silks, furniture, and wines. ”

“ But do we, civilized beings, indulge in the absurd and barbarous notion that we must own the countries with which we wish to trade? Here are our official reports before us, telling us that of late years our export trade has grown enormously, not only of farm products, but of the products of our manufacturing industries ”

“ The work will afford a comprehensive picture of American productiveness, like similar works issued in Germany, Austria, and Italy, to the acknowledged benefit of the export trade of those countries; and our own export trade, which is capable of much greater development, cannot fail to be greatly benefited by the successful execution of the scheme. ”

“ License Requirements
Exports are controlled primarily through the exercise of financial controls. In general, laws and regulations governing export trade are designed so that commodities that are in short supply, or which would otherwise have to be replaced by imports, may not be exported. Thus there is a standing prohibition against the export of gold and silver in bars, sheets, or coins; cattle, sheep, raw hides, charcoal, matches, butter, sugar, and tea. ”

“ In this increasingly interdependent world, American business must focus more of its efforts on exporting our goods and services. A promising new tool is now available to increase export participation: the Export Trading Company Act of 1982. This law will help American businesses, particularly small and medium-sized companies, to organize themselves for stronger export efforts with considerably less hindrance by government regulation. ”

“ One of the chief complaints against the protective system is its alleged hindrance to foreign trade and a foreign market for our own products. It is argued that if we could import raw material from other countries free, and manufacture such raw material into products for use, we could export them at great profit, and thus secure a standing in the markets of the world. ”

“ It appears to me that the system which has been more or less adopted since the days of Mr Huskisson, of suppressing small trades for the encouragement of foreign importation, and of stimulating export manufactures to the uttermost, has proved very pernicious to the morals and the social condition of the people. ”

“ Where the export of a product from other countries or regions to the market of a third country causes or threatens to cause material injury to the established domestic industries, or materially retards the establishment of domestic industries, the authority responsible for foreign trade under the State Council may, on the request of the domestic industries, carry out consultations with the government of that third country and require it to take appropriate measures. ”

“ Subject to this proviso of the proper protection necessary to our industrial well-being at home, the principle of reciprocity must command our hearty support. The phenomenal growth of our export trade emphasizes the urgency of the need for wider markets and for a liberal policy in dealing with foreign nations. Whatever is merely petty and vexatious in the way of trade restrictions should be avoided. The customers to whom we dispose of our surplus products in the long run, directly or indirectly, purchase those surplus products by giving us something in return. ”

“ It is, indeed, a general law of prosperous commerce that the real value of exports should by a small, and only a small, balance exceed that of imports, that balance being a permanent addition to the wealth of the nation.
The extent of the prosperous commerce of the nation must be regulated by the amount of its exports, and an important addition to the value of these will draw after it a corresponding increase of importations. It has happened in the vicissitudes of the seasons that the harvests of all Europe have in the late summer and autumn fallen short of their usual average. ”

“ If developing countries are to reconcile a need for rapid export growth with a need to conserve the resource base, it is imperative that they enjoy access to industrial country markets for non traditional exports while they enjoy a comparative advantage. In many cases, the problems of protectionism relate to manufactures ”

“ Countries which export food, have the former advantage, but not the latter. But our own colonies, and the countries which supply us with the materials of our manufactures, maintain a hard struggle with us for an equal share of the advantages of their trade; for their exports are also of a kind for which there exists a most extensive demand here, and a demand capable of almost indefinite extension by a fall of price. ”