WASHINGTON POST
October, 1969.
Roscoe and Geoffrey Drummond
U.S. Job-Creating Trade Policy Periled by Administration Steps
THE PRODUCTIVE, ex- pansive, job-creating foreign trade policy of the United States
supported by every President and Con- gress for 35 years is in imminent peril.
For two reasons:
serious default in leadership by President Nixon in behalf of the lib eral trade policy in which he says he believes.
• The aggressive, mount- ing protectionist pressures on Congress, using the vac- uum created by Mr. Nixon
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Tree Honoring War Dead Felled
DULUTH, Minn., Oct. 17 (AP) A "Tree of Life" planted on the Uni- versity of Minnesota cam- pus here in honor of the Vietnam war dead was chopped down by vandals.
The birch was planted Wednesday by the Stu. dent Association at the college to show that Mora- torium day was not just an antiwar protest but also contained construc- tive elements.
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The vandals left a note on the stump, quoting Lin- coln's Gettysburg Ad. dress:
"That from these hon-. ored dead we take in- creased devotion to that cause from which they gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain."
to get special quota restric- tions on a wide range of consumer goods, resulting in higher prices.
There can be little doubt that this protectionist mo. mentum will be hard per- haps impossible to stop unless Mr. Nixon takes forceful action in behalf of the national interest and a trade policy to which he is committed.
So great is the political pressure for quota restric- tions on textiles, shoes, oil, steel, electronics, zine, pot- tery and other products that Sen. Charles Percy (R-Ill.) recently warned: "This is going to snowball, and our entire foreign-economic pol. icy can be reversed.”
It could wreck it. The ef- fects would be disastrous: worse inflation, higher do- mestic prices, a decline in exports so needed to meet the balance of payments and lacerated relations with nearly every free nation in the world- which the Com- munists would be pleased to exploit.
How powerful is the pro- tectionist political pressure?
After recent bearings or- ganized by New England senators to demand quota restrictions on imports of footwear, Sen. Margaret Chase Smith (R-Maine) an- nounced that 72 senators had signed a petition to President Nixon urging him
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206
SHOES
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delegation to House to press the shoe in. after dustry's demands, which President Nixon was reported by Footwear News to have promised a "positive effort" to relieve competi tion from imports.
Sens. Hugh Scott (R-Pa.), Edmund Muskie (0-Maine), Edward Brooke (R-Mass.), Thomas Melatyre (D-N.H.) and Norris Cotton (R-N.H.), plus numerous congressmen and shoe manufacturers, ac- companied Sen. Smith.
If you think that a new wave of protectionism would benefit the United States, a total of 72 senators behind shoe quotas is good news. lf you don't, it's ominous. It re- flects the sum of protection- ist votes in the Senate right now, including senators who hope fer shoe votes for their own favorite quota restric- tions. Quite a few of them privately deplore the mount- ing drive for quotas, but few scem willing to resist pres- sure from their own local businesses and constituents.
ONLY. PRESIDENT Nixon can stem the tide.
But he has been moving in opposite directions al- most simultaneously, pro- moting a liberal trade policy some, but furthering a re- strictive trade policy more. Mr. Nixon stated strongly his commitment at a press conference: "I think that the United the States and the interests of the whole free world will be best served by moving to- ward freer trade rather than protectionism. I take a dim view of this tendency to move toward quotas."
interests negotiate "voluntary"" shoe import quotas with for- eign suppliers. Later she led
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But the President's ac- tlons are not implementing his words. He is permitting, even encouraging the United States to move to- ward protectionis.n and away from frcer trade. He is moved that way by the worst possible device, the quota system of which he avows he takes "a dim view."
It should be said that the President sees his promise, to limit textile import as a "special case." But now he apparently sees shoes as an- other "special case." Other: U.S. producers oil, steel, zinc, electronics and so on
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all see their quota picas, as "special cases."
Only the President can effectively speak for the na- tional interest. If he doesn't soon put more than one fin- ger in the dike, the tide of "special case" protectionism will destroy the trade policy Mr. Nixon says he believes is in our best interest.
€ 1969, Los Angeles Times