I know there are some people who are in favor of raising tariffs. I am speaking for our industry and all industries who are in any way related to ours. You would find if you made inquiries, they are unanimous in favoring reciprocal trade treaties. If we go back to the days of the Smoot-Hawley tariff, it would be the greatest mistake we could make. It would, without question, create a great deal of unemployment among other things. Truly yours, MILLERS FALLS CO., CHAS. BASSE REALTY Co., Wichita 2, Kans., April 9, 1947. MY DEAR CONGRESSMAN: As a businessman, I am interested in furthering the reciprocal trade program insofar as it does not work serious injury to development within the United States of our own resources and of our own manufacturers. And it is my belief that even with those limitations reciprocal trade agreements must be extended as rapidly as possible for our own economic welfare as well as the economic welfare of other nations. I am also interested in the proposed charter for the International Trade Organization to be discussed at Geneva. We should back the International Trade Organization as firmly and definitely as possible in order to secure a better status for the nations of the world and to increase trade for ourselves. We have much to sell and we will have an ever increasing volume. Let's cooperate. Respectfully submitted. CHAS. BASSE. SHIMAN MANUFACTURING CO., INC., Hon. HAROLD KNUTSON, House of Representatives, Washington D. C. DEAR SIR: We understand that hearings on the reciprocal trade program and the proposed charter of the International Trade Organization are now being held by your committee. It is our understanding also that these hearings are exploratory in character and do not deal as yet with any specific bill. For this reason we are writing in general terms regarding our beliefs as American manufacturers, who are interested both in domestic business, and a growing foreign trade. We believe it axiomatic that without reciprocal trade in a very real sense, there can be no prosperity. By prosperity we mean a continuation through the years of high employment, at good wages. We cannot prosper while others suffer. We cannot export in large quantities without a corresponding sum of imports. More fundamentally, we feel that world peace is directly dependent on freedom of world trade, and that our very future, and that of our children, devolves upon the maintenance and development of one world-certainly in a trade sense. We feel that it is up to this country to manifest to the world our belief in an international trade organization, and that any bill that evolves from your hearings should assist the negotiations at Geneva. May we urge you, when the proper time comes, to lend your influence to uphold the principle of reciprocal reductions in trade barriers, and to support in every way possible the establishment of the International Trade Organization? Thanking you, we are, Very truly yours, SHIMAN MANUFACTURING CO. INC., Hon. HAROLD KNUTSON, AUTOMOBILE MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION, Chairman, Ways and Means Committee, Washington, D. C. DEAR MR. KNUTSON: Knowing how interested both you and other members of the Ways and Means Committee are in securing the comments of various organizations relative to the reciprocal trade program, I am pleased to submit, for the record, the following statement of the Automobile Manufacturers AssociationThe Automobile Manufacturers Association has constantly and consistently endorsed the Trade Agreements Act since its enactment in 1934, and has supported the Government in its efforts to improve our foreign trade through the negotiation of trade agreements. The association, accordingly, heartily approves of the present meetings in Geneva, where representatives of our Government will meet with delegates from 18 nations to conduct negotiations on a wider basis, to improve world economy through a more liberal and more abundant international trade. Never before has there been a greater need for broad thinking, constructive planning, and cooperative effort in the area of international economic relationships. Only Government negotiation can eliminate the arbitrary barriers, excessive tariffs, and trade discriminations which now restrict the free movement of goods among nations. The volume of foreign trade is directly dependent upon the degree to which such restrictions are removed, and upon the creation of a high level of internal economic development in all countries. In many countries, the restrictions placed upon the importation of motor vehicles reflects a gap in the integration of national policies which seek the upbuilding of the internal economy. It is recognized that these restrictions sometimes stem from causes-as for example exchange shortages-which make their removal difficult. More often than not, however, they exist because of lack of appreciation of the benefits increased motorization can bring, and a greater concern for the revenues which high tariffs are assumed to provide. Import duties on automotive products entering the foreign markets, as well as other restrictive measures, should be reduced to minimum limits. Tariffs for revenue are justifiable measures, but they should not be carried to the point where they defeat their purpose in providing revenue. Because of the desire of foreign governments to conserve dollar exchange, motor vehicle imports are subject, in many cases, to limiting quotas, import permits and varying degrees of exchange regulations. The removal of these deterrents is as important as the lowering of duties-in many cases even more importantand the industry welcomes the opportunity our negotiators will have to secure their elimination, and to strike meanwhile at their root causes, by seeking to improve the world economy through a freer interchange of goods and services internationally. The Automobile Manufacturers Association, believing that an increased volume of both exports and imports, if kept within reasonable relation, will contribute to our own internal economy, urge the expansion of our foreign trade by means consistent with benefits to the country as a whole. The association repeats its former endorsements of the reciprocal trade agreement program, and advocates the fullest use of its powers, in the revision of existing treaties and in the extension of such agreements on the widest possible basis. Cordially yours, C. E. STEVENS, Chairman, Export Committee, Automobile Manufacturers Association. STATEMENT OF MRS. R. A. GORDON, CHAIRMAN OF ECONOMIC POLICIES, CALIFORNIA LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS, BEFORE THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC FOREIGN POLICY, SAN FRANCISCO, March 11, 1947 The California League of Women Voters welcomes this opportunity to express its support of the proposed charter for an International Trade Organization. With 24 local leagues scattered throughout the State, we have members not only in the great industrial centers like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland, but also in agricultural centers like Fresno and Bakersfield. As part of the League of Women voters of the United States, we have consistently supported the successive steps which have been taken by the United States Government to help lay the foundations for postwar international economic cooperation. Unless substantial progress can be made toward the achievement of stability in international economic relations and the raising of standards of living throughout the world, there is little hope for a lasting peace. The organizations which have already been established under the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations have undertaken their respective tasks of achieving international currency stability, encouraging productive foreign investments, stimulating agricultural production, improving nutrition, and so on. But an essential condition for success in these varied fields is the modification of the many and complicated restrictions which are hampering the recovery of international trade and tending to divide the world into competing economic blocs. The proposed International Trade Organization, though entering the field somewhat later than these other organizations, will become a necessary and integral part of the structure of world economic cooperation. The general position of the League of Women Voters in support of the proposed ITO has already been stated by Miss Anna Lord Strauss, national president of our organization, at the hearings in Washington on February 26. Rather than add anything further to what she has already said, I should prefer to discuss briefly the importance of a world-wide reduction of trade barriers to the future economic development of California. There are few States which have a greater stake in foreign trade than California. Practically every economic group of any importance in the State would stand to gain immeasurably from an expansion of world trade. The most direct and obvious beneficiaries would be the thousands of seamen, longshoremen, warehousemen, and related groups, who make up a substantial part of the population of San Francisco, and, to a lesser extent, of Los Angeles. In the prosperous foreign trade year of 1929, the San Francisco customs district and the Los AngelesLong Beach port area handled exports and imports totaling $624,000,000. By 1933, the foreign trade of these ports had declined to $219,000,000, or 35 percent of the 1929 figure.1 Even after allowing for price changes, the 1933 volume of trade was only about half that of 1929. Such was the effect of a world depression and a period of rising trade barriers, and it is not difficult to imagine what it meant when translated into job opportunities for workers engaged directly or indirectly in foreign commerce. By 1929, world trade had recovered somewhat but was seriously hampered by a network of restrictions, and the combined trade of the two port areas amounted to only $396,000,000. California farmers, too, have much to gain from a reduction of world trade barriers. The most vigorous opposition to the trade agreements program and the proposed ITO in this State has come from a few groups of agricultural producers who fear the effects of tariff reductions on the markets for their products. But the output of these groups represents a small fraction of the State's agricultural production. Thus, in 1944, eggs accounted for only 4 percent of the State's cash farm income, wool 0.5 percent, and almonds 0.88 percent. Fruits and vegetables on the other hand, which are important in the export market, accounted for 54.2 percent of the State's cash farm income in the same year. While not all fruits and vegetables are exported in their fresh form, nearly all are exported to some extent in canned form, and dried fruits are exported to a considerable extent. Many concessions have been obtained for California's leading fruit exports under the trade agreements program, especially for fresh and dried apples and pears, dried prunes, and raisins. California farmers, along with farmers throughout the Nation, suffered severely during the 1930's, when European countries erected restrictive trade barriers against agricultural imports. The trade agreements which were negotiated from 1934 on resulted in modification of some of these restrictions, but much remains to be accomplished if European countries are to be persuaded to abandon the programs of agricultural self-sufficiency which were so popular before the war. There is little hope for progress in this direction, unless the United States exerts its leadership to bring about a restoration of multilateral world trade. Perhaps the most important single consideration for California farmers, however, is the fact that farm prosperity depends primarily on the maintenance of high levels of domestic employment, and in the long run there is little prospect of maintaining domestic employment in an environment of stagnating and restricted world trade. What benefits can California industrial producers expect from a reduction in world trade barriers? There is considerable evidence that California, along with 1 World Trade Center in San Francisco. Report of the Board of State Harbor Commissioners to the lexisla ture, Feb. 4 1946, pp. 72-73. other Pacific Coast States, is on the threshold of a period of rapid industrial development. Before the war, one of the chief obstacles to the location of factories in the West was the fact that the potential market was not large enough to support mass-production industries. The wartime increase in population has done much to remove this obstacle. In spite of the cut-backs in the shipyards and aircraft plants, employment in California manufacturing industries in October 1946 was 79 percent above its April 1940 level. There is little doubt that California's industrial development will receive an enormous impetus if trade with the Far East can be revived, since California manufacturers can then look forward to serving, not merely the Pacific coast market, but overseas markets as well. During the 1936-40 period, the leading United States industrial exports were petroleum and its products, iron and steel products, electrical machinery and apparatus, automobiles and other vehicles, industrial machinery, and nonferrous metal products. California production in all these fields has developed rapidly since before the war, while petroleum, of course, has long been one of the State's leading export products. The western steel industry now has surplus capacity in bars, plates, and structural shapes, and with its advantage in ocean freight rates, should stand a good chance of capturing a portion of the far eastern market for these products, which represented 28 percent of United States exports of steel mill products to Pacific countries other than Japan before the war.3 If industrial development of the Far East can be encouraged through a program of foreign investment, and the use of restrictive and discriminatory trade barriers can be kept to a minimum in the Pacific area, California and the entire Pacific coast may very well become one of the world's great centers of commerce and industry. In considering the effects of a reduction in world trade barriers on California's various economic groups, let us not forget the consumer. As women voters we have a special interest in consumer problems, and the league has consistently supported measures which would benefit the consumer in recent years. California consumers have been hit especially hard by the rise in the cost of living. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics figures, the cost of living in San Francisco on January 15, 1947, was 59.1 percent above its prewar level, as compared with a 53.1 percent average increase for large cities throughout the country. The rise in the cost of food alone in San Francisco was 100.6 percent as compared with 83.8 percent for the country as a whole. Reduction of tariff levels would provide direct relief for consumers on such high-tariff items as butter, beef, cheese, wool and woolen goods, dishes, glassware, and hand-made foreign specialities, and indirect relief on a wide variety of industrial raw materials like copper. I have stressed the interest of California in expanding world trade, because as a State league we have a special concern with the problems of our own State. But the league's support of the proposed ITO is not based on narrow sectional considerations, nor is it based solely on a weighing of the economic advantages to the country as a whole. We believe international economic cooperation is essential to American prosperity and security, but we also believe that the United States must make its contribution to the reconstruction of a war-devastated world. Our Nation alone has the wealth and economic strength to lead the world away from economic warfare. Representative KNUTSON, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY, Syracuse 10, N. Y., April 24, 1947. Chairman House Ways and Means Committee, Dear Mr. KnUTSON: I have read recently with deep concern that there is danger that your committee will terminate its hearings on the question of the extension of reciprocal trade treaties without recommending their continuance. It seems to me that such a policy is fraught with grave danger both to our future peace with other nations and to our own economic well-being. So I am hoping you will use your own influence toward the extension of the law permitting reciprocal tariff reductions. It seems to me that one of the most elementary lessons in economics is that trade with other nations must be reciprocal. Our experience of the two past decades should teach us that high tariffs in the long run benefit no one-not even California State Reconstruction and Reemployment Commission. Cf. California State Reconstruction and Reemployment Commission, The Steel and Steel-Using Industries of California (Sacramento, 1946); and Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, The Western Steel Market (March 1945). the manufacturers who are protected. And this Nation cannot prosper for long if other nations do not. Economic depressions are among the most fertile causes of war. I might add, Mr. Knutson, that the Republican victory in the last elections was due not to the greater love of the people for the Republicans, but to their lesser love for the continuance of wartime controls, which they blamed on the Democrats. I am one such Republican. If the Republicans are blind enough to scrap such things as reciprocal trade, I shall forthwith be a Democrat for a while. I believe there are many in my position. Very truly yours, Representative KNUTSON, REGINALD D. MANWELL, SPRINGFIELD, Mass., April, 25, 1947. Chairman, House Ways and Means Committee, Washington, D. C.: This company is a leading manufacturer of gasoline- and oil-dispensing equipment and oil-burning equipment and has been a substantial exporter for 25 years into more than 100 foreign countries. In connection with the hearings on reciprocal trade program as now proceeding before your committee, we wish to record our support of extension of reciprocal trade agreements and we endorse the statements of Under Secretary Clayton before your committee on March 26, 1947. GILBERT & BARKER MANUFACTURING CO. Hon. HAROLD KNUTSON, NEW YORK, N. Y., April 15, 1947. Chairman, House Ways and Means Committee, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.: I believe in the vital importance of two-way world trade as the most constructive and practical means of stabilizing and expanding our domestic economy. I also believe that this is the only sound method of developing an orderly world and thereby bringing about and preserving the conditions essential for world peace. I urge very strongly, therefore, that favorable consideration be given to the program so ably presented by Will Clayton in the recent hearings before your committee. Moreover, I recommend that the Congress wholeheartedly back Mr. Clayton at the Geneva Conference so that he can approach his difficult task with confidence and the assurance that the Government of the United States, on whom the eyes of the world are fixed with great anxiety, is behind him. CHARLES J. SYMINGTON, Chairman of the Board, The Symington-Gould Corp. Hon. HAROLD KNUTSON, MILWAUKEE, Wis., April 30, 1947. Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.: Milwaukee Port Authority and Foreign Trade Community heartily supports continuance of reciprocal-trade-agreements program. Wisconsin has vital stake in foreign trade with large volume import-export traffic. Reciprocal trade program has been instrumental in increasing foreign trade volume and enlarging trading spheres. World peace and beneficial foreign trade will be aided by con tinuing reciprocal-trade program. BOARD OF HARBOR COMMISSIONERS, H. C. BROCKEL, Municipal Port Director. |