FOREIGN TRADE: The Challenge of the Tariff

We declare war upon you—excuse me for using such an expression—in the peaceful field of trade . . . We are relentless in this, and it will prove the superiority of our system.

—Nikita Khrushchev to William Randolph Hearst Jr. (1957)

To Capitol Hill last week President Eisenhower sent what may be 1958's most important—and most fiercely contested—Administration proposal. Due to expire on June 30 is the reciprocal trade act (real name: Trade Agreements Act), the charter under which the executive branch occasionally makes moderate cuts in U.S. tariffs if other countries make cuts in their tariffs on U.S. imports. The...