Public Policy: End of Reciprocal Trade?

The keystone of U.S. trade policy since 1934 has been the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act, under the terms of which eight successive Administrations have reduced the nation's tariffs from 18½% of the total value of imports to only 6%. Next June the Reciprocal Trade Act expires, and a knee-and-gouge battle over its renewal is already looming in Congress. The word in Washington is that the Kennedy Administration is presently minded not to try to extend the act.

Trouble from the South. The act is under the sharpest attack from the protectionists since World War II. Last week 18 Senators joined...

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