Fretting about U.S. industry's "export of jobs" to lower-wage foreign lands, leaders of two major U.S. unionsthe Machinists and the Steelworkerslast week urged Congress to restrict corporate expansion abroad. Next day, at his press conference. President Kennedy used their plea to press his own drive for powers to negotiate sweepingly lower reciprocal tariffs. His argument: if tariff walls stay high, U.S. companies will continue to elude them by setting up branches abroad. "This," said the President, "is a matter of importance to United States workers."
Behind the rising clamor against overseas business...