World Trade: Backward March

Five months ago, after the U.S. and 52 other nations concluded the Kennedy Round and agreed on wide-ranging tariff cuts, the pact was hailed as a historic step forward in world trade. Yet last week the U.S. verged on a backward march. Pending in the Senate were seven bills—the central one pompously called "the Orderly Trade Act of 1967"—that would establish stricter quotas on imports ranging from steel to strawberries, from textiles to goat meat. If enacted, the bills would set limits on $12 billion worth, or 50%, of total U.S. imports. Liberalized-trade advocates compared the Orderly Trade...