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At the moment, OTC is stalled in House and Senate committees, and neither Democrats nor Republicans are pushing it. The high-tariff bloc and the protectionists are leagued with a group with a vague fear that the U.S. could eventually lose part of its sovereignty through OTC. Some opponents have incorrectly likened OTC to the sweeping International Trade Organization, or "World New Deal," which President Truman proposed to Congress in 1949 but withdrew in the face of opposition. OTC has also been denounced as "socialism," even though (by lowering trade barriers) it would not increase, but actually reduce, Government intervention in trade. Another charge is that the U.S. is handing over to foreign countries the power to set U.S. tariffs. To this, President Charles P. Taft of the businessmen's Committee for a National Trade Policy retorted: "Outright misrepresentation and dangerous nonsense."
GATT and OTC have attracted impressive backers. In Tokyo last month, more than 1,200 delegates to the International Chamber of Commerce unanimously approved OTC; its supporters also include the A.F.L., the C.I.O., the American Farm Bureau.
Since Congress seems ready to extend the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act, U.S. membership in GATT stands a good chance of continuing. But the supporters of freer world trade argue that this is not enough. GATT should be strengthened by a full-fledged agency to administer it. Some nations, e.g., France, have gone along with GATT only because the U.S. is firmly committed to it. If Congress refuses to approve OTC, other nations will regard it as a vote against GATT. They will hesitate to cooperate in any further trade agreements, and the most successful mechanism that has been set up in the postwar world to free trade may well collapse.