Escape Clause and Peril Point: Aspects of Tariff Administration, 1953-1958

This year, for the eleventh time since its inception in the Trade Agreements Act of 1934, the reciprocal trade program is up for Congressional renewal. This program, for which the avowed purpose has been to promote new markets for United States exports by tariff concessions that are carefully chosen so as to cause no injury to protected American interests, will die, with its 1955 extension, on June 30, unless Congress prolongs it by specific legislation.President Eisenhower has made extension of this program a major positive element in his 1958 Administration policy, starting with his State of the Union Message. It has also been the subject of a message to Congress and of legislative proposals, as well as of various press conferences and remarks and of an address to the March bipartisan rally of the National Conference on International Trade. The President's stated reason for the essentiality of the program is the national welfare, and his Cabinet and other Administration officials have followed his lead in a high-powered public effort to induce Congress to enact the desired legislation.