Evening star., 1949-09-26
Trade Agreements
Continued From First Page.)

signing. Congress was repre-
sented by Senator McKellar,
Democrat, of Tennessee; House
Speaker Rayburn, Senate Ma
jority Leader Lucas, Chairman
Connally of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, Chairman
George of the Senate Finance
Committee, Chairman Doughton
of the House Ways and Means
COMMITTEE, and Representative
Cooper, Democrat, of Tennessee.
Senate passage of the measure
10 days ago marked victory for
administration forces who had
fought hard and successfully to
wipe cut restrictions imposed by
the Republican controlled 80th
Congress.
The chief curb on the Presi-
dents powers in working out
trade agreements has been the So
called peril point" provision.
Under that, the President was re-
quired to explain to Congress any
time he granted tariff concessions
which the Federal Tariff Commits
sion deemed risky to United
States producers.
Agreements Near Completion.
BY a 43 to 80 vote the Senate
knocked down this provision after
Senator Lucas argued it would
hinder efforts to develop a
framework for cooperation"
with the Western democracies. .s>...
Even as Mr.. Truman signed the
bill, trade agreements with 10
more countries were nearing COM
pletion for his signature. These
are expected to. be ready for the
Presidents signature early in Oc-
tober.
The new tariff-cutting pacts
would be with Denmark, Finland,
Italy. Greece, Sweden, the Domi-
nican Republic, Haiti. Liberia
Uruguay and Nicaragua.
State Department officials
have estimated that If Mr.. Tru-
man approves these treaties. IS
to 80 per cent Of all United States
foreign trade-exports and i'm
ports-will be carried on under
reciprocal trade agreements.
Text of Truman Statement.
The text of the Presidents
statement follows:
IT have today approved the Re-
ciprocal Trade Agreements Exten-
sion Act of 1949, which extends
until 1851 our trade agreement
program free Of the Gripping re-
strictions imposed on it in 1948
by the 80th Congress. Through
this wise and far-seeing legisla-
ton, the United States reaffirms
its intention of pressing forward
expanded world trade at a time
when such action is most urgently
needed.
I'm the first phase of our post
war foreign economic policy, we
gave our primary attention to res
toration of the productive capac-
ity of our friendly neighbors in
the world community. In this
task we have already gone a long
way. But the process of postwar
readjustment brought an inevita-
BILE growth of restricted trade and
financial measures throughout the
world. We cannot permit these
barriers to remain and thus stif1e
a progressive rise in standards Of
living throughout the world which
would provide our best assurance
of a peaceful future.
"As we have carried out tenn
porary programs Of financial as
sistance, we have increasingly
sought adjustments tending to
break down artificial trade bar
riers and to lead toward the re-
establishment Of expanding and
competitive world trade, the
permanent objective of our inter-
national commercial policy. We
envisage a re-establishment Of
economic balance in the world
which will permit our neighbors
now receiving our assistance In
securing needed imports to be-
come self-supporting through a
liberal expansion Of the interna-
tional exchange Of goods in COM
petitive world markets. Only in
such a world economy can we
foresee the maintenance of ade-
quate and rising standards of liv-
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