Evening star., 1953-06-28
Strong Trade Mourning Administration Business Labor Circles

while cutting their purchases here.
. They can buy from. other 'coun-
tries outside the dollar area.
Nations now owing Uncle Sam will
have to use the last two methods as
well as the first If they want to
maintain their present living stand
ards and still get OF the dole.
DR.. Howard s. Piquet, tariff
specialist for the Legislative Refer
ence Service in the Library of Con-
gress. has just written q book ('Aid,
Trade and the Tariff; Crowell; So
studying the effects Of removing all
tariffs and import quotas on q tenn
porary basis. Making allowances for
the great many inponderables,
which he surmounted with educated
guesSes, DR.. Piquet concluded that
free trade alone would not solve the
dollar gap problem.
Using 1851 trade data, which show
a $4.6 billion gap Gas compared with
a $4.3 billion gap In 1882, DR..
P1quet found that imports probably
could be increased between $1.2 bill
lion and $2.6 billion. That would
leave a minimum gap Of 50 billion.
If tariffs only were suspended, and
import quotas were kept in force,
imports might rise only $500 million
TO $1.8 billion, he found. Then the
dollar gap would be at least $2.8,
billion.
If military aid, which amounted
to SIS billion in 1851, is eliminated,
the gap could be reduced possibly to
half billion dollars. But defense
industries here probably would suffer
in the readjustment period.
Domestic Injury
Any across-the board lifting of
trade restrictions would be imprac-
tical, however, because it would
benefit some countries which are
having no balance of payment
trouble. Cuba and Canada are two
examples. Debtor nations which
would benefit most from such a fiat
lifting of trade restrictions would
be the United Kingdom, France.
West Germany. Denmark and Italy,
according to DR.. Piquet's findings,
AS for the extent of injury to
American individuals and manufac-
turers, DR.. Piquet believes it "un-
doubtedly would be small" He adds
that therefore. whatever measures
might be taken to enable them to
adjust to increased imports would
not be burdensome upon the econ
omy as a whole"
Some Of the adjustments usually
mentioned to alleviate domestic in
jury from competition include Fed
eral aid to one-industry commu-
mites, social security benefits for dis
placed workers, such as unemploy-
ment insurance; retraining and early
retirement, and aid for individual in
dustries' conversion to other lines.
Such help for injured industries
would not be very palatable to Re-
publican free-enterprise champions,
however.
Hozords Of Competition
Any reduction in tariffs, G, o. P.
advocates Of liberalized trade argue,
would of necessity be gradual, say
at the rate Of per cent a year. And
normal displacement through tech
nological advancement usually ex-
ceeds this proportion. No Federal
aid is provided for the fruit and veg
etable Gamers, for example, when
frozen-food competition cuts into
its market. Nor do the railroads look
for help when trucks and air trans
port outbid them for business. And,
as for the Pennsylvania coal mining
industries which are protesting i'm
portation Of Venezuelan oil, there
has been no scramble for Federal
aid as domestic oil production cut
into the home heating and transpor-
tation fields formerly monopolized
by coal.
The new administration has