Oldal 2 [2]
OCR
— page two ninistration would continue, As it turned out, the prosperity stayed one But on the other hand the existence of the escape clause was such, that in an election year with strong Republican chances , the underlying tendencies for renewed protectionnism became of overwhelming strength, And these tendencies are now leading to an ever increa-— sing demand at the application of the escape clause to serve local and particular interests. The first of these was already last year, when the so-called Andresen "rider" was attached to the Defehse Production Act, strictly limiting the import of European cheese, This "rider", a surprise amendment, was due to local interests of the States of Wisconsin and Minnesotta. It did not even strongly affect the American cheese industry, as the European imports had played by) a siiall part on the Alerican market. So in 1950, the last year without quotas, the imports of cheese had been 56,000,000 1bs. as compared with a total American production of 1,170.000.000 1bs, Still, while it made rekatively little difference for the Americans, it hit Europeans very hard, And it did especially one thing : it undermined the confidence of American importers, Since the Andresen—rider, the American importers have shown great reluctance to introduce nfew European products or qualities on the American market, Since a new product demands large expenditures for propaganda, public relations, before it is sold, importaers were fearful, lest their efforts should be total losses in case of increased protectionnism, This is the basic reason,why imports from Europe for the first four months of this year have been only 3,709.400.000 Dollars, as compared to 4.068.000.000 Dollars for the corresponding period of last year, And this unfavourable tendency will continue during the following parts of the year, since the policy of the Andresen-rider and the Escape Clause is now going in for a larger application. . Thais summer, the next shocking step was the recommendation of the Tarriff Commission to President Truman, to apply the Escape Clause on Swiss Watch Movements. It is estimated, that if the President would follow the advise, the ad valorem tarriff on the movements would rise from 36% to 54%, This compares with ad valorem tarriffs of 12 or only 7% as applied on the same movements in Europe, The question of these watch-movements is a grave one for Switzerland, since more than half oi that country's exports to America are made of Watches and Watch movemetts. The suggestion of the Tarriff Commission would hence greate a serious crisis for Switzerland and force that country +o measures of retaliation. The move in America itself is opposed by the American Watch Association, and is sponsored only by two
