The Tariff Power

Report Outline
Controversy on Trade Agreements Renewal
Delegations of Tariff Power to the Executive
Constitutionality of the Trade Agreements
Special Focus

Controversy on Trade Agreements Renewal

Minority Support of Trade Agreements Act in 1943

The proposed extension to 1948 of the President's power to negotiate reciprocal trade agreements with foreign nations faces strong Republican opposition in Congress. House hearings on the renewal legislation, opened April 18, have been punctuated by charges that minority members of the Ways and Means Committee are using filibustering tactics. Although the hearings have been going on for three weeks, relatively few of more than 100 scheduled witnesses have been heard to date. The Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act is due to expire by limitation on June 12.

Republicans in both House and Senate voted almost solidly against passage of the original act in 1934, and against its renewal in 1937 and 1940. In 1943 a majority of Republican members in both houses supported the renewal resolution, after the extension had been cut from three years to two years. But now that the administration is asking not only for renewal but for a wider grant of tariff-making powers, there has been a resurgence of Republican opposition.

The moderation of Republican opposition in 1943 did not signify a conversion to the trade-agreements program. It reflected, rather, a belief that a major change in tariff policy during the war would be unwise. Rep. Wadsworth (R., N. Y.) expressed the feeling of numerous members of his party when he told the House he would vote for continuation of the act “because in time of war we would better not touch it at all.” Negotiation of new trade agreements, moreover, was virtually at a standstill owing to war conditions.