Aid for Trade

In its "trade, not aid" program, the Administration sounded an encouraging note. The President last week sent back to the Tariff Commission for further study its recommendation to double the 32 1/2% tariff on imported screen-printed silk scarves--a trade which last year provided $520,000 of dollar income for Italy, $213,000 for France, $117,000 for the United Kingdom.

In his covering letter, President Eisenhower made it clear that he would grant no further tariff increases to any industry except in rare instances. Said he: "International conditions . . . demand our most earnest efforts to maintain friendly cooperation with other countries of the free world . . . Such cases . . . must be carefully reviewed together with all the possible international implications."

He also put his finger on some of the questionable tactics of tariff lobbying. In the case of silk scarves, the "domestic industry" wanted to boost the price of European imports. But Eisenhower had difficulty finding a "domestic industry." Part of it, he wrote, consisted of "U.S. entrepreneurs who buy the raw silk in Japan, pay there for the labor at piece rates for the printing and finishing, which is all done under their supervision and continued ownership," then export the goods to the U.S. and sell them. Another part consisted of U.S. finishers who do piece-rate work on scarves without actually owning them. The first group wanted tariffs left as is, the second wanted them raised. Thus any action to help one would hurt the other.

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