Holding Action

As U.S. foreign-aid programs diminish, many a hardheaded U.S. businessman has begun to proclaim that free-world nations must be allowed to sell more goods in U.S. markets. On Capitol Hill, however, hostility to this point of view has been vocal and widespread. Gloomy free-traders even predicted that the 83rd Congress would refuse to grant Dwight Eisenhower's request for a one-year extension of the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act, which permits the President to lower U.S. tariffs in return for similar concessions by foreign countries. Three weeks ago the House gave pessimists a pleasant surprise by voting Ike his extension. Last week the Senate followed suit, and all that remained was for a joint conference committee to iron out differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill.

Continuance of the 19-year-old Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act would make no change in present U.S. tariff policy. If "trade, not aid" was to become more than a slogan, President Eisenhower would have to lead the U.S. a lot farther along the road toward restoring world markets. Meanwhile, Ike's holding action had saved the U.S. from a backward step.

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