Snooker for Froyennes Fats?

As the world's richest market, the U.S. underpins the prosperity of many out-of-the-way places, including the little Belgian villages of Froyennes and Callenelle. Their sole industry is making cast-resin billiard balls, the high-quality type used in tournament play, in the better pool halls and by the more discriminating owners of home tables. The painstaking job requires baking a resin mixture in molds in ovens of varying heat for periods of from seven days for a white cueball to 15 days for a striped ball (Nos. 9 to 15). The two firms of Usines de Callenelle and La Decalite, have cornered about half the world market for cast-resin balls, with roughly two-thirds of their output going to the U.S. Their annual revenues from sales in America total $1,200,000.

As part of the post-World War II drive for freer trade, the U.S. tariff on cast-resin billiard balls was progressively reduced from 50% in 1947 to 20% in 1963. Now the Belgian billiard-ball hustlers fear that they may be snookered out of their prime market. Albany Billiard Ball Co. of Albany, N.Y., the only U.S. maker of cast-resin billiard balls, claims that it has been knocked into a side pocket by the imports. The company once dominated the U.S. market, but currently has only one-third of it. So Albany Billiard Ball is campaigning to kick up the tariff to 37 1/2%. The U.S. Tariff Commission will decide this month whether to recommend an increase to President Nixon. The proceedings have raised alarm in Belgium. Price comparisons are extremely tricky, but the Belgians fear that they will lose much of their advantage if the tariff is raised. The Belgian Foreign Ministry has tried, in pool-hall parlance, to put some English on the decision by protesting to the U.S. Government. Roger Delmotte, head of Usines de Callenelle, declines to comment beyond remarking: "I don't want to say anything that might influence the President of the United States in making up his mind about my billiard balls."

U.S. protectionists won on another front last week. The Tariff Commission ruled that domestic manufacturers have been injured by Japanese "dumping" of TV sets. The ruling is likely to subject the Japanese to special penalty duties.

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