ADJUSTMENT ASSISTANCE By Stanley D. Metzger 1. ORIGINS OF ADJUSTMENT ASSISTANCE. II. EXISTING PROVI- I. ORIGINS OF ADJUSTMENT ASSISTANCE The Weaknesses of the "Escape Clause" as a Remedy for Individual Firms and Groups of Workers Adversely Affected by Imports It was made clear at the outset of the Trade Agreement program in 1934 that the program's purpose was to assist American industry and agriculture, not to cause it serious injury. The Hull policy of freeing trade from artificial barriers was meant to expand international trade and thus benefit firms, workers, farmers and the general public, but in so doing to take into account, meaningfully, the interests of domestic industries which might face serious import competition as a result of the lowered trade barriers envisaged as a consequence of the program's operations. The 1934 Act thus required that the President consult with those Government Departments which habitually speak for particular domestic industries that might be affected adversely by tariff and other trade concessions (Agriculture, Interior, Commerce, Labor, and (then) War and Navy) before any reductions in United States tariffs were negotiated. There was immediately established the inter-agency Trade Agreements Committee (composed of those agencies and chaired by the State Department) one of whose principal tasks was to undertake a precautionary review before a trade agreement was entered into, for the purpose of avoiding making concessions which in the official judgment of those most knowledgeable would likely result in serious injury to the domestic industry producing a like or directly competitive article. This review included an opportunity for industries affected by forthcoming negotiations (notice of which, including a description of the Stanley D. Metzger is Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law School. |