Press Release Issued by the White House, October 5, 1949, Regarding Executive Order 100821
Procedures Prescribed and Practices Revoked
The President today signed Executive Order No. 10082, superseding Executive Order 10004 of October 5, 1948, and prescribing revised procedures for the administration of the reciprocal trade-agreements program in accordance with the Trade Agreements Act of 1934, as amended, and the Trade Agreements Extension Act of 1949.
The new order establishes procedures which are in accordance with the Trade Agreements Extension Act of 1949 and revokes certain practices required under the provisions of the Trade Agreements Extension Act of 1948 which was repealed by the passage of the 1949 act. The order prescribes procedures to be followed by the Trade Agreements Committee in concluding trade agreements; by the Committee for Reciprocity Information in obtaining the views of interested persons on agreements; and by the Tariff Commission in the event of serious injury or threat of serious injury to domestic industry.
The Interdepartmental Committee on Trade Agreements will continue to function as the central operating committee, giving effect to the requirement of the Trade Agreements Act that the President seek information and advice from certain government agencies before concluding [Page 727] a trade agreement. Members of the Committee will include a Commissioner of the United States Tariff Commission and persons designated from their respective agencies by the Secretaries of State, Treasury, Defense, Agriculture, Commerce, and Labor, and by the Administrator for Economic Cooperation, under the chairmanship of the representative from the Department of State. Under the 1948 act Tariff Commission members and employees were prohibited from participating in the decisions or recommendations of the Trade Agreements Committee. This prohibition was removed by the Trade Agreements Extension Act of 1949.
The Committee for Reciprocity Information, which will continue to receive, digest, and circulate to the entire trade-agreements organization the views of interested persons regarding any phase of proposed or existing trade agreements, is to consist of the same persons as those who are members of the Committee on Trade Agreements. The chairman of the Committee for Reciprocity Information will be the member or alternate from the Tariff Commission.
The order provides that, as before, the Trade Agreements Committee shall submit to the President for his approval a list of articles on which possible United States tariff concessions may be considered in the negotiation of a proposed trade agreement. Upon approval of the list by the President, the Trade Agreements Committee will publish the list and a notice of intention to negotiate. Pursuant to the provision of the order that the Committee for Reciprocity Information accord reasonable opportunity for the presentation of views by any interested persons, the Committee for Reciprocity Information will afford opportunity to make written representations and will hold public hearings concerning concessions to be offered and granted.
The Tariff Commission is to continue to furnish to the interdepartmental trade-agreements organization factual data relative to production, trade, and consumption of articles under consideration for concession by the United States, and to supply facts on probable effects of granting concessions and on the competitive factors involved.
The Department of Commerce is to continue to furnish to the Trade Agreements Committee studies of the trade in and other facts regarding each article exported from the United States on which the United States may consider seeking a foreign concession in a trade agreement.
Each Department and agency represented on the Trade Agreements Committee is authorized to make, within the sphere of its responsibilities, special studies of particular aspects of proposed trade agreements from the point of view of the interests of American agriculture, industry, commerce, labor, and security.
On the basis of all the data available, the Trade Agreements Committee will recommend to the President concessions to be sought and [Page 728] offered. A full report to the President must also be made by the dissenting member or members on any dissent from the Committee’s recommendations.
In conformity with past practice, each future agreement is to contain a most-favored-nation commitment and, as required in earlier orders, all trade agreements are to be made subject to a comprehensive escape clause. This clause is to provide that future tariff concessions may be modified or withdrawn, and other obligations may be suspended if, as a result of unforeseen developments and of the concession or other obligation in the trade agreement, any article is being imported in such increased quantities and under such conditions as to cause or threaten serious injury to domestic industry. Procedure is also provided for, as in an earlier order, for the Tariff Commission to investigate, determine, and recommend to the President for his consideration whether the escape clause should be invoked.
Both the Trade Agreements Committee and the Tariff Commission are to keep informed at all times on the operation and effect of agreements in force. At least once a year the Tariff Commission is to submit to the President and to Congress a report of the operation of the program.
In order to facilitate transition from the procedures of the 1948 act to those of the 1949 act, specific provision is made that action under the former by the Trade Agreements Committee and the Committee for Reciprocity Information shall be considered as complying with the new order, provided opportunity is given for the Tariff Commission member to present advice and recommendation on action taken by the Trade Agreements Committee between June 25, 1948, and the date of this amending Executive order.
- Reprinted from Department of State Bulletin, October 17, 1949, p. 595.↩