Dwight D. Eisenhower photo

Message to the Congress Transmitting Annual Report on the Operation of the Trade Agreements Program.

February 11, 1957

To the Congress of the United States:

This is my first annual report on the operation of the trade agreements program. It is submitted to the Congress pursuant to Section 350 (e) (i) of the Tariff Act of 1930 as amended by Section 3 (d) of the Trade Agreements Extension Act of 1955. The trade agreements program is carried out under the authority contained in the Trade Agreements Act of 1934 and its various amendments and extensions.

Our present trade policy objectives, which I outlined in my special message on foreign economic policy of March 30, 1954, were established after study by the bipartisan Commission on Foreign Economic Policy, constituted in 1953 pursuant to Public Law 215, 83d Congress. Most of the Commission's recommendations have been adopted and put into effect. This report outlines the steps which have been taken to achieve these foreign trade policy goals.

The major efforts undertaken in recent years have been concentrated, first, upon improving the substance and administration of the existing trade agreement system. These activities are described in Section I of this report. They were directed primarily to a basic review of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. This review resulted in proposals for the improvement of the substantive provisions of the General Agreement and in the drafting of an agreement to establish an Organization for Trade Cooperation. I have requested the Congress to authorize United States membership in the proposed Organization. Establishment of the Organization for Trade Cooperation is essential to make our trade-agreements program more effective in the interest of American industry, agriculture and labor.

The United States has also taken gradual steps under authority granted by the Congress to reduce barriers to trade through reciprocal tariff negotiations. The most recent of these negotiations was carried on under new authority set forth in Public Law 86, 84th Congress. Safeguards for domestic industry are contained both in the escape clause and peril point provisions of this law and in the administrative procedures established thereunder. A detailed account of these negotiations is given in Section II.

The United States has also worked successfully through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to obtain the reduction or elimination of quotas that have restricted United States export trade. These activities are described in Section III.

Section IV of this report covers actions under special legislative provisions affecting the trade agreements program--the "escape clause" and the "national security" amendment.

The final portion of this report, Section V, summarizes developments in our trading relations with those countries which are not parties to the General Agreement but with which the United States has bilateral trade agreements.

Since this is the first Presidential report on a program that has been in effect for a number of years, the report is not limited to the 1956 calendar year but includes such earlier developments as are necessary to replace recent events in perspective. Detailed accounts of individual actions taken under the trade agreements program are included in the Tariff Commission's annual report to the Congress.

Exports and imports are important to our economic strength and to the well-being of our people. International commerce is beneficial to the community of nations and conducive to the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the world. Our national trade policy, which seeks to promote the continued growth of mutually profitable world trade, is thus doubly in the self-interest of the United States; it furthers both our prosperity and our national security.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

Note: This message was released at printed in House Document 93 Thomasville, Ga. The report was (85th Cong., 1st sess.).

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Message to the Congress Transmitting Annual Report on the Operation of the Trade Agreements Program. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/234095

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