IMPORT FEE ON WOOL

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25206, 10 June 1947, Page 7

IMPORT FEE ON WOOL

CLAUSE IN AMERICAN BILL REVISIONS PROPOSED BY ANDERSON (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 7 p.m.) WASHINGTON, June 8. A formula which would permit the American delegation to the Geneva Trade Conference to negotiate an international commodity agreement on wool appears likely to emerge from the deadlock over the controversial import fee provision in the Wool Bill now before Congress. With the delegates from the House of Representatives to the Congress Committee, which is considering the bill, apparently adamant in their refusal to accede to the State Department’s demands for the outright elimination of the tariff clause, the Secretary of Agriculture (Mr Clinton Anderson) is said to be urging the President and the State Department to accept it, subject to certain revisions which would, he feels, prevent it from interfering with the declared objectives of American foreign and economic policy. Mr Anderson, it is reported, is preparing a letter to the Congressional leaders outlining the proposed revisions of the import fee clause, which would make the clause acceptable to the Administration. These revisions would include an amendment providing for the establishment of quotas, as well as an amendment to bar the imposition of either an import fee or quota if deemed by the President to be in conflict with international trade agreements to which the United States is, or may be, a party.