U.S. Woollen Firms Seek Higher Tariffs On Imports

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29070, 5 December 1959, Page 4

U.S. Woollen Firms Seek Higher Tariffs On Imports

(N.Z Press Association—Copy ng fit)

WASHINGTON, Dec. 2. American woollen and worsted manufacturers have asked for higher tariffs on imports of woollen goods into the United States. The president of the National Association of Wool Manufacturers (Mr Edward Wilkinson) made the appeal yesterday at hearings held by the Tariff Commission and the Committee for Reciprocity Information in connexion with proposed new tariff negotiations with Britain and Belgium. The new tariff talks, to be held next year, were arranged as a result of complaints by Britain and other exporters about the United States wool quota. 1959 Quota

The quota for 1959 was established at 13.5 m lb of woollen fabrics. Additional tariffs are imposed on imports above this level. The United States is to enter into negotiations with Britain and Belgium because they were the two countries with which certain tariff concessions were negotiated in 1947 and 1950. Under a waiver to the concessions, the United States retained the right to establish its wool quota. Anyc t .modifications reached in the new negotiations next year would apply to other countries with whom the United States now extends “most favoured nation” treatment, as well as to Britain and Belgium. Present Tariffs “Inadequate” Mr Wilkinson said that present American tariffs were “inadequate." He claimed that the American industry had been subjected to serious injury by the increasing amount of imports since 1947. He said the result was that United States woollen

and worsted mills had closed down and employment was drastically reduced. “Today the situation is radically changed,” Mr Wilkinson said. “First Japan, and now Italy have become major suppliers, and imports from France, Uruguay. Switzerland, and the Netherlands also have grown since 1947. . . . “The United Kingdom was virtually the only source of import competition in the American market in 1947. Today in the American market it is the United States industry versus the world.”