U.S. BASE METALS

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29245, 1 July 1960, Page 11

U.S. BASE METALS

Subsidy Bill For Senate (Rec. 11 p.m.) WASHINGTON. June 30. The Senate Interior Committee yesterday approved a bill to subsidise small United States producers of lead and zinc. The bill was passed by the House of Representatives on Monday. It would pay producers the difference between the market price for lead and 17 cents per lb, and the market price for zinc and 14} cents per lb. Payments would be limited to a company's output of either a maximum of 2000 tons of lead or 2000 tons of zinc annually. The total subsidies could not exceed 4,840,000 dollars a year. An Interior Committee spokesman said that quick approval by the Senate would be sought. The bill would give western State Congressmen a second means of bringing relief to lead and zinc producers in their districts. They describe producers as being in a “distressed” condition because of imports and the refusal of the Eisenhower administration to permit a reduction in present United States quotas on the imports of lead and zinc ores, or to include lead and zinc products in the total imports quotas. The Senate Finance Committee last Friday approved an omnibus bill that contained an amendment that would drastically increase United States tariffs on lead and zinc imports, both of ores and products. The amendment is supported strongly by both Republicans and Democrats in the The Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives yesterday approved a bill measure raising lead and zinc tariffs. Standing alone as a separate bill, this measure will face a hard fight to get approval by both the Senate and House. Bills to increase tariffs have always had a hard time in the past. The fate of the bill in the Senate to subsidise small producers is uncertain. The measure received House approval by only five votes. Both measures are opposed by the Eisenhower administration and observers predicted that even if they were to be approved by Congress they would face the possibility of a veto by President Eisenhower.