to all countries. Exports to the 12 contracting parties were equal to more than 38 percent of United States exports to all countries in 1949, and 42 percent in 1950. The 5 acceding countries accounted for 10 percent of the total exports from the United States in 1949, and for 7 percent in 1950. United States exports to countries with which it has trade agreements amounted to about 76 percent of the total value of its exports to all countries in each of the years 1949 and 1950.

Article XXVIII Negotiations

7

Besides the regular negotiations it concluded at Torquay, the United States agreed, in special negotiations under article XXVIII of the General Agreement, to the modification or withdrawal of certain of the concessions that a number of the contracting parties had granted to it at Geneva in 1947 or Annecy in 1949. Before the Torquay Conference opened, 16 contracting parties to the General Agreement (including Uruguay) announced their intention of modifying certain of the concessions in their respective schedules. The notifications by the United Kingdom, Haiti, and Sweden did not affect concessions those countries had initially granted to the United States; however, the action by Haiti and Sweden did apply to concessions in which the United States had an interest. The countries that negotiated under article XXVIII at Torquay modified or withdrew concessions they had granted to the United States at Geneva or Annecy on products which accounted for United States exports valued at approximately 100 million dollars in 1949. In exchange for these modifications or withdrawals, these countries granted the United States compensatory concessions on products the United States exports of which were valued at approximately 102 million dollars in 1949.

EFFECT OF TRADE-AGREEMENT CONCESSIONS ON THE UNITED STATES TARIFF

The following analysis, like the corresponding analyses in earlier Tariff Commission reports, indicates the proportion of dutiable imports into the United States that have been the subject of trade-agreement concessions involving duty reductions or bindings (against increase) of preexisting rates, and the extent to which rates of duty have been reduced pursuant to trade agreements. The figures showing changes in the average rates of duty since the trade agreements program went into effect are not intended to indicate the extent to which the level of duties at any given time actually restricted imports. No method exists for ascertaining the quantities of goods that are excluded from entry at given levels of duties.

7 Uruguay, which has not yet acceded to the General Agreement, was permitted by the Contracting Parties to withdraw or modify certain of its Annecy concessions even though they had never become effective.

Effect of the Torquay Concessions

Concessions that the United States granted at Torquay apply to commodities the imports of which were valued at 340 million dollars in 1949about 13 percent of total dutiable imports in that year. The bulk of the concessions, covering imports valued at 315 million dollars, consisted of reductions in rates of duty-for the most part, reductions in rates of duty that had been reduced in earlier trade agreements. The average ad valorem equivalent of the rates of duty on the commodities on which the duties were reduced at Torquay was 37.4 percent before any trade agreements were concluded; 19.9 percent before the Torquay negotiations; and 14.6 percent after Torquay.

Combined Effect of All Trade Agreements

Concessions that the United States has granted in all trade agreements since 1934, including those negotiated at Torquay, apply (after allowing for the termination of the concessions to Mexico and China) to commodities that accounted for 94.5 percent of total dutiable imports in 1949. This share includes the group (11.8 percent) on which the preagreement rates have been bound against increase, and the larger and more significant group (82.7 percent) on which the rates have been reduced by trade agreements.

Before the United States concluded any trade agreements, the average ad valorem equivalent of the duties on total dutiable imports (based on and weighted by the value of 1949 imports) was 25.8 percent. The average on January 1, 1951 (pre-Torquay), was 13.9 percent, and on January 1, 1952, when all Torquay concessions are assumed to have become effective, it was 13.3 percent. The reduction in rates of duty over the entire period averaged 49 percent; the reduction effected at Torquay was less than 5 percent from the rates previously in force.

For the group of dutiable imports on which the United States had reduced the rates of duty in trade agreements (82.7 percent of the total) the average reduction-from a preagreement level of 27.7 percent ad valorem to a post-Torquay average of 12.5 percent was 55 percent. The average ad valorem equivalent of the rates of duty that the United States has bound against increase was 12.3 percent throughout the period; that on the relatively small imports not subject to any concession was 26.1 percent.

Concessions by Tariff Schedules

The proportion of dutiable imports subject to reduced rates in the various tariff schedules ranges from 51 to 100 percent, but only in the following two schedules is it less than 80 percent: Sundries, 51.2 percent; and the free-list taxable group, 54.3 percent. An unusually large

proportion of imports in each of these groups (22.6 and 45.6 percent, respectively) is subject to rates bound against increase.

Before any trade agreements were concluded, the averages of the ad valorem equivalents of the duties applicable to imports under the various dutiable tariff schedules (based on and weighted by 1949 imports) ranged from a high point of 85.2 percent for beverages to a low of 10.9 percent for wood and manufactures thereof. However, the cumulative effect of all trade-agreement concessions made from the beginning of the program, up to and including Torquay, narrows this range considerablythe high point being 26.6 percent for earths, earthenware, and glassware, and the low, 4.5 percent for wood and wood manufactures.

Relation of Type of Duty to Height of Duty

On the basis of value, 76 percent of total United States dutiable imports in 1949 were subject to specific rates of duty; 20 percent, to ad valorem rates; and 4 percent, to compound rates (combinations of specific and ad valorem rates). The average ad valorem equivalent of the rates of duty on imports subject to specific rates was 11.1 percent; on imports subject to ad valorem rates, 18.2 percent; and on the relatively small volume of imports subject to compound rates, 30.4 percent.

Extent to which Rates of Duty Have Been Reduced by Trade Agreements

Rates of duty on imports valued at slightly more than 1 billion dollars in 1949 (38 percent of total dutiable imports in that year) have not been reduced since January 1, 1945. On the other hand, the rates of duty on imports valued at about 825 million dollars in 1949 (31 percent of total dutiable imports) have been reduced 50 percent since January 1, 1945. The rates of duty on imports valued at approximately 856 million dollars in 1949 have been reduced since January 1, 1945, but by less than the 50 percent maximum permissible.

UNITED STATES MEASURES RELATING TO IMPORTS OF TRADE-AGREEMENT ITEMS

Entry Into Force, Withdrawal, or Modification of TradeAgreement Concessions

During the last half of 1951 and the first half of 1952 the United States placed in effect the concessions it granted to 9 of the 17 countries with which it concluded negotiations at Torquay. Previously, in June 1951, the United States had given effect to the concessions it granted at Torquay to 6 of those countries. The 2 remaining countries-Brazil and Korea-did not sign the Torquay Protocol by June 30, 1952, and

the concessions that the United States granted to them did not become effective by that date.

On August 29, 1951, the Trade Agreements Committee issued formal notice of the intention of the United States to negotiate with Venezuela to supplement and amend the 1939 trade agreement between the two countries. Also on that date, the President transmitted to the Tariff Commission the list of imported articles to be considered in those negotiations, and requested the Commission to conduct the required peril-point investigation. The Commission submitted its peril-point report to the President on December 27, 1951. After completion of preparations by both the United States and Venezuela, the negotiations began at Caracas on April 18, 1952.

As required by section 5 of the Trade Agreements Extension Act of 1951, the President on September 1, 1951, suspended the application to imports from 13 Communist-controlled countries or areas, of reduced rates of duty and import-excise tax established pursuant to any trade agreement. Subsequently, as the United States terminated its mostfavored-nation commitments with 6 other Communist-controlled countries, the President made such suspensions applicable to imports from them.

As required by section 11 of the extension act of 1951, the President prohibited, effective September 1, 1951, the entry for consumption of certain furs and skins that are the product of Communist China and, effective January 5, 1952, the entry of those that are the product of the Soviet Union.

During the early months of 1952 the United States modified or withdrew certain tariff concessions it had granted in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Under article XXVII of the General Agreement, the United States withdrew, effective January 25, 1952, a second group of the concessions it had negotiated initially with the Republic of China at Geneva. Under article XIX (the escape clause), the United States modified, effective February 9, 1952, the concession that it had granted at Geneva on hatters' fur.

Activities Under the Escape Clause

Since June 1951 United States activities under the escape clause have been governed by certain provisions of the Trade Agreements Extension Act of 1951. Section 6 of the act makes it mandatory to include an escape clause in all trade agreements the United States may conclude in the future, and, as soon as practicable, in all trade agreements currently in force. The clause must conform to the policy set forth in section 6 (a). The procedure for administering the escape clause, originally established by Executive order and currently prescribed by section 7 of the extension act of 1951, designates the Tariff Commission as the investigating agency.

On January 10, 1952, as required by section 6 (b) of the extension act of 1951, the President submitted to the Congress his first report on the status of trade-agreement escape clauses. In his report the President stated that all but six of the country's existing trade agreements conform to the escape-clause policy established in section 6 (a) of the act and reported on the status of those six agreements. He also discussed the pertinent safeguarding provisions contained in those agreements that he reported were in conformity with the policy set forth in section 6 (a).

During the period covered by this report, the Tariff Commission had a total of 19 escape-clause investigations pending before it. As of June 30, 1952, the Commission had completed investigations relating to 4 of those applications and had accepted the withdrawal of one application. The completed investigations were those on hatters' fur, wood screws of iron or steel, blue-mold cheese, and motorcycles and parts. The other investigations were in process. The Commission's reports on the completed investigations, as well as the nature and status of each of the 19 investigations, are discussed in chapter 5.

Quantitative Restrictions on Imports Into the United States

During the period July 1, 1951, to June 30, 1952, the United States continued to apply quantitative restrictions (absolute quotas) on the importation of cotton and wheat and wheat flour under the provisions of section 22 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act, as amended. The basic quotas were not changed during the period under review, and, in contrast with action taken in several previous years, supplemental quotas were not established for certain types of long-staple cotton.

In September 1951 the Tariff Commission, under the provisions of section 22, held a second public hearing as part of its continuing investigation of almonds, filberts, walnuts, brazil nuts, and cashews. In accordance with the findings and recommendations of the Commission, made as a result of the investigation, the President on December 10, 1951, imposed a fee of 10 cents per pound, but not more than 50 percent ad valorem (in addition to the existing duties), on imports of shelled and blanched almonds entered in excess of specified quantities during the remainder of the quota year (to September 30, 1952).8 On June 19, 1952, the Commission ordered a third public hearing, to begin on July 28, 1952.

Since 1934 all sugar for the United States market, whether domestic or imported, has been limited by absolute quotas, except during periods of emergency. The quotas currently are imposed pursuant to the Sugar Act of 1948. On September 1, 1951, the President approved legislation, which became effective January 1, 1953, to extend the Sugar Act of 1948 in amended form until 1957.

8 For convenience, the fee on imports of shelled and blanched almonds is discussed in conjunction with the quantitative restrictions imposed under sec. 22.